Shabby Chic Paris

As you all might have guessed, I am pretty fond of Flourishes stamps :) Flourishes has a Timeless Tuesday challenge and a monthly Bring Back Beautiful challenge, that I like to try to submit to. This Timeless Tuesday's (TT) challenge is "Buttons" and this months Bring Back Beautiful (BBB) is "Romantic or Valentines". So I combined the two challenges on this card :)

I used the Lilac from Flourishes "Lilac" stamp set. I cut out around the image with my craft knife and loosely watercolored it by dabbing the color in with my Zig Aqua brush, so I would get darker and natural lighter spots. I used my Tombow #772 and "Worn Lipstick" Distress Ink for the Lilac color, then my Tombow #098 for the leaves. I kept the leaves light and "natural" looking without much shading. The paper is a MME "Lost & Found" set that I love so dearly. I used a pink satin ribbon with some lace and a small velvet ribbon over it for a tiny color and texture contrast. The pink pearls are from Zva, and the Pearl pins are from Maya Road. I bought the brass button three years ago at JoAnn's, and I can't remember who makes it.


I love, love the Shabby Chic look, and I love vintage, but don't know how to distress or make a Shabby card too well. This is my interpretation. I deliberately used pinks and some old lace with papers that had an Eiffel Tower on it and French writing, to help convey the Parisian theme :)
I hated cutting off the top of the Eiffel Tower, but it would be a terribly long card otherwise. The other hard part was cutting off the "Ja'dore" printed at the bottom under the tower, but again, it would be almost 7 inches long, if I didn't. I purposely kept the lace and velvet ribbon to the one side of the card, since Shabby Chic is a casual elegance :)