A Little Chalkboard Technique

I've wanted to try the chalkboard technique ever since I saw the tutorial on Splitcoast many moons ago.  For some reason I never got around to it.  Then I decided to attempt it with this card.

Although I like the soft look of the image there a few things I have a problem with.  The first is the "soft look."  The very nature of using the pastels to color in the image means that you're going to get a lot of pastel dust everywhere on your card.  The instructions say to use a swiffer to wipe away the excess.  The swiffer works pretty well removing the excess dust, but there is a hint that remains around the stamped image.  Kind of like a shadow, it sort of creates that fuzzy, dreamy quality, but it's kind of bugging me.  The second problem I have is that you can't really touch the card without getting pastels on your fingers.  I think I can resolve that pretty easily by spraying it with hairspray or some kind of fixative in the future.  And the third thing is sort of related to the first thing.  As I was using the swiffer to wipe off the excess pastel dust, I experimented with rubbing directly on the stamped image.  Maybe I was rubbing too exhuberantly, but some of the pastel wore off which is why you see some color missing from the stems and he flowers.  Overall, I like the look of the technique, but I think I need to experiment more.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!