Not too shabby....

I've been wanting to try my hand at the "shabby chic" look. So last night (in my newly cleaned craft room! that isn't as clean anymore...) I pulled out some OLD paper I don't really like. It's from one of the first stacks, where everything was in the same color scheme (in this case, blue and green) with varying patterns of stripes and flowers. So I pulled out that paper (a sheet of stripe and a sheet of flower) and my box of chipboard (since I'm really bad about using them!) and a box of lace I got from Freecycle, and some paper flowers I got from the Target $pot and I went to town. About an hour or so later I had a 4 card set! I like some better than others, but overall I'm pretty happy with the set. AND I learned new things! I learned that you can color chipboard by just applying chalk with a sponge. Much faster and less messy than using ink or paint! I like the effect, too... subtle, but perfect for this! I also learned that a little Versamark and some embossing powder goes a long way toward coloring chipboard, too (see scallop frame below), and that sanding the edges after you've embossed does neat things. I'll keep playing with techniques, but I had fun last night. Here they are, in no particular order....