Hero Arts is having a challenge this week to use up your scraps to make Thank-You cards. I do not have many Hero Arts stamps (yet) but I was given this little birdie stamp at their booth when my sister placed her order at CHA.  I had some of Claudine Hellmuth’s new sticky back canvas that I’d been wanting to play with and thought they’d make great curtains. The window frame and ribbon “curtain tie-backs” were my “scraps”, the rest is paper from Basic Grey. Of course I just re-read the rules and it needed to have a stamped scrap incorporated, so unless I can find a stamped scrap for the inside I guess the little birdy won’t get to compete!

The window panes were stamped with Ranger’s white Embossing Puffs on a “surfer” paper in Basic Grey’s “Obscure” collection. Then they were placed on a distressed window pane. This basic brown card stock was “weathered” with paints from Adirondack. Rough edges can be acheived with a razor, mine is by Heidi Swapp but Tim Holtz makes one and you can even use a household razor if you are careful! The “wallpaper” is from Basic Grey’s Recess collection and it too has been distressed with paint and the razor.

To make the “curtains” I first painted the Sticky Back Canvas with Adirondack’s Metallics Copper in a swirly motion. Then I stamped some swirly records from a Disney Hannah Montanna set in peach. Next the curtains and all of the other pieces, including the ribbon, were distressed with a combination of Tim Holtz’s Walnut and Old Paper distress inks. It was amazing how distress techniques turned this card from “blah” into “art!”

The bird was stamped in the Walnut ink and colored with Copics. There is not a lot of room for shading so any old marker set will do!

The Fragment from Tim Holtz has a bible verse stamped on the front with Expresso acrylic paint. And the back has a little white paint dabbed on it, still letting the window pane peek through. The text will be a little easier to read if the white has pretty good coverage behind the letters.

Working with Claudine Hellmuth’s new sticky back canvas was so much fun. To make the curtains I simply folded it in a fan, then removed the backing and it kept it’s shape. I pressed down between each fold to adhere and it is sticking very well. I’m not sure how it would hold up in the mail though. You might consider using a hot glue gun to fill in the back of the raised folds so they’ll keep their pretty shape. Next I’m going to try cutting this material in a Cricut and will report back!

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