Clarity Stamp Challenge, February 2015 - Floral

There is nothing like a bit of serious pressure to concentrate the mind. 

This month's challenge from Clarity Stamps had the theme of "Floral".  Easy, peasy, you are saying.  I can hear you.  I wanted to go down a different route, and have really tried hard not to look at any of the other entries for this month, to avoid any influence from other talented crafters who were more organised than I.

I have done quite a lot of parchment work in the past but not really since last summer.  It is a craft I take away with me as it is a "clean" craft, with no risk of spilling ink etc onto someone else's precious fabrics.

After a lot of cogitation and turning at night, I woke up a week ago with the germ of the idea, but not really sure how it would work.  I wanted to use the Chrysanthemum stencil and use embossing techniques.  I tried tracing through the stencil but that was not practical as the pencil would not fit into the tighter areas, so I tried brushing through with Wild Honey and Aged Mahoghany to give me the guide.

 I embossed from behind to push the colour forward into prominence, then pricked and snipped round it to remove it from the rest of the parchment.

I decided not to make it into a card but to mount it onto one of the Clarity canvas boards.  I masked off the edges of the board then brushed through with Cracked Pistachio and Wild Honey to give a strong background, but still leaving a clean white border.

Once the inks were dry, I brushed a layer of Mod Podge all over to seal it and to avoid too many finger marks.

I used parchment glue to mount it, leaving the petal edges free to throw shadows.  Now all I have to do is to do the entry bit and I can get on with another of the projects I have been procrastinating about, not to mention a few birthday cards that are overdue.