A Touch of Grace

Hi everyone, today is day three for the purse series I’m featuring this week.  Today’s purse is a chintz purse that I designed using the chintz background stamp.  I’m including in this post a picture of the stamps used to create the purse so that you can see the size of the stamps as well as providing the stamp numbers below in blue.

The chintz purse was designed using the chintz background stamp.  After stamping the purse frame, I stamped the chintz background stamp and embossed it.  I stamped it again on a separate piece of water color paper. I painted the purse and the stamped image.  I let the image dry overnight and then cut out the flowers and leaves using a craft knife.  Several layers of Crystal Effects were applied, drying thoroughly between each application.  I attached the enameled flowers to the purse using dimensionals.  To make the leaf clasps, I stamped the Daisy stamp that I featured yesterday several times and cut out the same leaf four times, I painted them and let them dry overnight.  I applied several layers of Crystal effect to the leaves, letting it dry thoroughly between coats.  In real life the leaves look like emeralds, the entire purse has an enameled jewel tone effect, it doesn’t show up as pretty in the picture as it does in real life.  I used Stampin’ Up!’s More Mustard for the background wash.  I have found that Crystal Effects, if applied thinly, in several layers, dries clearer than clear embossing power and looks more like enamel.  I’ve tried using UTEE and it either turns cloudy or tints a yellowish color and sometimes has small bubbles in it.  It’s also messier to work with and the edges get a little chunky.  I have much more control with Crystal Effects and a much prettier effect.

I apologize for the poor quality of this picture, it’s very blurred and dark.  I normally take more time and get several shots, but the National Championship game is getting ready to start and I’ve got to put my priorities in order folks. Go Gators!

As you can see, these are the stamps I used for the Chintz purse.  Not included is the Daisy Border stamp that I featured yesterday and the Stampin’ Up! sentiment.  Please check back in tomorrow for the last purse in the series.

• Stamps:   Stampin’ Up!
• Paper:  Canson 140 lbs. cold-pressed water color paper, White Mulberry Paper
• Ink:  Versamark; Versapen
• Accessories:  Tombow markers, heating tool, watercolor brush, blending pen, Ranger gold/gold tinsel EP, Crystal Effects; pearl beads, dimensionals, craft knife, self-healing cutting mat, More Mustard Reinker