Do the things you never thought you could do...

 

Inspired by the The Color Room and CASE Study colours and use of thread, Wida's CASE Study offset angles, teal blue sentiment and large stamped image, and the Take a Word "Book" Collage Challenge. I so wanted to add some machine stitching to this collage, but my machine didn't want to play, so I went with a flight line of thread instead.

In case you are interested, the process went something like this (with drying in between each step):

• Used gel medium to stick down the old fairytale book pages;
• overlaid with whitewash;
• gel mediumed the Cosmo Cricket Junk Drawer strips;
• laid the Tim Holtz mask letters in place and spread a layer of modelling paste over the top;
• stamped this gorgeous Darkroom Door butterfly on tissue paper and gel mediumed in position; 
• once dry, repositioned the masked letters before overspraying with Prima spritzes in soft gold, soft teal and soft red;
• coloured the butterfly with the soft teal spritz then decided it needed a deeper colour;
• infilled the butterfly and "Fly" letters with gelatos; and
• added the thread butterfly trail.

Playing along with All Crafts Challenge Anything but a Card 

and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge The Artsy Stamp too.

This made me smile

Bookmark it with a KIS!

With the cold weather creeping in, it's a perfect time of year to curl up with a book!

I couldn't resist creating a bookmark from a page of a book for this fortnights Keep It Simple challenge. Combined with paper piecing from my paper scrap bag, stamped with this gorgeous Little Red Riding Hood character by Avery Elle, and die cuts from Mama Elephant Landscape Trio and Lil Inkers Small Stitched Sunshine, on this purpose built bookmark die cut from Paper Smooches.

Remember to stop by the blogs of the Keep It Simple DT for some more 

FABULOUS bookmark inspiration.

Anni

Christine

Mia

Tanja

Tenia

Love to see how you are inspired this fortnight!

Playing along with All Crafts Challenge Anything but a Card, and 

Virginia's View Tags and Scraplings!

Stuck?! Out...

Couldn't resist playing along with this months Stuck?! Sketches with this gorgeous sketch, and fabulous prizes from Scrapbook Circle and Polly Scrap Kits.  What better photo to scrap for a Stuck?! Sketch, than a pirate with his tongue Stuck?! out LOL!

This is another of my PhD (Project half Done) projects - another set of photo, papers and embellishments which have been gathering dust for about 7 years. It's been so long since I distressed papers that I forgot I needed to wet the edges first! Papers are a combination of Junkitz by Teresa Collins, Rusty Pickle and Scenic Route, with the textured skulls by Tim Holtz and a Hambly rub-on pirate ship.  The lovely Sam came to the rescue with the perfect Scrapware chipboard title.  The skulls and title were inked in Momento Ink Wedding Dress then covered in white metal melts and heat embossed.

Playing along with All Crafts Challenge Anything but a Card and
Love to Scrap Anything Goes too!

A PhD in Sketchabilities...

I had put this photo, papers and chipboard together about seven years ago - so this definitely classified as a Project half Done (aka PhD)! Getting back into the swing of scrapbooking is more difficult than I thought, but made a whole lot easier with fabulous sketch challenge sites like Sketchabilities!  How can you go wrong with this fortnights fabulous sketch...

Inspired by the single cloud above DS head, with a selection of (very old) papers from Basic Grey, Fancy Pants and papers and embellishments from Sassafrass Lass, I added the Pink Paislee wooden letters, Lil Inkers Stitched Polaroid die cut frames, texture pasted some clouds and added splatter to bring the layout into this decade LOL! 

Still feel a bit squeaky scrapbooking wise, but glad to have another PhD completed!
Playing along with All Crafts Challenge Anything but a Card too!

Never too old to get distressed & dirty...

 

Had the most fun getting distressed and dirty at a Surreal Creations weekend scrap retreat with Ruey, Michelle and Jorja!  

Playing along with One Little Word - Will, with this piece. At the moment I am at a cross-roads, and I need to take a deep breath and summon the will to set a new goal and dream a new dream, and with it find the courage to turn that dream into reality.

Learnt an important lesson creating this mixed media piece - always dry your layers first!  I had forgotten to let the first coat of gel medium dry over my die cuts when I started adding my first layer of colour, and everything kept reacting from there, but in the end it was worth it! This was created using layers of heavy watercolour paper die cuts, colour sprays, gelatos, Twinkling H2O watercolour paints, a chipboard butterfly covered in Metallic Melts embossing powder, Darkroom Door script stamped on the poppies and base layer, Heartfelt Creations dimensional die cut flowers also covered in Metallic Melts embossing powder with gold highlights and this gorgeous Verve sentiment stamped on white tissue paper and adhered with gel medium to make it disappear into the background layer.  

If you're feeling daunted about mixed media, don't be - it's all about experimenting and letting yourself get distressed and dirty LOL!

Playing along with Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge The Artsy Stamp,

 Catered Crop Garden Party Recipe Swap,
Love to Scrap Anything Goes, and

 All Crafts Challenge Anything but a Card too!