Meet Miss Frou Frou...

If you are a bit like me an prefer things a bit sassy to cutesy cutesy, then you are going to love this brand new stamp range from Crafter’s Companion. This sassy must have will launching on Thursday 28^th March on Create and Craft TV as Pick of The Week at 9 pm with the lovely Leann Chivers.

I have never really used many cd-rom kits but this one is right up my street…to be honest even if I didn’t like the images (which I must add I do) then I would buy it simply for the backing papers…so many gorgeous ones to chose from and the detail is amazing…lace…pearl embellishments…and that’s just for starters.

For those of you who aren’t aware Frou Frou was created by Kathleen Francour, artist, photographer and designer. From stationery and scrapbooking, to puzzles, books, three dimensional, fabric, crafts and home decor, her unique feminine creations are licensed by publishers and manufacturers worldwide.   

After trawling though the digi images and backing papers, embellishments, epiphany etc I eventually settled on this fun digi stamp image, however please note that this image WILL NOT appear on the Frou Frou cd-rom but is a Club Inspire Exclusive.

 

I wanted to create something a little bit different and wasn’t sure what I had in mind when I started but once I started to colour the image of the girl in the Martin glass my imagination was over flowing…unfortunately not like the Martini glass.

Being very new to paper crafting I haven’t yet built up a great collection of Spectrum Noirs so I had to supplement what colours I did have with my water colour pencils. I loved the combination of the two and where I thought it suited I also used gold acrylic paint – gold highlights on her hair and on the glass and parasol.  I just slowly and carefully started to build the colours up with the water colour pencils and my Spectrum Noirs and paint until I was happy with the finished image. Which I am quite happy to say I am…it’s so easy to get lost in colouring and painting.

Whilst lost in the colouring process my mind was buzzing with ideas of how to display her in all her frivolity…I wanted to capture an era of glamour, of cocktails and of fun. So after painstakingly cutting the image out with a craft knife (am no good with scissors when it comes to this sort of thing) I decided that the perfect backdrop to ‘Miss Martin’ (that’s what I call her) was a glamorous fan.

I didn’t want the fan to distract from the image – I wanted to make sure she was the focal point of the card. So I decided to make the fan out of velum, scored the folds with my Hougie Board and folded. Once I was happy with the size I cut small notched out to create a lace affect fan. Secured the bottom of the fan with red tape and wound some gold beaded thread round for decoration purposes. A fan isn’t a fan without a tassel so one was added with Collall silicon glue – the threads of the tassel where actually longer so I just trimmed them with scissors to the desired length. Then to add some bling I attacked it with some Spray and Sparkle, first a light coating of gold and then iridescent. Once dry I attached it to my pink card panel, which I made from Co-ordination Vintage with Collall silicon glue. I lightly sanded it and added behind the fan, an acetate flourish I had in my stash from K&Company and added some pink gems.   

Before adding ‘Miss Martini’ on top of the fan I added some Glossy Accent to the glass to create the illusion that it was reflective. The parasol was glittered using my quickie glue pen with pink and turquoise glitter. Once she was dry I placed her at an angle on the fan with Collall silicon glue. I added a small pink spotty bow, pre made pink roses and some turquoise gems and brad as decoration. The sentiment was cut out using the smallest label die from the Die’sire Scalloped Tags set.

Three layers selected. The pink was matted onto Centura Pearl Snow White with 3d foam pads. Then that was matted onto gorgeous stripy paper from the cd-rom. That was then matted onto a piece of Co-ordinations card from Roy G Biv and using my punch ruler punched a border round the edges. All the layers where then matted onto a card blank made from Centura Pearl Snow White.

Et viola

 

This new collection from Crafter’s Companion will be suitable for all ages…I can see it being used for Party Invitations, Bachelorette parties, home décor…the possibilities are endless. So get those Spectrum Noirs out and start colouring in…