Can't . stop . using ....

.... Tilda stamps!!  This addiction is taking hold of me (eek!), but looking at the other DT entries on this week's PaperPlay, I'm far from alone in this - 5 of us used Magnolia stamps on our cards!!!

We're sponsored by Simon Stays Stamp again this week, and our challenge is called "Bon Voyage".

I was scratching my head for a bit trying to work out what to make, and then I remembered I had a Tim Holtz stamp with the Eiffel Tower on it.  Yahoo, foreign travel, a starting point!!  I had laid out some old spotty Rusty Pickle papers to use, see my post yesterday, but when I looked at them in good light, I realised that what I thought was navy was actually black, so a change of papers was required, because I wanted to have a French flag colour scheme of red, white and blue.  Here's what I ended up with:

Update 18th Aug: This card was picked as a Top 5 by Sue on ABC Challenge - thank you, Sue - I love the blinkie!

I used the sketch from this fortnight's Sunday Sketch and Stamp, I rotated it 90 degrees 'cos it worked better. 

I'm also entering this into Papertake Weekly (something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue - old = Tim Holz stamp and BG Boxer papers, new = BG Oliver papers, borrowed = "love" ticket, from my friend Pam - ta!, blue = BG Boxer papers + Tilda's shoes), Simon Says Stamp (summertime blues) and ABC Challenge (A is for August - my husband is going to Paris this weekend!).  While blog-hopping this week, I came across the Etsy Inspired Challenge - they pick an Etsy store for inspiration.  This week's featured store is Cathy Walters, she makes gorgeous pendants, and I was very happy when the first one I saw was this - bingo!!

I used three stamps on my card, the background script behind the Eiffel Tower, the tower itself, which I heat embossed with clear e.p. to make it stand out.  I also inked the stamped piece with a few colours of distress ink to make it match better and look a bit grungy.  I had to re-paint Tilda's dress three or four times, my first wash of Barn Door looked pink, the second was better, eventually I mixed in a bit of Dark Soot to get the darker red I wanted.  Here's a close-up:

Recipe:

Stamps: Magnolia "Old Valentine Letter" + "Princess Tilda", Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous "Eiffel Sketch"

Papers: Basic Grey "Boxer" and "Oliver"

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Other: Gingham ribbon, heart crystal pin from stash, Tim Holtz Adage ticket, needle + thread

Thanks for looking!