Flower Power

Hey all, and welcome...  I'm here with some inspiration for the latest eclectic Paperie challenge.  It's hosted by Micki, and she decided on an Altered Fabric theme - all you have to do is include fabric in your project.

Now, because of all the travelling, I'm afraid I'm a bit late with my contribution, but think of this as an extra nudge to come and play... you still have until March 20th, so there's plenty of time to join in. All the details are here, along with more inspiration from my fab team-mates, marked DT in the linky below the challenge.  So here's my starter for ten...

As usual with my eP posts, you'll find links at the bottom to take you straight to the products, but my main ingredient - my fabric - isn't available from the store I'm afraid.  In one of her early planning emails, Micki was talking about the fabric being recycled, and that's where my brain stuck.  So my fabrics are from the bags of stuff left over from my brother and sister-in-law's Handmade Wedding last summer.

As I was packing my travelling stash, I grabbed various bits of material and thought I'd work out what to do with them when I got here.

Tattered Florals are everywhere at the moment (thanks to Tim Holtz's amazing prize challenge), and so are Spring themes and Green themes, so I guess all of that had quite a strong influence on where I ended up.  But mine is Spring with a touch of grunge!

And, once again, I've ended up with two tags when I didn't really mean to... but I'm not complaining at a two for the price of one.




The backgrounds are the result of playing with my new Dylusions White Linen spray.  I used it with some Bundled Sage Distress Stain to do some wrinkle-free distress technique.  You get a lovely opaque, marbled look.  

This opaque white spray is so much fun to combine with other products, as it changes their appearance really effectively.





And the reason I have two tags is simple... I put too much ink on the craft mat so I had to soak it up!  The whole two word slogan thing all came much later, when it seemed a waste not to use both tags and all the flowers I'd ended up cutting.

Ah, yes... the flowers: I cut my ivory crushed satiny fabric (wedding drapery to cover the walls of the Scout Hut we were in) using the Tattered Florals die, and dyed half the flowers with Antique Linen Distress Stain before layering them up alternately.












One flower starts with a mainly ivory large base, and the other with a mainly Antique Linen large base, and so you end up with two subtly differently coloured flowers.













They're fastened with little coppery heart brads, and then given a good scrunching and some added Vintage Photo for extra grunge-factor.










I ran some of the green fabric (used as table runners, as well as chair-back-tie decorations for the wedding) through the BigShot with the Tattered Leaves die to create my foliage.












The copper heart brads made me long for some more metallic embellishments, and - inspired this time by the DragonsDream Tag recipe - Green, Cogs, Die-Cuts - I decided to add some cogs and gears.













I used a couple of coppery ones, and altered a couple of silvery ones with some paint and alcohol inks, heating them until the surface bubbled to give a great grungy look.





I was also really excited to use my Tim Holtz Worn Text stamp set, from the new releases, for the first time.  I sat for quite a while looking at the tags, and trying to think of a really short phrase of Spring poetry which would fit on (the letters are quite large).  

Then, finally, it hit me... We have the flower(s), and with the cogs and gears we have a symbol of industrial power(s) - obvious really for a child of the 60s (just!!).  Flower Power it is.  

These shabby letters are so cool - as an alphabet collector, I just had to have them - I'm so lucky that my eP duties make it possible.

Very cool too to be able to line up the whole word on my acrylic plate and stamp it all in one go rather than a letter at a time.  I must try to use more words that don't have the same letter in more than once!










A bit more Vintage Photo around the edges of the tags, and a little more brushed onto the petals of the flowers, and some crinkle ribbon dyed with Vintage Photo Distress Stain, and we're all done.


Double Trouble again for the DragonsDream challenge (sorry... I seem to keep ending up with two tags for you), and I hope some inspiration to fire your imaginations and get you joining in with the Altered Fabric challenge at eP.  There's a prize voucher to spend in store, so it's well worth it.  


For now, thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you again soon.




Nature, exerting an unwearied power,
Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower.
William Cowper

You have it in your power to make your days on Earth a path of flowers, instead of a path of thorns.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba

I'd like to enter this in the following:
I don't know if we're allowed more than one go at Tim's Tattered Florals challenge, but if so here's my second!
DragonsDream Tag It On where the current recipe is Green, Die-Cuts, and Cogs
And I think I've just got time to get another one in under the wire for Simon Says Stamp's challenge to include A Bit O' Green
And at Tando Creative Challenges, the March challenge is Flowers

Click on the link to go straight to the product: