More Than Words Challenge April 2018

Hi everyone! Here is my entry for the More Than Words April 2018 Main Challenge NATURE & ANIMAL.

I was inspired by this photo because the beauty of NATURE at the sea shore gives me a feeling of peace.I am inspired by the shimmer of the sun on the water, the sense of space I experience, and the always beautiful wildlife that I see there. I only live about five miles from the nearest beach at Galveston Bay. An added plus is that one of the roads on the way is lined with waterfront homes and neighborhoods. It makes for a quaint and beachy feel, and is always a pleasure to drive there. For the ANIMAL part of the challenge, I added a seahorse, two starfish, snails, a lobster, and more. 

To make this page I used Seascape, from the Wanderlust collection by Blue Fern. All the paint is from Shimmerz, the gold is mica powder. The chipboard around the frame is from Dusty Attic.

Dreamer

Hi everyone! Melissa here with my second design team page of April, for Shimmerz Paints! 

If you like paint, you will love these colors, and the type called Shimmerz is thick, ready made, and has an intense shimmer.The Inklingz are very shimmery too and are watercolors, you just spritz some water on top, and wait for a couple minutes for the paint to activate. Depending on how much water you use, the result can be thick, or thin. 

Here's how I made this page:

I mounted the photo on watercolor paper. I cut up die cuts,mostly Spellbinders, and put them around the pic. 

I stenciled on a clockface and bee using texture paste and a credit card.

I used double sided foam tape and put the pic with layers of foam core board on the sheet of Tattered Garden paper by 49 and Market. I like using tape because if I change my mind about design, it's easy to adjust, rather than tearing the paper by something that's glued on.

I added some big things like shells, glass pebbles, and flowers to support the die cut layers. There are metal pieces from Finnabair at the upper left and lower right corners. I painted the dusty attic chipboard and applied a thick layer of  Clear Rock Candy. For the paint I used Greener Pastures Inklingz first, then while it was wet, dropped in Penny 4 Your Thoughts Inklingz. You put a bunch on your brush and touch the green paint and the copper color flows right in. Be careful not to move the color around too much with your brush. I cut the Dusty Attic chipboard up and put it all over the page. I added Dear John Letter Inklingz to it, gold mica powder, and a mix of purple and blue mica powder. 

I painted the die cuts with Teal The End Of Time Shimmerz, and Greener Pastures. After I glued on micro beads and vintage glass glitter I painted on I Love You Onyxly Inklingz,I topped it with Imperial Amethyst Inklingz,a mix of watercolor crayons, and purple alcohol ink. 

I added gold mica powder to the die cuts, and also Dear John Letter. The copper and gold mica powder at the top was kind of covered up by stamped on Tsukineko chalk ink. I used a leaf stamp from Petite Poppies and sprinkled on mica powder over versamark.  Once I brushed off all the excess mica the images were too bright for the page. I smudged and inked over a lot of it.

I added a number of things for visual interest: the Tim Holtz metal butterfly, dried and pressed flowers,Spanish moss, and lichen I've collected, micro beads, vintage glass glitter, seed beeds, a few pearls, rhinestones, and Prima flowers.

A metal discovery tag by Tim Holtz, a couple fussy cuts fairies from G45, threads from plain and dyed gauze, fussy cut images of suns and moons from Stamperia paper, sequins, bling,new and old jewelry type items.

The bird at the bottom is a sticker with a clear background by 13 Arts. The title sticker is from 7 Dots.

Cut up lace, tulle, a little stencil work at the lower left and upper right corners using  Texturez Gold Mine,an art deco style costume jewelry earring art deco, from my sister in law. 

The little brass purse is from Vintaj. The green gem below it is Swarovski.  I used some green and white ball things from fall and holiday clearance flowers from Hobby Lobby.

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

Surround Yourself With Love

• Hi everyone! Melissa here with a design team page for Shimmerz Paints!  I am happy with this page, and I give a lot of credit to Shimmerz for inspiring me with not only their beautiful products, but with their kindness and support!

First I want to tell you which paints I used:

Greener Pastures Inklingz

Penny 4 Your Thoughts Inklingz

Dear John Letter Inklingz

I used a set of Shimmerz new stamps too,  Petite Poppies. I used one flower several times on the page and also a leaf stamp from another set called Bed of Roses. I stamped the leaf with green Tsukineko chalk ink.

How I made this page, in a nutshell:

Apply texture paste with an old credit card and stencils to Blue Fern paper.The paper is from the  Seaside Cottage Collection. I used a stencil from TCW that has a clock frame on the outside, and a big bee on the inside. The stenciled on stars are from a Tim Holtz stencil. I used gesso and glossy accents to adhere layers of textured ribbon to the top and bottom of the page,and painted gesso oveer it. The ribbon look a little like webbing, I painted over the dried gesso with Dear John Letter. 

  Mount photo on watercolor paper, I also adhere a piece of cardstock under the pic itself to make it more durable, and flat. I give dimension to layers with layers of foam core board. 

I cut up die cuts by spellbinders and glued them on around the pic.

 Put gesso, paint, and Clear Rock Candy on chipboard. For the paint on the chipboard I used the Greener Pastures, then while it was wet, added in Penny 4 Your Thoughts. After I applied a very thick coat of Clear Rock Candy and it had dried, I rubbed on a little copper mica powder.

Once I had the above glued on, I started adding all the flowers, glitter, and other embellishments. My last step was to add Penny 4 Your Thoughts Inklingz around the photo, to extend the dark tones of the photo. Now that I've written the short version I'll note all the different sources of the papers and items.

The circle with the sun at the upper right of the photo is from Stamperia, from my local scrapstore, The Scrap Shack, in Friendswood,Texas.  The little bird and quote beneath is from Pion. Anna there gave me a huge amount of papers because she thought I did great work.

The fairy is Graphic 45, she's in the green dress at the top left of the photo.

The blue rose next to the sun paper is 13 Arts, from papers I got in a give away from Aida Domisiewicz. 

If you look to the left of the heart and home word paper, you can see where I stamped with versamark type ink, and copper mica powder.

I've added a lot of pressed flowers from recent walks at the dog park Mack and I go to. The rose leaves are from my yard. The two paper roses on the page are Prima. There are also two very small white paper roses from my local scrap store(LSS) I used two glass pebbles, I mixed water and gold mica powder and painted the paper underneath the pebble, and glued the glass on. See the orange flower thing placed horizontally at the upper right of the pic? I put that there and accidentally left it there. It's from Hob Lob, I got it at the fall clearance, the tiny orange pebbly flower things are from it too. I painted over them with Penny 4 Your Thoughts. The bright yellow flowers are pressed buttercups from the park. I press all the things by putting them in a piece of paper towel, then stick them in my cookbooks in a pile.

The striped feather at the left bottom of the photo is part of a diy earring from Hobby Lobby, in the feathers section. The oval frame item is also from Hob Lob, it has an image of a hot air balloon, under a piece of acrylic.

The found objects metal tag is Tim Holtz, so are the stenciled on stars. The surround yourself with love sticker is from 7 Dots. When I was little my neighborhood was surrounded by woods and fields,and I spent a lot of time in them.This page made me think of those days, and how much I love the emotions they evoke. 

A few years ago, I found parts of a moth in my garage that had gone to moth heaven. They didn't match up to make a whole,and are so fragile, so I gently glued them on the page. 

To add visual interest I applied the following: mica flakes, micro beads, seed beads,sequins, a few Swarovski crystals,rhinestones, feathers from my yard,metal glitter, pearls, part of a broken pearl necklace,rusty metal pieces from Finnabair,lichen, shells, birch tree bark(a neighbor told me never to peel it off the tree because that could hurt the tree, so these are pieces I found on the ground by it.),lichen,dried moss, and gauze threads.

The bee by the left of the photo is from 49 and Market. I got a few pieces of paper from my LSS,there was one with just cut outs on it of fairies and things.

The cherry blossom chipboard is from Dusty Attic. 

I love the way pressed flowers look on a page.

You can see some foliage to the left of the Prima flower that's from 49 and Market.

The hummingbird is from an old calendar.

You can see copper mica powder to the left of the feather, I've been hoarding it for years, and use it very sparingly.Maybe I can find more online. It's from Jaquard at Hobby Lobby. It's coarser and shinier than regular mica powder. I used it there and around the page in a various areas. 

to the right of the grey feather at the bottom of the page I used a leaf stamp from a Shimmerz set. I used green chalk ink, and used it several more times around the page. 

See Beauty Everywhere

Hi everyone! Melissa here with a dt page for the March moodboard at Mixed Media Warriors.

I was inspired by the almost summery feel of the photos.

To make this page I took a piece of Blue Fern paper and glued it onto a piece of cardboard,so that it would be free standing when I took photos, and also to help prevent warping. I painted it with mat medium so the paper didn't soak up the paint. I applied a thick layer of texture paste using a TCW stencil, with a credit card. Starting from the top layer I have the photo, cardstock, foam core board, watercolor paper, and two more layers of foam board. 

I dyed a piece of gauze an inch bigger than the photo with Shimmerz paints and Distress ink. I cut a hole in the middle of the gauze and worked it around the photo.  

I painted the Dusty Attic and 2 Crafty chipboard with Steampunk Copper by Finnabair, then topped it with Rock Candy Crackle.

The background is painted with mostly Shimmerz paints, in greens and purples. The very pale pink on the watercolor paper behind the photo is called Dear John Letter. 

The flowers are Prima and 49 and Market. The metal leaf is Vintaj. The fussy cut pieces are Graphic 45. The little white butterflies at the top of the photo are from Pion.

I painted on colors, and when I was done, I sponged on gesso to create more negative space,because the page was looking too busy. I took a dry paint brush and put small amounts of gesso on and brushed it over different raised areas, to create more contrast and add some light.

The title sticker is from 7 Dots. I added broken jewelry, a charm, rhinestones, pearls,lace, and more.

The metal round piece at is from Tim Holtz.

The purple flatback crystals are Swarovski, the brad is Tim Holtz. There's some gold leaf, and small pieces of metallic Tresors de Luxe lace. The metal at the left hand corner of the photo is from Finnabair. I also added tulle, metal glitter, distress glitter, micro beads, seed beads, Tim Holtz gold rub ons, a 7 Dots title sticker, dried flowers, sequins, strings from the gauze, and tiny rhinestones. I used a Prima stamp and did a few random areas with black ink.

The very pale pink to the left of the photo is Dear John Letter Inklingz, a very smooth,creamy, shimmery watercolor paint. I love that color! The brown on the page is Winsor and Newton watercolor.

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great week! I hope you are inspired to make an entry to the March challenge!

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!