Gilded Artwork

I made a piece for my friend Sarah to give to her mother-in-law for Mother's Day.  I had little to go on except she scrapbooks and loves anything Gold and White.  I ended up making a 12x12 piece which she can punch holes in and use for an album cover or she can simply frame it.

To start, I grabbed everything GOLD that I owned….which turned out to be quite a lot….

 I grabbed gold Inks, paints, papers, powders, and glitters….

Then I made some embellishments….

 including rosettes, a gilded bird (which I didn't use), and punched butterflies and hydrangea petals.

The butterflies are made using a Martha Stewart punch on paper that I overlaid with composite leaf flakes in a range of colors from copper to light gold.  I glued the butterflies only in the center to give them texture and movement.

The rosettes are made with Tim Holtz Sizzix die Paper Rosette.  I use several different papers- a pearl, a gold, and a distressed patterned paper.  I always use Washi Tape on the rosettes as suggested by Tim, but rather than use it on the back like he does, I use it on the front as part of the decoration.  I punched circles for the front (as opposed to the one that comes with the die- that one I use on the back along with hot glue to hold the rosette together). I blinged the circles with glass glitter in several colors and I painted most of the rosettes themselves-after they are put together- with Twinkling H2O's in a gold color.  Finally I added big Jolée rhinestones.

The hydrangea petals are punched with more Martha punches.  This time I used white card stock gilded with sheets of imitation gold leaf.  The sheets give it a smooth finish.  I also punched petals from a piece of Heidi Swapp's Mistable's paper that I had colored with Distress Inks.  Originally, I used only the gold petals but it was OVERWHELMING to say the least and needed the variation of the more subdued paper.  Each gold petal received a pearl center while each Mistable petal received a pretty pale, pale pink flat-back rhinestone. 

I used a Grunge Paper "b" glittered with Martha Stewart Gold Glitter.  The recipient's last name begins with "b".  The paper behind the "b" started as white paper which I inked, stamped with a filagree background stamp using Perfect Pearl Medium and brushd with Perfect Pearl.  The polka dots are more of the gold-leafed cardstock punched with a circle punch and scattered on the paper.

The background of the entire 12x12 piece began with 2 pieces of lightweight chipboard that I laminated using 1-inch Red-Line Tape.  The paper I used was made by me.  I started with a piece of white Bazzille cardstock which I inked using Distress Ink then masked, stamped, flicked water and stamped some more.  I am pretty happy with how it came out.  I added a 3-inch piece of the Mistable paper on the left-hand border.

This is the finished project.  I will let her decide whether to punch holes or frame the piece.

I hope she likes it!

I linked this up with the following Linky Parties:
Adventures of a DIY Mom
The Trendy Treehouse
Tutus and Tea Parties

Laters Baby….