If it makes you happy...

(Of course now I have that darned Sheryl Crow song stuck in my head, lol)

Over on the Simon Says Stamp & Show Challenge blog today the new theme is "whatever makes you happy". I had to give this one a bit of thought - I guess I need to spend more time thinking about what makes me happy, I didn't have a clue at first! LOL I decided in the end that what makes me happy in a crafting way is have a good old messy play, and trying things for the first time.

There were a couple of things that I'd had at the back of my mind to try but hadn't gotten around to, and I decided to try them out with this piece. The first was using distress ink directly onto wood, which I did on the frame. I stamped on the frame and then applied distress inks with a foam applicator. It worked really well, but I felt it was a little too bold for the effect I wanted and distracted from the main piece, so I knocked it back by sponging some white paint on top of it.

The other thing I tried out was using dried-out, ink-stained baby wipes that I had used on earlier projects. I stamped onto it in a couple of places used it as a sheer layer to mask some stamping in another area. A word of warning - if you try this, be very careful if you dry it with your heat gun, the material shrivels up at the slightest overheating!

The background was inked, spritzed, dried, water-stamped, stamped and just generally beat up a bit :) As ever, click on the image to see a larger view. All comments appreciated! :)

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $25 gift voucher again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try?