Only you...

Hello, thanks so much for dropping by here at Words and Pictures.  I've a new project to share with you:

And when you open the door...

                             

... you get to see...

            

              ... what's inside!

Today's card was kicked off by the colour challenge over at the Play Date Cafe, which was to use Gold, Nude and Silver.  I had some trouble at first getting to grips with the colour 'Nude'.  I looked at it on a couple of different computer screens, and it was completely different on each - I guess your 'nude' also slightly depends what colour your skin is!  Anyway, it seems to be a gentle light brown with a hint of blush.

I gathered some papers which seemed to fit the bill: the frame and door panels use a paper from Prima's Nature Garden A4 pad; the door itself (2 different papers, front and back) is from the Prima Almanac collection, 6x6; and the music inside is a sheet out of a real old music book, stamped with the gorgeous little Prima wallpaper stamp (romantically titled 550950!).

So, it's a pretty strongly Prima piece, paper-wise.  The embellishments are almost pure Tim Holtz, however, and they provide the silver and gold elements.

I was also following a recipe from Crafty Creations to use 3 patterned papers, 2 buttons and a partridge in a pear tree... no, sorry, no partridge... it's really 1 ribbon plus 1 sentiment, which was really fun to incorporate.


The doorway became inevitable at the point when I decided I wanted to use one of the TH Idea-ology door-knobs to be one of my main silver focusses (they're too cute!), and everything else seemed to tumble forward from there.

On each door panel, there's a Grungeboard letter from the Mixed Minis set (TH), spelling the word 'only'.  I gave them a coat of acrylic (mixed from a sandy colour and a very pale rose), and then spritzed them with some Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist. 

I wanted a shabby chic, patchy effect, not total coverage, and I like the antique-y look I ended up with.  Rather than out and out bling, it's got an old-fashioned lustre.

Also, in pursuit of shabby chicness, the papers all got a wash of Picket Fence Distress Stain to get that white-washed look.

The layered paints and mists on the letter are then layered onto the door panel with its layers of paint and paper, layered onto the door itself, with a whole hidden layer behind the door!




Over the top of the doorway, I've attached a lovely wooden carving (part of a whole bagful of various shapes and sizes which have been sitting around the family house for almost the entire 40 years we've been there).  Again, it got a coat or two of acrylic, and then a spritz of the Heirloom Gold to get that subtle gleam.

The other embellishments on the outer frame include one of my regular scroll creations (this time using the leftover scraps from the Almanac paper, with a glimmer of Perfect Pearls Mist, Heirloom Gold), with one of the pen nibs I got on ebay;




the lovely TH buttons, again spritzed with Heirloom Gold (magical stuff!);








and some Idea-ology flowers and leaves from the Foliage set, two of them silver and two gold, and edged with a bit of the Ranger Weathered White embossing powder to add to the shabby chic look.






Inside, the sentiment is completed: Only... you hold the key to my heart.

I wanted to ring the changes with the text, so I picked the three important words and decided to do something different with each of them, trying to pick out the three challenge colours again.  Gold and Silver are also required over at the So Artful challenge this week.






The gold safety pin (TH Idea-ology) holds the three letters of the word 'you', made from stickers from the Tim Holtz Salvage set, backed with the flesh/nude (whatever you want to call it) paper on which the in-between words are printed, and attached with jump rings to match.









The silver key is one of a set of jewellery findings I got ages ago, and has the nude ribbon tied through it.

The heart is in what I hope counts as a 'nude' paper colour (I like the notion of a nude heart - naked, vulnerable - just as it is when in love), die-cut and then enamelled with UTEE for that great, glossy, dimensional look.

So, I'm entering this in the following:

The Play Date Cafe colour challenge, Gold, Nude, Silver

Crafty Creations Recipe challenge

So Artful's challenge All That Glitters

The Craft Barn, where you need to use Frantage, mica flakes (not in the stash yet) or UTEE (so in the stash!) for their Embossing and Mica Challenge

That Craft Place Challenge are having an Anything Goes fortnight
Since I've just found out (with 26 minutes to go!) that you can enter Simon Says Stamp and Show more than once, I'm putting this into their Layered challenge (as I like it much better than the other one I entered!!)

I hoped you enjoyed going through the doorway with me.  Leave me a comment if you did (and if you have time!) ... and do join up to follow if you'd like to see more.

I'm going to leave you with a poem I  particularly like - it so happens that it's by a Czech, but that's not why.  As you'll see, it seems appropriate!

Go and open the door.
   Maybe outside there's
    a tree, or a wood,
    a garden,
    or a magic city.


Go and open the door.
   Maybe a dog's rummaging.
   Maybe you'll see a face,
    or an eye,
    or the picture
    of a picture.


Go and open the door.
   If there's a fog
    it will clear.


Go and open the door.
   Even if there's only
    the darkness ticking,
    even if there's only
    the hollow wind,
    even if
             nothing
                         is there,
go and open the door.

At least
    there'll be
    a draught.

Miroslav Holub   trs. Ian Milner