PanPastels DT, Imagine the possibilities :-)

Hi there, well with Christmas and pesky internet gremlins it seems ages since I've blogged anything but today I wanted to share some very exciting news. I'm joining the PanPastel UK DT, and how excited am I?? Yes, you guessed it, thoroughly over excited lol. I wanted to have a play and share a project with my news so I've managed to grab a few hours in my craftroom and made this tag, using PanPastels of course :-)

I've had a really good play with PanPastels today and oh dear I think I have a new addiction, better warn the bank manager :-) PanPastels are such gorgeous vibrant colours,  they are velvety smooth and they blend beautifully with the Sofft tools (these are made from a very dense foam that is amazingly squidgy - technical term there lol).

I've tried them on lots of different card and they are really versatile, from watercolour card to supersmooth white cardstock. I know a lot of pastels need card with some tooth but PanPastels are just as happy with smooth cardstock. I haven't got any proper fixative, so I just used a spray of cheap hairspray instead.

I've made a few projects today but some I won't be able to share for a while, this tag was super quick to make. The night sky is made by blending black and Ultramarine Blue Shade panpastels with a Sofft Angle slice tool. I stamped the row of houses (from Artistic Outpost) with black versafine on white card lightly coloured with white PanPastel and a hint of black, cut them out and popped them up on 3d foam pads. I added glossy accents around the edges and then silver microbeads. The tiny stars are made with white cosmic shimmer glue and glamour dust. 

The larger stars were made using Jo Capper Sandon's star stamp on shrink plastic dipped in UTEE and coloured with pearl alcohol ink additive although they look black in the pic. I've never thought of trying that before until Tim's Tags and although I didn't have time to join in with the tags I was itching to get my melting pot out and start shrinking and its the most amazing fun watching the shrink plastic curl in the UTEE (OK I'm easily pleased lol). The sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque, and I thought it would be perfect for my first venture into the world of PanPastels :-)

To finish off I've added some scraps of ribbon, net and braid attached with a silver brad.

I'm entering this tag in the following challenges:

Gingersnap Creations GC129:  Starry Night

Make my Monday: Seasonal tags

Ooh La La: anything but a card

Stampotique: Shimmer, glimmer, glitter and glitz

The Stamp Man: Techniques

I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas, it seems to have gone as quickly as it came and I'm back at work tomorrow (not a happy bunny about that I can tell you) but at least its theres another long weekend coming up and lots of chocolate in the cupboard to console myself lol

hugs

Claire xx