Monday 3 May 2010

She Who Must Be Obeyed - here at last! (posted by Lesley)


Well, after promising to have my project posted by today, I thought I wasn't going to manage it. I've had to change my original idea a little because I wanted to print a couple of photos and my tired old printer decided to choose today to give up the ghost. After messing around with it most of the morning I realised I was going to have to think again and then this afternoon we had an unexpected visitor so I had to put my project on hold again but when I finally got round to it tonight everything fell into place and I managed to get it done.


I really am pleased with this project, the inspiration having been taken from Helen Chilton's lovely article in April's Craft Stamper and I decided to make my wooden cube into a photo holder. I have to thank my crafting friend Elaine's husband for the original cube and poor Elaine for carrying it all the way to Alexandra Palace where we all met at the beginning of the month for the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show. For the first time all four of us were together for the weekend and had two fab days at the show and a Saturday evening of crafty chat. It was brilliant!


I used the lovely new stamp plate from Elusive Images called Royal Fleur de Lis and to go with the stamps I found the gorgeous curtain hooks in B&Q together with some Fleur de Lis wooden moulding pieces that had been quite dramatically reduced. I painted the wooden moulds with black acrylic paint and then with some Paper Plus Gold Glaze (another bargain I picked up for half price a while ago). I then blended Distress Inks onto the panels I had cut to cover the cube and stamped the images using Archival Black and Coffee. Oops, little edit here as Jo asked on my previous post how I had done the diamond stamped panel. It was Black Soot DI embossed with Black Distress EP.


I then dabbed the edges of each panel with Versamark and embossed them with Ranger Queen's Gold EP and also stamped and embossed some of the crown images and cut them out. I stuck all the panels to the cube and arranged the crowns and the wooden Fleur de Lis on the side panels.


I then turned my attention to what I wanted to display between the hooks. Originally I wanted two little photos of my granddaughters and spent ages this morning finding suitable ones, cropping them and changing them to black and white, only to find the printer was caput.


So, plan B - I found two suitable images from a Crafty Individuals pad and gave them the DI treatment. I then cut two Nestie Fleur de Lis frames, dabbed Versamark round the edges and embossed with the Queen's Gold again.


I did this in a very patchy fashionn for the effect that I wanted and then stuck the frames together back to back. I added the CI images that I'd chosen, gave them each a little crown and finally sprayed some black and white Prima lace flowers with Glimmer Mists and added these to the frame.


Although I enjoyed our two previous CSQ projects, this has definitely been my favourite to date and although I was very late starting, it just seemed to flow together once I bought the Fleur de Lis embellishments.


So thank you very much for being patient and I hope it was worth waiting for, Lol.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

11 comments:

Jo said...

Superb, Lesley! I was really surprised by your colour scheme which is beautifully understated and works so well. I haven't seen the Spellbinders Fleur used as a frame before but it really lends itself to the purpose and the photos you've used look like they were planned all along. The wooden pieces sound like they were really meant to be and really pulled everything together. Congratulations on a fantastic piece.

Elaine said...

Lesley, this is utterly gorgeous. I am sure Glenda would be absolutely delighted to see these new stamps used to such perfection. Your colouring and shading is as always very skillful and you have used quite an understated palette of colours to wonderful effect.

The frame works really well with all the embellishments, you'd never guess it was plan B!

Another very hard act to follow!

Elaine xx

Aquarius said...

This is wonderful and a great use of the new stamps which I didn;t think I wanted - until now!! They have gone onto my wish list and I love the way you've used the nesties frame.

judith@poppy cottage said...

I love this colour scheme Lesley!It is so dramatic, and how different could we be? The Nestie frame on top is fabulous, what a great idea, and the littlecrowns on the ladies are inspired. The wooden embellishments carry through the imagery of the stamps perfectly, as do the hooks on the top. Absolutely brilliant, Judith xxx

Suzi B said...

Lesley .. this is wonderful i love how the wood has been decorated and the photo frame is gorgeous1
Sue B x

Anonymous said...

Stunning piece Lesley, well done. I love the colours and as this is such a new stamp set, it's very exciting to see what other people come up with.

Glenda

Sally H said...

Lesley it's beautiful! I am so in awe of you all, as I wouldn't know where to start!

Val said...

I love this - so understated in colouring, but the detailing is wonderful. Such a brilliant use of the new stamps as well. Methinks I might be investing in these as well!!
The embossing on the frames really makes them pop - what are they made of?
Love
Valxx

Suzanne C said...

Stunning! Beautiful! I didn't realize that was the nestie until I read your description. Beautiful use! Love that you all are coming up with so many different project topics to try out.

Caz said...

This is a lovely piece Lesley - I love the colour scheme - very effective.
I ummed and ahhed over this stamp sheet but I think after seeing what you've done with it, I'll have to get the credit card out!!

Caz

WendyK said...

This is just gorgeous, love the colours and design.