E-Team Picks Challenge - Flowers

Today is another E-Team Picks Challenge over at the eclectic Paperie's blog. The e-Team Picks Challenge is held on the third Thursday of each month and each challenge is an opportunity for you to be inspired by one of our e-Team’s creations then submit your own and possibly win some shopping money in the eP store. This week it’s Sherry Cheever who picked FLOWERS as the challenge. I was so happy to hear this! Flowers are not a challenge at all, just a lovely excuse to make something pretty.

This is an 8 x 10 inch flat canvas completely covered with paint, Graphic 45 Bird Song papers, embellishments and flowers made of Clear Modeling Film. I'll show you how it came together.

I began by painting the surface with Antique Linen Distress Paint because I didn't want the background to be so white. Not that much of it shows in the end, but that's okay. It served as a nice primer.

Since I knew I was going to use Graphic 45 paper, I figured black would be a good background so I grabbed my new Mini Quatrefoil template and painted over the canvas surface with Black Soot Distress Paint. I didn't worry too much about making it solid and even, just dabbed it all over.

From the 8 x 8 inch pad of Bird Song, I cut pieces to fit on my canvas, leaving a border around the edges and a few spaces in the canvas with no paper so the background would show through. I really liked how this looked, but it felt a little busy for the flower idea I had...

...so I grabbed my White Linen Dylusions spray and gave it a wash over the entire surface and quickly took a clean towel and wiped over it to remove some. I wet the corner of the towel with water and wiped across the top banner to expose the words to help them stand out more.

Next I used Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die as well as the Movers & Shapers and cut some flowers from Clearly for Art Clear Modeling Film. I inked around the edges and over the tops of some with various shades of alcohol inks.

Now the fun part! I heated these babies with my embossing gun and shaped them quickly before they cooled. (I wish someone would invent a glove that's heat resistant. Just sayin...)

My original intention was to use just the clear flowers on the canvas, but I found that they didn't stand out enough, even after I had whitewashed the surface, so I opted to layer some paper flowers behind each cluster. 

I dabbed some Victorian Velvet Distress Paint over the embellishments and once they were dry I rubbed some Cotton Candy Stickles with my finger over the surfaces.

The smaller flowers are from a punch. I made them dimensional by cutting a slit between two petals, then overlapping one petal over the next one and glueing. You know that trick, I'm sure. They also got a rubbing of Stickles. The stamped sentiment is an Inkadinkado wood block stamp I picked up from Michael's along time ago.

My bird got a wash of Broken China Distress Paint and Stickles once it dried.

Finally, I added Idea-ology metal photo corners after I embossed them with Tattered Rose Distress Embossing Powder. And the letters to make the word FRIEND are Idea-ology Sign Maker Alpha Parts which I painted with two coats of Antique Linen Distress Paint.  (You may have to click on the photo to see the details a little larger.)

Now it's time to share your work and to be entered into our challenge prize drawing! The e-Team Picks Challenge is all about inspiration and having fun! Mix it up and enjoy the creative process. Feel free to share a journal page, card, scrapbook project, mini album….Anything goes.  We want to see your work and hear about your inspiration. All of those who play along with our challenge will be entered into a prize drawing for a $15.00 gift certificate to the eclectic Paperie store. So grab your supplies and play along!

Here are a few things to keep in mind for this challenge...

• You do not have to use products sold in the eP store…but we do love it when you do!

• Share a direct link to your creation, not just your blog, using the Linky Tools feature at the end of the
  eP blog post.

• When uploading to any online galleries, please use any of the following keywords: eP, eclectic  
  Paperie or e-Team Pick Challenge.  Link your creations to the eP blog.

• If you’d like to be considered as one of our featured projects and be entered into our prize drawing,
  please be sure to add your link no later than 6pm EST on Thursday, April 25th.