CHEAP TISSUE AND FAUX SILK

After the Christmas Holidays were over and I was going through gifts, I discovered in one box something that SHOULD have by all rights be tossed directly into the garbage. But, just as I was about to release it from my hand, I thought twice about it. The object in question was a ratty cheap piece of white tissue paper. You know the awful stuff that comes in products from China? As I said, it should have been tossed in the garbage. Without hesitation.

But, then I wondered how it would work in the Faux Silk technique. Hmm. I'd used lots of different tissues in this technique, but nothing quite as awful as this pitiful thing. 

So I decided to give it a chance. And I did. 

Using inks in Flirty Flamingo, Coastal Cabana and Granny Apple Green, I stamped the various flower shapes from the Wildflower Path stamps set randomly across this cheapo tissue paper.

I knew I wanted to place it onto a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of white cardstock, so I made my stamped area a little larger than that size.

After I finished all my stamping, I crumpled the piece of tissue paper in my hands several times, almost flattening it each time.

Once I crumpled it 4-5 times, I flattened it, but NOT COMPLETELY. You need lots of mountains and valleys to provide the interesting texture this technique yields.

I cut a piece of white cardstock to 4" x 5 1/4" and used a glue stick to completely cover one side of the paper with glue --- edge to edge and corner to corner. This is essential in order to achieve maximum results.

After the cardstock was all gluey, I carefully laid my crumpled tissue paper onto the glued surface. 

Without pulling the tissue taut, I simply gently pressed it in place over the glue. It is so important to just press, not pull or flatten.

Once everything was carefully glued in place and none of the edges or corners were lifting away from the cardstock, I trimmed off the edges of the tissue against the cardstock.

As happens so often when I'm creating, the background ends up being the most important part of a card. So as not to cover up just too much of this importance, I made the rest of the card quite simple.

I stamped a simple heartfelt sentiment from the Eden's Garden stamp set in Flirty Flamingo ink and die cut it into a tag. 

A diagonally cut 1/2" strip of Coastal Cabana cardstock that measures 4" long, topped by a snippet of ribbon and attached to the back of the sentiment tag, then popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals, complemented my background so well.

I added a trio of Pool Party gems (one of which migrated off to the upper right, which I didn't realize before I took the photos). 

The final touch was to add this all to a Granny Apple Green cardstock base.

Now, be honest. Would you have thrown away this poor defenseless little piece of papery garbage?

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If you look the right way, 

you can see that the whole world is a garden.

- Frances Hodgson Burnett -

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Cheap

Smiles.