All The Promises They Made

For their June Challenge  Crafty Individuals June  set the challenge of Vintage with a heart. On setting out I had in mind to make the piece predominately stamping, keeping embellishments to a minimum and see how many CI stamps I could incorporate to create a story of love.
Here is my list of stamps used:-
One of the females from – CI-065
Linked hearts – stamp off-cut from CI
Letter – CI-214
Paris cancellation mark – CI-122
Cherish & Hope -CI-256
By Air Mail – CI-239
Postcard, carte postale and P.C. Paris – CI-307
This heart shaped hanging tells the story of a woman waiting at home for the return of her love who is at war. Surrounding her are symbols of their correspondence and love.  She sits writing another letter looking wistfully into the distance imagining his safe return to her. As he departed for  war promises are made, they will write letters each day which are represented by the letter, cancellation mark and other postal related images. We have the linked hearts symbolising their love for each other and the words cherish and hope, hope being what she has for his safe return, she has promised she will wait for him. 

I wanted a heart shaped base so hand-cut a heart from chipboard then adhered K&co paper. The paper was pretty but I wanted it aged so I  stamped postmarks, etc  randomly.  The linked hearts were stamped twice, once onto the heart and then onto K%co scrap, cutting out one of the hearts so I could layer it.The first, full image is a truer representation of the colour, the light started to change when photographing the detail.I edged the female image with lace, the lace represents the lace edging on the handkerchief which she hands to him as he departs.
A favourite of mine, stamping onto ribbon to tie it in with the theme of the artwork. Here I stamped, “carte postale”.
With other obligations, sometimes I don’t always have the opportunity to spend time on a completely stamped piece such as this,  just stamps and ink. As I really enjoy working with photo real stamps and digital images I did wonder if I would return to completely stamped projects but I have since realised that they all have a place in my crafting life and sometimes it is good to take a wee break from one as when you return to that style you enjoy it all the more.
It would be interesting to know, what type of project do you find the most happiness and contentment when working on or are you like me, that you like the variety of mixing up what you work with. It is always fun to know what makes other crafters tick. Lynne x