Burn

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is "Anything Goes", which gives you the chance to shake yourself free of any constraints or limitations and just let your imaginations run wild!  Why not create something for the Challenge and you could be the winner of a $50 voucher to shop at Simon Says Stamp.

I spoke a few weeks ago about how I try to be so careful with my favorite stamps in an effort not to over-use them.  The last thing I want to do is get bored with something that I previously loved!  That's why, with this art journal page, I went all out to give David a more up-to-date look.  I think the shaved head thing suits him, don't you?  This piece was inspired to some extent by the song I listened to while I worked - Burn by Ellie Goulding - that's where the words in the piece are taken from.

I started out by applying Fired Brick distress ink to my background with an ink blending tool.  The circles from the Psychedelic Grunge set were misted with water and then stamped to give a lighter design.  I actually stamped one set using stamp cleaner rather than water, so see if there was a difference - there wasn't.  Ya don't find out if ya don't try! :)

I stamped David on scrap paper and cut out and kept everything above his ear.  This was used as a mask - I placed it on a 2nd piece of white paper and stamped the head on top of it so that only the bottom part of the design created an impression.  I drew in the top edge of the head by hand and then cut out the whole thing.  Mustard Seed distress ink provided the colour for his face.  I applied it with an ink blending tool and took care not to get any on his eye.  I decided where it would go on my journal page, then moved it a half inch to the right and held it in place while I blended Gathered Twigs distress ink down the right hand edge, darkening the side of the face and some of the background.  

I tore up pieces of Tattered Time cardstock and fixed them to the right hand edge of my page.  While the head was temporarily in place after making the shadow I inked the sun rays stamp with Mustard Seed d.i. and stamped them on the background.  I fixed the head in it's final position at the left of the page and used a white pen to trace along the line created when I used the head as a mask.

The notepaper was stamped onto printer paper, fed through my printer and the text was printed onto it.  I cut it out and fixed it in place.  All the stars (so useful to have it in two sizes!) were stamped with Fired Brick ink onto scrap card, cut out and fixed in place.

That's all there is to it :)  I really love this piece, I hope you do too!

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!

I Can See Clearly Now

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is "Transparent".  I opted to focus on the transparent areas of stamped images and tissue tape for this card, which I made for a friend's birthday.  Why not create something for the Challenge and you could be the winner of a $50 voucher to shop at Simon Says Stamp.

I started out by misting my cardstock with water before dabbing distress stains onto it in Mustard Seed, Fired Brick and Iced Spruce.  I used black archival ink to stamp the images on top.  The bottom half was white card that I misted with water and rubbed with Mustard Seed stain.  While it was still wet I dripped drops of Fired Brick stain onto the wet card which then bled outwards to create my flower heads.  Once it was dry I used a white pen for the flower centres and a peeled paint distress marker to draw the stems.  I used archival black ink to stamp the phrase from the Simon Says Stamp exclusive stamp set Inside & Out Sayings.

I applied two strips of Merriment tape the the top part of my card, I love how when you place it on a patterned background the white areas of the tape become almost transparent.  Next I tore the sentiment section and fixed it in place before finally matting the whole thing onto gold mirri card (I know it looks black here, but you know how difficult it is to photograph gold!).

Finally the whole thing was mounted on a 5x5 card blank.

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!

Cross My Palm with Silver

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is "Luck".  In her description of the challenge May talked about rainbows with pots of gold and good fortune, so I decided to use rainbow colours and feature fortune telling as part of my theme.  The challenges over at SSS are always really flexible to allow the maximum number of people to take part and so I felt able to go off at a slight tangent with my inspiration. The same goes for you - don't worry if you can't think of anything specifically related to luck, as long as there's even a slight link to the theme you're just fine!  Create something for the Challenge and you could be the winner of a $50 voucher to shop at Simon Says Stamp.

I started out with a manilla tag, I love their smooth surface, so great as a base for stamping and inking.  Using the Bubble layering stencil and some white gesso I created the dots on my tag.  Once they were dry I inked over them with some Fired Brick and Spiced Marmalade distress ink.

I used black archival ink to stamp the hand on the tag.  Once dry I used white gesso to paint over the stamped image, dried it, then stamped teh hand again on top.  I love how you can still faintly see the dots in the background through the hand.

The faces from Wendy Vecchi's It's Face Art set were stamped on scrap card, spritzed with water and then dabbed with colours of distress stain, which wicked and bled, giving the blurred rainbow effect.  I used a white pen to highlight the eyes, cut them out and applied them to the tag.

The stars across the bottom of the tag are a piece of tissue tape from the Merriment set.  The fasteners and the Bingo circle are taken from the Idea-ology Custom Fasteners set.  I've had them for a while but hadn't gotten around to using them until now.  They're so cool with the epoxy domes really giving a great glossy finish to them.  Guess what, I love 'em! :)

The 4 faces I used have a flourish on the top edge which I cut off before mounting them on the tag.  I used that edge of the stamp to give the flourish border across the top.

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!