Can This Mess Be Saved?

I remember from years ago a regular feature in a woman's magazine called "Can This Marriage Be Saved?". While this is not nearly as serious as that, sometimes I wonder if I can salvage some of the messes I create.

This started out as a blank canvas and as usual, I had no idea where I was  going with it. I started gluing down some random pieces of torn newspaper and messing around with paint and stencils. At this point, it looks like it's ready for the trash bin! Now there are times when I will give up on a card, but I figure that if I just keep going, I can always rescue a canvas. 

I soldiered on, adding more layers of paint, glaze, and stenciling. When I was happy with the background, I had to figure out what the point of the canvas would be. I had a new set of bird stamps (Ranger Dina Wakley Scribbly Birds) that I was anxious to use, so I decided my canvas needed a bird. I stamped the bird on watercolor paper with Ranger Archival black ink and colored it with watered down Distress Inks. Then I cut around the body (I didn't try to save the legs since they'd be almost impossible to cut out). I had some newspaper that had been used to protect my work surface when spraying inks, so I die cut some leaves using Tim Holtz' Tattered Leaves. I glued them down starting at the top left corner, trying to create the impression of falling leaves. I freehand sketched a branch as a perch for my bird and filled it in with some brown paint, then glued the bird down allowing the tail to hang off the edge of the canvas.

I chose a scripture from Psalm 98:1, stamping each letter with an alphabet set I've got. After cutting all the letters out, I glued them into place and called it finished. I hope you enjoyed this - it was a lot of fun to see it finally come together!

I'm linking this up to the current Craft Stamper Magazine's "Colour" challenge. Wish me luck!

Immi

Stenciling + Stamping

I'm squeaking in under the wire here for a submission to this month's Make It Take It Challenge with Craft Stamper Magazine.

The only requirement is to incorporate stencils. I chose to use a couple of stencils to create the green and purple background. First, I used a piece of sequin waste. I applied Distress Peeled Paint ink with an ink blending tool through the holes to some white cardstock. Then I selected a Heidi Swapp stencil and sprayed her Color Shine spray in Amethyst on top of what I'd already stenciled.

The sentiment is from a new Mama Elephant stamp set I recently ordered (Merci). I stamped it on a smaller piece of white cardstock with Hero Arts Black dye ink. Then I stitched it down the left side of the panel onto some black paper. 

The Merci set also includes a few small flowers and leaves. I stamped those on a scrap of white cardstock, also using the Hero Arts Black ink. I cut them out and layered them onto my stenciled background using Glossy Accents.

To help my stenciled background stand out against the white cardstock base, I mounted it onto some black paper with a subtle grid pattern.

Till next time,

Immi