Loving these vibrant Pan Pastels!

Hi everyone!  It's a beautiful early fall day here in Michigan and I'm waiting for the leaves to start turning into the gorgeous fall golds, reds and shades of brown that we all love here in "the Mitten".  I love all the brightly colored foliage and I can't imagine a prettier place to live this time of year. 

When I first learned about pastels many years ago I ran out and bought a set of pencils.  They're fun to use but the colors in that set were very muted, much like my chalks.  So all of the talk about Pan Pastels really didn't grab my attention.  I didn't expect to get such vibrant reds and yellows as I did on this project!  I had fun with my first card earlier this month but I only used two colors on it and didn't really get to see how wonderfully they blend.  I sure found out this time!

Altered Pages has a collage sheet of beautiful coffee images and I chose one with lovely red, green and yellow in it off the We All Enjoy Coffee page.  I cut out and distressed the edges of the image using the stylus tool with the rounded head.

My coffee bean background was stamped using VersaMark ink and then I randomly added colors to compliment the collage image using one of their Sofft sponges.  I blended in more colors in layers until I got the look I wanted.  I used a workable fixative to set the pastels so that they wouldn't smear off the page as I worked with it.

Using a deckled-edge rectangle die from my own collection, I cut a piece from the same stock I used to make the card and backed my collage image with it.  I purposely chose to mount the rectangle and image at off-setting angles to enhance the deckled edge.

I hated to cover up any more of the background but I felt it needed something frilly.  I cut out a piece of lattice from the same green stock.  I had two pretty red paper flowers and one cream flower.  Cream?  No way on this project...but these flowers ink up so easily that it became a yellow flower in a few seconds.  I just pressed the flower onto my stamp pad! When it was dry, all three were sprayed with Shimmer Spritz and allowed to dry (again).  Then I glued them to the lattice, added a few tiny die-cut coffee cups (my own collection), Dew Drops and Stickles.

 

There is still time to be entered into the drawing to win your own set of Pan Pastels.  Don't miss this opportunity!  You can comment on each daily post and it counts as an entry in the drawing.  Good luck!


Scan of card