Winter is Coming

Hi everyone! Melissa here with an inspiration page for Mixed Media Warriors. Everyone on the team does an extra page for the month, in addition to one for the mood board. We can do anything we want. I've had this photo for awhile, and I love the way it looks against the dark background of this paper, Frosty Morning, from the Until Dawn collection by 13 Arts. I bought a bunch of chipboard from Scrapbook Diaries at Christmas, I've used Dusty Attic, and also some from my stash. I like the idea of winter, and snow, but we have nice mild winters in Houston. When it gets below 40 degrees, that is already too cold for me. Don't visit in the summer, it stays a humid 95 degrees for about six months.

To make this page I applied the paper to cardboard using mod podge. I painted on matt medium. I  used double sided foam tape to put the photo onto a piece of cardstock, then watercolor paper,and finally, three layers of foam core board.  I had gauze I'd dyed with Lindy's from another project, took a piece bigger than the pic, and cut a cross shape in the middle. I fit it around the pic and glued it with glossy accents. 

I applied texture paste using a Daisy stencil from 13 Arts. You can't really see it, I painted the raised areas black on the black parts of the page.I didn't plan on applying a lot of stuff, because I thought even just the photo and the paper was enough. I wound up putting a lot on the background, but I tried to keep it wispy looking.

I treated the Finnabair metal butterfly and all the chipboard with Patina Effect Paste. I added clear rock candy crackle to the board,and brushed on a little Shimmerz, then Magic Pond Art Alchemy.

To add visual interest I glued on micro beads, seed beads, dried flowers from both my yard and dog park. Sequins, pearls, crystals, feathers the birds leave in our bird bath, lichen from my yard,mica flakes, tulle, cut up pieces of gold metallic tresors de Luxe lace, metal glitter, rhinestones, and big glass pebbles. You can't really see the pebbles, they're underneath chipboard and other things. 

There's a couple Tim Holtz snowflake rub ons, and I tried to put gold ones at the bottom but I guess because of the matt medium, it didn't work, I wound up with gold smudges.

The flowers at the left of the pic are from Prima.

The metal feathers are from Hobby Lobby, I used the Patina Effect on them too.

I used glossy accents to apply everything.

The elvish girl has a leaf as a headdress, and I wanted to carry out the in the woods theme. That's why I put all the dried flowers on I guess.

The metal snowflake at the top of the pic is from Finnabair.

I added the copper paint to the watercolor paper.

The little pendant is from Hobby Lobby.

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great week! 

Romance

Hi everyone! Melissa here with a design team page for Shimmerz!  It's almost Valentine's Day, so I thought I'd do a page about romance. Walking on the beach at sunset, or any time of the day is one of my favorite things to do, although I have to talk my husband into going with me,lol!

To make this page I used a piece of Blue Fern paper,and sponged gesso on a four inch tall area across the center. I stenciled on a lot of texture paste,using a Prima bubble stencil and a credit card. I mounted the photo onto a piece of cardstock with glue, then with foam tape onto a piece of watercolor paper. I used foam tape to stick two layers of foam core board onto the watercolor paper and also to the bottom paper.

To add visual interest I added a number of things:pearls, rhinestones, a few Swarovski crystals, tan butterflies from Pion papers,49 and Market flowers,shells, pressed flowers,tiny pieces of lace,and tulle. The fibers are pieces of gauze.

 On top of all the bubbles from the stencil I dropped on distress crackle. I wound up covering the bubbles on the far right and left sides of the page with gesso, because things got too busy looking. 

I also added distress glitter, metal glitter,Tim Holtz rub ons and a rhinestone brad. 

I took Dusty Attic chipboard, applied gesso, Shimmerz Inklingz, and Distress Crackle. The leaves were painted with Blue Lagoon and while it was wet, I dropped in a brushful of Hot Stuff. The stems are done with Emerald City. I edged the pieces with I love you onyxly,using a detail brush. The cracks soaked up the color very nicely. The BoBunny butterflies are painted with gesso, Gold n Roses Blingz, and Distress Crackle. They are also edged with the onyx. I painted the top of the page with Gold n Roses.

To add visual interest I added a number of things to the page:pearls, rhinestones, a few Swarovski crystals, tan butterflies from Pion papers,49 and Market flowers,shells, pressed flowers,tiny pieces of lace,and tulle. On top of all the bubbles from the stencil I dropped on distress crackle. I wound up covering the bubbles on the far right and left sides of the page with gesso, because things got too busy looking. 

I also added distress glitter, metal glitter,Tim Holtz rub ons and a rhinestone brad. 

.The little clock face is painted with Dear John and title is painted with Blue Lagoon and Teal the end of Time Shimmerz. I edged the title with I love you onyxly. 

 Here you can see seed beads, micro beads,and some Prima stamping. I used a Versafine Onyx Ink pad, and Tsukineko Sea Breeze chalk ink pad. At the top and bottom of the photo,on the paper, I painted on Gold n Roses Shimmerz. I added some lines of Derwent Bark Inktense Ink pencil at the top and bottom of the page to pick up the black of the photo.  I spread some glossy accents on under the photo and sprinkled on Stampendous Jeweled Gold Embossing Powder. On the sides of the photo underneath the chipboard and around the Romance I used I love you onyxly. On the watercolor paper under the photo I painted with Teal the end of Time Shimmerz, and Dear John Letter.The metal flowers are bead caps by Vintaj.

 The peachy color on the bubbles on the sides are Dear John Letter Inklingz. I used Sculpy Clay and a Sculpy mold to make the little faces. I painted them with gesso, then put on a little Hot Stuff Inklingz.I added some onyx to make hair on the right sided one, to balance the black in the photo. The page was looking too pale so I put on some layers of Teal the end of Time. I sponged on some Tidy Widy Texturez dimensional paste onto the bottom of the page, and put gesso on top of that. 

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great day! I hope I have inspired you to try some Shimmerz Paints, and remember, if you use my name in the comments section when you order, you'll get some free paint!

A Valentine's Day Page

Hi everyone! Melissa here with a design team page for Shimmerz!  Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I've tried to express that with some beautiful colors from Shimmerz!

To make this page, I picked out colors I thought would look good with the mood and colors of the photo. I wanted to keep the very delicate and wispy kind of look. I chose Pink Shimmerz and Imperial Amethyst Inklingz.These are two colors that I especially love anyway, so it was a good day for me!  I activated the Inklingz by spritzing water on it. I misted a 12 x 12 sheet of watercolor paper and put vertical stripes of paint on, the length of the whole page. I moved it around to let the colors flow into each other and carefully dried it with a heat gun. Later I came back and with a brush put more water on above the photo, and applied 1" long strips of color on,and let the color just sit without moving it around. I filled my brush with Amethyst and dropped some in the Pink while it was still wet,then let everything air dry. I clean my scraproom sometimes,it gets tossed when I'm looking for stuff to put on the page.

I stenciled texture paste on with a stencil and a credit card. I painted around the raised areas with Pink Shimmerz, and while wet sprinkled on UTEE, Ultra Thick Embossing Powder, to add even more texture. I used a heat gun and melted the powder. Be careful when you do that because the powder gets all over everything,and its kind of sticky and gross.I propped up a piece of paper at 90degrees by the paint with my left hand,and had the heat gun in the other so the powder stayed in the area. 

I attached cardstock to the photo with double sided foam tape, and mounted it on two layers of foam core board to the page. I painted Dusty Attic chipboard with gesso, then Greener Pastures Inklingz, and topped it with Crackle paint. I didn't like the way the green looked with the purple and pink, so I added Imperial Amethyst. I rubbed on a little silver mica powder. The Bo Bunny butterfly has just gesso with the Amethyst and Pink on.

To add visual interest I glued on the following with glossy accents, distress glitter, metal glitter, clear mica flakes, seed beads, micro beads,pearls,rhinestones, two Swarovski crystals, lace, sequins, pressed flowers from my yard (see below),a metal snowflake from Finnabair and a metal Tim Holtz word label, and flowers from Prima and my LSS.  The silver lace is from Tresors de Luxe, the metal pin holding the silk ribbon is from 7 Gypsies.The word stickers in black are Tim Holtz, the moon and stars one is 7 Dots. I fussy cut tiny pink and lavender flowers from Lemoncraft's Violet Silence, and some of their butterflies too. The birds and moth are foil accent overlays from 13 Arts. The moth stamps are Prima. I think the little cherub at the top is from Reminsce.

This flower pic is from Google.

I painted around the photo with Amethyst,underneath the chipboard. You can see a touch of blue to the left of the photo, Blue Lagoon Inklingz. The splatters are Amethyst.

The black and white fussy cut leaves are 13 Arts. The small feathers are from my yard. The local birds leave them in the birdbath. 

I painted the raised areas of the 13 Arts stencil of dandelions and script with Amethyst. I use a detail brush, it's pretty small.

The metal heart at the top of the photo is from 7 Gypsies. I dyed a piece of gauze with Pink but only used a couple strands of the page.

You can see some broken jewelry I added at the bottom of the pic.

I hope I have inspired you to try some Shimmerz paints.  I have always loved the ethereal look of watercolors, and the shades of these are just yummy.  Thank you so much for looking, and have a great week!

Moon Beams and Heart Strings

Hi everyone! Melissa here with a page for the February Mood Board at Mixed Media Warriors.I was inspired by the heart shaped wreath of flowers, which can be a symbol for romance.  

To make this page I used Cold Day paper from the "Until Dawn" collection at 13 Arts. I applied gesso with a cosmetic sponge, then used the Dandelion stencil from 13 Arts and put on texture paste with a credit card. I painted over the raised area with a combination of Shimmerz Inklingz paints that matched the peach tones in the image: A Rose by Any Other Name, Dear John Letter, and Ginger Snapped. I painted the watercolor paper under the image with the same combination of colors, but later put more paint on.Underneath the paper and image are two layers of foam core board, to add dimension.  

The clockface chipboard is from my stash, and the leafy ones are Dusty Attic. I painted the leaves and branches with Greener Pastures Inklingz, then while still wet dropped in blobs of Shimmerz Celery with a paintbrush. I loved the way it looked, but I still wanted Clear Rock Candy Crackle paint on top. I added gold mica powder, Fairy Wings Sparks Art Alchemy paint, and Sparks Iris Potion. To add visual interest I added a number of things: microbeads, rhinestones, sequins, distress glitter, a few Swarovski crystals, Prima - Finnabair Mechanical Trinkets,metal glitter in purple,silver, and  steel blue, pearls, Frosted mica flakes from Finnabair, and gold ones from Stampendous. 

You can see some green gauze around the image I dyed with a distress ink stamper, and cherubs fussy cut from Graphic 45 paper. The butterflies are from Lemoncraft's Violet Silence collection. The flowers are Prima,Petaloo, the tiny pink ones by the cherubs are Jolees, and the two tiny roses are Kaisercraft.  

I glued on pieces of white silk ribbon from my LSS that I dyed with Tim Holtz distress ink and Shimmerz celery paint.  

The moth at the bottom of the image is cut from transparent foil, what to me is an acetate overlay, "A Letter to you", Until Dawn, by 13 Arts.  The moon beams and heart strings sticker is from 7 Dots Fortune Teller. The tiny twisted metal is from the top of a champagne bottle, the metal that you take off before you take the cork out.

The butterfly to the left of the image is also by 13 Arts, it's cut from A4 Stickers, Until Dawn. 

You an see I added dried flowers from my yard, feathers the birds leave in the bird bath, dried moss from Michael's, and lichen from my yard. 

I added distress glitter,purple metal glitter, micro beads, and Sparks paint in Iris and Fairy Wings to the paper under the image. The green paint is Fairy Wings at the left of the image.

I painted on some Sparks Magical Pond in the above picture kind of randomly.

I added tiny pieces of gold metallic lace, black tulle, seed beads, and fresh lavender. The big pink gem is from Jolees.The little metal heart I think is from 7 Gypsies.

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great week!I hope you find some time to enter this month's contest!