What Should Girls Read?

When I was cleaning and organizing the garage last month I ran across a couple shadowbox frames that Jay made me for a project many years ago.  I decided I either needed to use them or get rid of them. 

Today's project is the result of that "use 'em up" decision. 

The frame opening is 12 x 12" to fit a page of scrapbook paper.  I painted the frame with Black Soot Distress Paint and let that dry while I decided on the paper for the background.
I chose this one from the Correspondence Paper Stash because of the great graphic and the gray tone.  Once it was glued down, I added a thin coat of MM over the top to seal the paper.
Once dry, I added Distress Paint Hickory Smoke and Vintage Photo to the surface, manipulating the paint with a wet wipe to control the opacity.  I wanted to see the graphic through the paint.

While the paint was drying, I dug through my ephemera and picked out a report card from 1913-1914 I had been saving.  I also cut out a few pictures from the idea-ology Photobooth Strips.  Since I'm going with a vintage look... I must have Vial Labels included in the mix!

I also cut the Sizzix Globe Thinlit (my favorite die) from Distress watercolor cardstock. 

I colored the globe with Tumbled Glass and Fossilized Amber Distress Stain and added it to the shadowbox with Multi Medium.

 Hickory Smoke Distress Paint worked well to grunge up the globe a bit.

 And then a Walnut Stain Distress marker to add depth.

Here is the finished collage.

 (please click on photo to enlarge)

When I was going through the small stack of saved ephemera I found a page that said. "what should girls read?"  It was an advertisement for a woman traveling the country, talking to girls about books and reading different subjects.  That one phrase, cut from the page, was the catalyst for the rest of the piece.  I took out the pictures of men I planned on using and replaced them with more pictures of women of different ages.  The string starts with the arrow pointing to the phrase and then winds around to each woman, like information passed along as we read, learn and share.

 The rest of the photos are just closeups.  Hope you enjoy!

Adornment arrow + gold alcohol ink
Dual Duty Button and Carpet thread

Picket Fence Distress paint was used to frame the photos.

The tiny names are also found ephemera (one of my favorite finds to date).  I first used them here last October.  Maybe I should have made a copy before I started cutting them up because I sure don't want them to end!

Vial Labels + Remnant Rubs

Writing done with a Stabilo pencil

Hope this gives you some inspiration to make something on the fly.  Nothing planned, just a small bit of ephemera.  You will never know what the words you find will lead you to create.

Carry on,
paula

InLinkz.com

Seasonal Stamper Anonymous 2

I'm back today with more Stampers Anonymous Christmas cards!

Lets start of with one of my favorite sets - Scribbly Christmas.   The trees are all about 2 1/2" high....and really, the two sentiment fonts?  Can't even express how much I like those!

I used Distress Markers to color the tree image then lightly misted it with water before stamping onto the Watercolor cardstock.  The red stamped background was created using the Plaid & Nordic background stamp set.

There is a stamped star at the top of the tree image but I did not color it in, instead choosing to add the small mirrored star in it's place.  I also used the Distress Marker Spritzer and Fossilized Amber Distress Marker to speckle the background.

There are two new Snowflake stamps.  This one is called Mini Weathered Winter and I like it because the varying sizes of snowflakes.  Small tags, large cards? ...it does not matter, there is a snowflake that will work. 

I chose to change up the traditional Christmas colors and use Tumbled Glass ink with silver embossing powder for the snowflakes.

I also added a Gumdrop to the sentiment flag.  I colored the Gumdrop with Pool Alcohol Ink.  Once dry, I lightly pounced over the tops of the little dots with Silver Mixative Alcohol Ink for a bit of metallic shine.

The Ranger Silver Embossing powder worked great on the snowflakes!

I also made tags using the Scribbly Christmas set and the Mini Halftone set.

I used different manila size tags and made other shapes like the circle and oval using the Sizzix Thinlits die - Labels.

Mini Half Tone set + Platinum Stickles buttons

"Scribbly" tree stamped with Distress Markers

Plaid stamp done on the bias + tree stamped with Distress Markers

Festive Berries Distress Ink + water makes for a faded vintage background (Nordic stamp).  Tree stamped in Archival Jet Black and colored with Distress Markers and detailer water brush.

My very favorite tag...that plaid background on the bias again.  This time Festive Berries Distress Ink on the stamp + water misted over the top to get a watercolor look.  The large Mirrored Star colored with Mushroom Alcohol Ink is the center piece!

Both tags cut from the Labels Thinlits set.  

Oval tag - images from the Mini Half Tone stamp set embossed with Gold. 

Mini Half Tones set + Archival Ink

Scribbly Christmas - tree stamped in Jet Black Archival + words in gold embossing powder + flicked with Picket Fence Distress Paint to create the snow background.

Added Crinkle Ribbon, Paper String, Red and White Trimmings and Typed Tokens to finish.

Well I hope you liked the stamp sets - so much fun getting to use them!  Even though I know July is not the time I want to be thinking about Christmas, it is the time I start getting ideas for cards, tags, gift wrapping.  Otherwise, December sneaks up on me and I'm not prepared!  It has happened more than once around here!

carry on,
paula

InLinkz.com