Hello! I am so excited to be a Guest Designer for Poppystamps and their challenge for March. I am truly honored that Designer Rachel Duong thought of me and asked if I’d be interested. We met a few years ago when I taught at a retreat in Seattle, and she was such a lovely person. The Poppystamps Challenge for March is Mixed Media. I’m sure you know I was delighted about that! I have so. many. layers. on this card…it was a total blast to make.
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So there’s a lot going on here, and like I said, many layers. But stick with me and you’ll see exactly what I did. I decided to work with the really cool Basic Junk Journal Die Set. There are a ton of awesome dies in this set! I only used 3 from it today. I die cut those 3 little shapes over and over out of white cardstock. Then I adhered them to another piece of Strathmore’s Smooth Bristol Cardstock, in a diagonal pattern. Once the glue was dry, I used white gesso over the entire panel so that it would accept the paints and inks I was about to add to it.
This is the panel before I added the gesso.
Once the gesso was dry, I applied patches of color using Distress Paints in Saltwater Taffy, Lumberjack Plaid, Lost Shadow, and Salvaged Patina. Before the colors dried, I sprayed the panel with water to help get them to move and dilute a bit. Next, I flicked on some Saltwater Taffy Distress Oxide Spray.
Once that all dried, I grabbed some Copper Embossing Paste and the Halloween Stripes stencil from A Colorful Life Designs and added some of the patterns here and there on the panel. This added some great texture and shine.
After that dried, I flicked on some Turquoise Shimmer Mister from DecoArt, which added a nice deep color that the panel really needed. I needed more texture, so I sprinkled on Salvaged Patina Distress Embossing Glaze on top of some drips of Distress Resist Spray. I wanted puddles of color…almost a watery effect. I heat set the Glaze and it looked exactly how I envisioned. I inked the edges of the panel with VersaMark Ink, then sprinkled Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel in Interference Blue. It’s got a low sheen, and the color is so cool. The panel was finished!
I moved on to the Nordic Bird, also from Poppystamps. This bird is so sweet! I ink smooshed on 3 pieces of Smooth Bristol cardstock. One was Saltwater Taffy Oxide with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink, one was Broken China Distress Oxide and Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink, and the third was Saltwater Taffy Oxide again, with Kitsch Flamingo Distress Ink. I die cut the Nordic Bird 3 times, and pieced it all together. I stored the extra parts in with my die to use at a later date.
I used a very old piece of pattered paper for the bird to rest on and I tore up the edges a bit for more texture. My sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp and CZ Design Simple Sentiments No. 1 set. I stamped it with Chianti VersaFine Clair Ink and then sprayed it with Saltwater Taffy Distress Spray Stain. I inked my card base with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.
I really love how this card turned out. Playing with all of those layers and textures is so much fun for me. I am so pleased with how the initial background came out with the die cuts. They created such a cool pattern. I hope you’ll play along with Poppystamps‘ Mixed Media challenge this month. You can find all of the details HERE. Thank you to Poppystamps and to Rachel for having me as a Guest this month. I am truly grateful. Thanks so much for stopping by. Have an inspiring day!
Thank you so much for your kind words!