Start Again

It's March and that means it's time for a new challenge from the Love To Scrap Challenge Blog.  This month the challenge is Anything Goes and our sponsor is Blank Page Muse (formerly Sin City Stamps).

And here is my card for your inspiration:

Mixed Media projects are totally out of my comfort zone, but the stamps sent to me by Blank Page Muse were just begging to be used on such a project.  So, I gave it my best shot and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  I started out with watercolor paper and gelatos: a light blue, brown, coral (which I love because it has a nice shimmer to it) and a tiny bit of gold all of which I mixed with water and painted onto the paper.  After drying it with my heat gun (because I am way too impatient to let it dry on its own), I stamped the bird cage image randomly over the sheet with a dark gray.  Then I randomly stamped the clock face with versmark and heat embossed them with gold embossing powder.  I then used a heart stencil and Black Soot Distress Oxide ink to stencil the lower left hand corner. I heat embossed the bird image with gold embossing powder on a bit of paper I water colored with the coral gelato and fussy cut it out.  I stamped part of the sentiment on a piece of water colored paper painted with the light blue gelato and inked the edges with the black soot distress ink.  I stamped the rest of the sentiment directly on the image panel.  I die cut some clock hands from black and swiped some gold gelato over top to highlight them.  I finished everything off with some clear texture dots and heat embossed the edges of the panel with vintage blue frantage powder.  I love the sparkle in it, you can see the glitter in the photo below.

After I finished my card, I realized that their was a feather in my bits and pieces stash that I had meant to pair with these stamps, so . . . I had to make another card.  Another mixed media type card; I think I'm actually starting to enjoy it. : )  Here is card #2:

I am so excited to finally get to use this feather.  It has been in the stash for a really, really, really long time and I had pretty much despaired of every using it.  But it worked perfectly with these stamps and this style of card.  I used the same coral/peach and light blue gelatos as the first card.  This time I mixed them with a little bit of water and painted stripes on a dry piece of water color paper.  It gives a bolder look.  Then I used some very watered down silver/gray gelato to paint on through a stencil to add a little bit more interest to the background.  Originally I had stamped the sentiment directly onto the background, but it didn't stamp well, so I stamped it onto a scrap piece of water color paper that I had been experimenting on.  The yellow makes me think of a sunrise so it works perfectly with the sentiment.  I die cut a clock face out of vellum and the clock hands out of a light gray, then I smeared some of the coral, blue and yellow gelatos on with my finger to give them a bit of antiquing.  The little heart was in my bits and pieces stash; I colored it with the blue gelato to match.  And the bird was left over from the first card after I decided I wanted to use the gold embossed one.  So, this card uses up a bunch of those little "bits".  

I hope you will get a chance to play along with us this month.  I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:
Card #1:
Stamps: Blank Page Muse "Bird Small Butterflies Flourishes Art Rubber Stamp", "Every Day Is a New Beginning", "Free As a Bird Word Art Stamp", "Steampunk Watch Face" and "Small Vintage Bird Cage"
Dies: PTI "Hands of Time"
Stencil: MFT "Tiled Hearts"

Card #2:
Stamps: Blank Page Muse "Bird Small Butterflies Flourishes Art Rubber Stamp", and "Every Day Is a New Beginning"
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 25" stitched rectangle; PTI "Hands of Time"; Sweet n' Sassy Stamps heart die
Stencil: Stamplorations "Flourishes"

Challenges:
Card #1
Blank Page Muse--blue, hearts and time
Sweet Stampers #11--things with wings
Southern Girls--nature
Creative Fingers #143--anything goes
heARTful Stamping--anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday--in my garden
Shopping Our Stash #343--stashed stencils
Addicted to Stamps #281--anything goes


Card #2
Inspiration Destination #145--anything goes
Crafty Creations #361--anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #324--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--anything goes
Crafty Gals Corner #160--anything goes
Penny's Challenge #369--anything goes