Artful card- Artists Pastels, Stamping & a Watercolour background!

I'd been musing about this idea for a while, after seeing so many gorgeous projects using Pan Pastels, but having a mass of Artists Pastels & crafters chalks, absolutely cannot justify buying any! Pastels (& chalks) tend to imply, and give, pale colours, so I wondered how I could use the Artist Pastels sticks in my cards, and get some nice strong colours too.
 I've used chalks over Versamark before now, but one problem I always have is that rubbing on the chalks can smudge the image- best cure is to dab them on, rather than rub them in. Artist pastels are in a stick form, and not so easy to get colour off and onto your applicator. One day, whilst roaming around Tesco, I spotted what I thought might be a solution- A Nutmeg Grater!


 So here is what I started this project with:
 A pack of Artists Pastels,  with the Nutmeg Grater in the top left corner  of the pic.

I took one of the Acrylic plate stamped sheets from an earlier post, Versamark ink and a selection of Tim Holtz stamps.

The heart was stamped first, then had some blue pastel grated over it, and dabbed across the image with a cotton wool ball.

I was actually quite shocked at how well it worked, and gave a nice clean image, without a 'halo' of colour, which chalks sometimes give.














 
Another stamp in the lower right corner, covered this time with purple pastel.Dusted it off again, and out pops the clock image.

Next came a brown pastel, over a filmstrip stamp here at the top, and you can see the grated chalk better. I also stamped the filmstrip onto a post it note, and just rubbed the cotton wool ball over it to make a mask for later on.

 Dusted off with the cotton ball again. I like how its applying colour, but with an almost 'distressed' finish, which works brilliantly with the stamps & background.

 I added some stampings of a floral swag,  in brown at the top right and orange in the lower left.

Next I stamped the Umbrella Man at the bottom, using Sepia Versafine. The post it note filmstrip mask came into play now.







The centres were cut out with a scalpel, and the image covered  with it. I used one of the Three Top Hatted men to stamp in Sepia again, into each of the frames.  To make sure I got them in the right place, out came the  Stamp Positioner- I hate it when I do it by eye, I'm always slightly 'off'.

I added some prints of the numbers and small ticket strip, using the second & third print, with Sepia Versafine again.

The final image was a single pen nib in a couple of places, just inking up one nib on the pen nibs stamp, and using the second impression.









 



     For the backing, a piece of Craft Core card, in a Teal colour embossed with Tims texture Fades 'Gears' folder. After I'd embossed it, I rubbed over the embossing with a Chipped Sapphire Distress Inkpad.

  I wanted to add a Clock die-cut to the card- I don't have this die, but had bought some ready cut from e-bay. This is a great way to get a selection of die cuts, without having to buy all the dies, especially if you are not likely to be constantly using them.
 I added colour with Distress Inkpads Faded Denim, Dusty Concord & Chipped Sapphire. Then added a covering of Versamark and clear embossing powder.




The hands coloured in Black soot, and clear heat embossed too.

Now they were layered up, sandwiching the clock face between the two card layers. The clock hands were held in place with a black brad, and I used copper brads to hold the two sheets of card together.

This is my desk, mid composition, lol. It was marginally worse at one point, here I've moved the stamps and my pad for working on, and put the DI pads away.

The whole thing is mounted onto a dark blue card base using copper brads. I  used two to attach the right hand side of the card, then removed the original two, made corresponding holes in the base card, and reattached them. I also added a Tim Holtz token to the top corner.
 Final addition was a pen nib, added with Pinflair Glue gel, over one of the stamped pen images.








Supplies:
Artist Chalks ( The Works)
Nutmeg Grater
Assorted stamps- mine came from the following Clear stamp sets( all bought from e-bay)
Lifes Possibilities
Lost & Found
City Central
Pen nibs & Top Hatted men from Cling Stamps Curious Possibility
Versafine Sepia
Versamark
Clear Embossing powder
Heat Gun
DI Pads in  Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans & Dusty Concord.
Clock Die Cut (E-Bay)
Texture Fades Embossing folder, Gears. (Comes in a two pack, with Blueprint)
Craft core cardstock
Embellishments & brads