Dreaming of Damask

I have become obsessed with damask and wallpaper images in general. I love making cards that are aged and look like old worn wall paper. I think about the smoke from an old fireplace and light creeping in around heavy velvet curtains, slowly over many years, seeping into the walls, into the paper, changing it. I really love inking the edges of my background and seeing the many years of age appear in the card in a matter of minutes. Perhaps this is just a symptom of reading too much recently.

Here are a few of my favorites. I assure you that there will be more to come.

This card features the Quickutz chandelier. I cut it once out of black paper and then covered that base image with Versamark and embossed it with black embossing power. I repeated this process three times. I then cut out another chandelier this time out of silver paper. This was just something I had laying around so I am not even sure where it came from. The shades were cut from white card stock and then I repeated the embossing process, using an iridescent violet powder from My Sentiments Exactly! You can't really see it in the photo but it looks really neat.

The damask image on the background is from the Inkadinkado clear set. I use an acrylic block with grid lines on it to line up the pattern. That block is from Martha Stewart. I stamped the images individually with Versmark and then embossed with the same iridescent power I used on the shades. To do my aging I used three shades of Stampin' Up ink - usually I start with the same color as the paper. I ink all four sides and then start with a slightly darker color of the same family. I finish up with black on the edges. I love how this looks. I have started using a craft sheet and 1/4 of a Stampin' Up sponge, starting on the craft sheet and working in a circular motion.

I made the silver chandelier card in the same manner as the black one except I used silver embossing powder and a black card stock for the chandelier. You can see the violet powder in this photo a little better.

I was very happy with how this card turned out. I just got this set, Papertrey Ink's Damask Designs last week. I have been doing lots of experiments so I am looking forward to working those into cards.

The stamped background paper started life as white SU card stock. I started with damask images, they were stamped with Palette ink in True Black and then embossed with black embossing powder. I try to religiously use my Embossing Buddy to keep the black embossing powder from making a mess. I then began my aging process. I inked up the SU stamp Weathered with Tea Dye and stamped it right over the damask images. For this card I used Tim Holtz Distressed inks in Tea Dye and Black Soot around the edges. I built up several layers of the Tea Dye before starting with the black. This damask layer is placed over a piece of Vanilla SU card stock that was aged with the Tea Dye in the same manner.

Next I worked on the focal image, this is the large damask from the PTI set. Again Palette True Black ink and black EP. Tea Dye on the Weathered stamp, and then aged. I added two Hero Arts crystal gems for a little bling, then mounted to black card stock. I added a brown sheer ribbon from Creative Impressions. I did distress the CS edges just a little with an nail file, bone folder and my nails.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my blog. More to come . . . . . .