Mixed Media Card Challenge #2 - Summer: Optional Element Burlap

If you are looking for my Festive Friday post- please scroll down or click here.

Hi everyone!  Can you believe a whole month has gone by since the first Mixed Media Card Challenge?  We had such beautiful entries - more than 90!!!  and it was really hard for us as the Design Team to choose our favorites!  Thank you all for playing along - and we hope you will join us again for our August challenge:

And today we have a brand new challenge for you -  Summer - with the optional elements of using burlap 

Flowers always mean summer to me as I love to garden and then cut the different flowers as they bloom to bring inside to put in vases and jars around the house.  I included the optional element of burlap on my card this month since I had a piece in my craft room.

I found a great technique for burlap over on Jenny's blog.  I covered my piece of burlap with Metallic Gold Embossing Paste which gave it a wonderful shimmer. The paste fills in the spaces between the threads of the burlap and makes the surface more solid.  Here you can see the difference between the plain piece of burlap on the top and the piece with Embossing Paste on it. It almost feels rubbery!

After the paste dried, I stenciled over it with a Check Mate Stencil using Archival Cornflower Blue Ink

I used the Hibiscus Dies from MFT to cut the flower, stem and flower center out of Perfect Peacock and Princess Pink Craft Metal Sheets.  I used a flower tool to add dots to the flower center and to accent the creases and add roundness to the leaves and petals.  They already had some nice creases in them from the dies themselves.  The birthday die is from PTI.

I adhered the flower to the burlap using pieces of thick foam dots to hold the petals up off the burlap.

Here you can see the burlap a little more closely - as well as the layered metal bloom.

Here's the full view - one more time! For mixed media - we want to see texture, dimension and techniques.  I used a stencil with ink, embossing paste, burlap, craft metal, and die cuts.

So get out your summer things, add a bit of burlap if you feel creative and link your Mixed Media Card to the Mixed Media Card Challenge #2 found here! Where you will also find all the wonderful inspiration from the Design Team!  You have until Aug 25th to link up.  Hope to see you there!

Paper:  White - PTI
Ink:  Archival Cornflower Blue
Accessories:  burlap - Joann's, Metallic Gold Embossing Paste - Wendy Vecchi/Studio 490, mini blending tool, Checkmate Stencil - Wendy Vecchi/Studio 490,  Hibiscus Die - My Favorite Things, Wonderful Words Birthday die - Papertrey Ink, Punch Bunch Flower tools, Perfect Peacock and Princess Pink Craft Metal - Add a Little Dazzle.