At the ballet

Hi crafter's

I bought the ballerina stamp in the last sale because it reminded me of my own dance classes and how excited we were to start pointe work (painful though!). My only problem was I didn't want all silhouette dancers. I will explain how I did this a little later. First I attached the woodland stencil then stamped the  front two ballerina's using versamark ink and embossing with clear powder. Now ink the ballerina again using a black ink, stamp on to some scrap paper before putting the image in place. Do this three times, in the middle and to either side. Press quite firmly if stamping over the stencil to ensure a complete image. To colour the background I used distress inks in weathered wood, tattered rose and wild honey. Gradually build up the colour, starting with tattered rose and wild honey keeping weathered wood for around the sides. Use a sponge to deepen the colour at the edges. When satisfied take off the stencil. Now to deal with the embossed dancers. Turn your iron on to hot and no steam, have a piece of copier paper to hand. Place the paper over the embossing and iron over the top, you will see an image appear on the paper. Take a clean part of the paper and repeat until all the embossing powder has been removed, it will feel very smooth to touch and will be back to white card again. To colour in I used the Spectrum Noir pencils (love all pencils but really enjoy using these ones). Start with a light blue sweeping out from the waist line to create the skirt and bodice of the tutu, repeat this with darker blues until the tutu has real depth. I didn't bother doing hair just used a flesh coloured pencil to define the head, arms and legs, add some light pink to help add shape. Take a grey pencil and shade under the tutu and under their feet to ground them.
Lay the squared honeycomb stencil in the corner and wipe over some grunge paste, repeat in the opposite corner then leave to dry. Ink up the tall reeds with lettuce ink and stamp on each side, fill in the middle with a grasses stamp. Using the foliage stamp from garden elements, stamp along the top. Colour in the reeds with a green pencil. Place the now clean honeycomb stencil down on the edge and blend stonewashed ink over to give a bit of interest to the background. Blend the blue ink all around the edges going over the grunge paste building up the colour, finish with a little black. To finish I stamped over the grunge paste using the music stamp in stonewashed to add a bit more detail, mount on to white card.
I am entering this card in to the Clarity challenge Anything Goes.

That's all for this time, hope you like it. Any comments are very welcome.

Thanks for stopping by

Sally