OK let me say from the outset, that no I’m not taking up a new hobby. My dancing days are few and far between now. That doesn’t stop me appreciating the grace and athleticism of dancers though. So I wasn’t surprised when I was immediately drawn to the Born To Shine Stamp Set with it’s pretty images and sentiments. One of the two images could be a ballet dancer, or even a highland dancer come to that. The other reminds me of a latin dancer, and whether she’s doing the rumba or cha, cha, cha it makes for a striking image.

FIRST RUMBA STEPS

I began my project by stamping the rumba dancer onto some Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper using StazOn Jet Black ink. Towards the top of the piece I then stamped the sentiment in Merry Merlot ink, then I cut that part off.

TIP – If you have trouble stamping sentiments straight on small strips of card, stamp them onto a larger piece and then trim them.

Now I could start to paint my dancer using a damp Aqua Painter. I began by pressing onto the lids of my ink pads to transfer some ink to the inside. Then when I opened the ink pads I could use the inside of the lid as a palette.

I painted my dancer very simply using Rococo Rose, Petal Pink, Blushing Bride and Daffodil Delight. Then for the ground I used Sahara Sand. To get the effect I wanted I made sure to let the ink dry between each successive layer, building up the colour gradually until I had the look I wanted. Once I was happy, I set the piece aside to dry thoroughly.

ROCOCO LAYERS

For my background I decided to use a piece from the Woven Threads 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper (DSP). I chose a Rococo Rose / Sahara Sand pattern that would coordinate beautifully with my dancer.

I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to attach the DSP to a layer of Merry Merlot Card. Then I fixed that to a Thick Very Vanilla Card base using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Next I attached a strip of the DSP along the bottom edge of a layer of Very Vanilla Card. Using liquid glue I added this to the inside of the card.

One last piece of the DSP was attached to the flap of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope with liquid glue. Then I cut it to shape with Paper Snips following the edge of the flap.

BIG FINISH

That just left the front of the card to finish.

First I used liquid glue to fix the dancer to a wide strip of Merry Merlot Card. This piece then went on top of the background DSP using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

To attach the sentiment to the Silver Glimmer Paper I used Mini Glue Dots. Then I used more Stampin’ Dimensionals to add the layered sentiment to the card (stacking them under the right hand end).

And that was it, my rumba dancer project was done.

I wasn’t sure whether to add a few jewels to the card, but in the end decided that the Glimmer Paper didn’t need any competition. What do you think?

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