A Background Check???

You've read it right! It's time to do a thorough investigation at Simon Says Stamp & Show this week...of your stamps that is! It's no secret that I am an avid collector, lover, and user of stamps (I know you all are as well!). I especially love my background stamps, and seem to use them the most, not only for backgrounds, but to add bits of them here and there on projects. I also love to take a whole collection of stamps that go together and make my own background papers. So with all this in mind, your challenge this week is to use a "Background" stamp in some way, shape, or form on a project. You can also use any stamp you’ve got to create a clever background design as well. The possibilities are endless!

You are in for a wild time with this card's background! I've used a whole stamp set, as well as two different background images to create the whole base for this card. Nothing else is needed here, except a closure, and a recipient. I made this birthday card for a very dear girlfriend of mine who is tough as nails!

Using Ranger's Watermark Resist, I stamped Wendy's Honeycomb image (Now chickenwire!) over the whole card. I love using Watermark Resist, as it's very subtle.

Using Tim's Wild West Stamp Set, I began stamping the Star border in Jet Black Archival and heat embossing it with Ranger's Clear Powder.

I stamped the rest of the images from the set and heat embossed those as well, and used Unity's Melody Ross Brave Girl Boots as well.

I wanted some white in there for a pop, so I stamped the paisley in Snow Cap and then heat embossed it.

I used a paintbrush and painted a few larger areas of the images in with Distress Paint.

I couldn't leave Distress Paint on the craft mat or wipe it away, so out came clean up tags. The clean up will make gorgeous backgrounds for sure.

I stamped Wendy's Heirloom Flower background image in Picket Fence Distress Paint over a few areas on the card outside and on the inside pocket, where I will stick in a few goodies.

Dyan's Calypso Teal finished this background off. All the areas painted with Distress Paint and the heat embossed resisted the spray. On the places where I left a little embossing powder, it made a distressed look since the paper was kraft. I love the look.

For the card that I would write on, I first stamped Wendy's background Flower stamp with Watermark Resist, then I made a marbled background with Barn Door, Antique Linen, and Picket Fence Distress Ink. The flowers barely show through. I love it!

I gave the inside a white wash with Picket Fence Distress Stain. I inked the edges in Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Words came next. Chit Chat Stickers and Letters from Salvage Stickers helped out, and I heat embossed the word Wild using Jet Black and Clear Embossing Powder. I also colored the stickers a little with Calypso Teal to match the outside a little, and inked the edges in Walnut Stain Distress.

I found a leather strap in my stash, and thought it would make a perfect western belt, especially using Tim's new Buckle pieces and Ring Fasteners as adornments. Then I thought some gears would make great conchos, and of course every cowgirl needs her name on the back of her belt...right??? ;0) YEEHAW!!!

 

 

Do you love to stamp? Do you have favorites that you use all the time to make or use in your backgrounds? If so, create some type of Art using these stamps to make a gorgeous background, and enter it into our challenge. You just might be the lucky winner of a $50 voucher to Simon Says Stamp. You can also be named as one of the "Top Three Picks" for this challenge. Good luck, and you won't have to dig deep to see what's in the other DT member's backgrounds. Just go visit their blogs to see!

 

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9 = Peacock

Feathers keep showing up all over the projects at Simon Says Stamp & Show, in addition to the usual lovely birds that love to flock onto craft projects of all sizes and styles. So it only makes since to have a challenge for it. This week we’re "Flying". It is up to you if you choose to jump onto the feather trend, from charms to paper accents to stamps, or you can just put a bird on it. You can even take the challenge more loosely and take a different soaring approach with just blue skies, or talk about what you feel like when you’re on cloud 9 in your art journal, or even use a metal bird (aka an airplane) on your project. Whatever approach you take, we can’t wait to see how you spread your wings and fly creatively this week.

Ah the peacock...probably the most gorgeous bird in the land, the male that is. He can't fly far, but the beauty of his feathers make up for any self-esteem problems he may have. I love the deep beautiful jewel toned colors in the peacock's feathers, and I tried to mimic those tones here, but as you can see this bird is sort of strange looking. That is because I used all 10 of the numbers in the Tim Holtz Numeric Stamp Set from Stamper's Anonymous to create the body of this peacock. WHY did I do that??? Well...it's a sweet story. When I was little, my mother who was not a very good drawer, but who knew I loved to draw all the time, and all over everything, would sometimes take a napkin and write letters and numbers on it, and then would connect them to form pictures for me. I always squealed in delight. My favorite was the first one she showed me how to draw when I was about probably five or six, which of course I also taught my own children.

As I grew older, this became my doodling...usually on the back of the phone book while on the phone for hours...and I'd turn numbers and letters into animals all the time. I made some great ones, and I'd give anything to have those old phone books and memo pads back. They were my first Art Journals! Sigh!

I found this pack of cedar planks in the getting ready to bar-be-que pile, and I swiped them. The gorgeous grain of the wood makes a fabulous base pattern underneath any Art piece. This measures 15x5 1/2 inches. I played with the numbers for a bit and configured them the way I thought best, but even changed them up again before I was through.

I began stamping the numbers on using Ranger's Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers in Stream, Butterscotch, a mixture of Citrus and Bottle, and Eggplant.

I painted in an eye, a beak, and feet. This really helped me to visualize the peacock, although my kids had their opinions. They think it's a turkey. Hey...I tried! I also knew I wanted a tree branch somewhere on here, so I die cut one from Tim's Bird Branch Die from Sizzix using some scrap I had.

I didn't want to paint the body on, because then I would lose my numbers in the process, but I needed color, so it was Dyan's Dylusions to the rescue. I used some paper to help keep it in place. I matched the colors to the paint, so I used Calypso Teal, Pure Sunshine, Fresh Cut Grass, and Crushed Grape. I allowed the Dylusions to sit awhile as this is wood and is porous.

Then it was time for water. I wanted to see if the Dylusions would still blend and run. The answer was yes! I love the properties of wood. I added a little London Blue around the bird. I let this sit now for about an hour and came back and dried it a bit with a heat tool. The grain is still perfectly visible and the color is wonderful.

I traced around the peacock with a pen, and started added some background. I stamped one of my favorite script images from Tim's Letter To Santa Set using a Pearl Dabber.

Then I stamped the mini Alphabet Letters from the Going Somewhere Set using Eggplant.

Next, came the flower from the Floral Tattoo Set using Butterscotch.

Then I finished the background by stamped the sentiment several times in Pitch Black.

Now, it was time to finish up my feathery friend. I stamped Tim's mini peacock feather looking images from Mini Ornates in Jet Black, along with several of the images from Maya Road's Vintage Peacock Feathers Stamp Set.

I gave the feathers some detail with the same colors of paint from the Numbers and added a turquoise colored rhinestone in the center of the main feather to help them pop. I painted the border with of the plaque with Pitch Black to give the piece a frame as well.

Back to the branch...I painted it with Pearl, and embossed it with the Wood Grain Texture Fade.

I painted the buds on the branch with the mixture of green paint, and highlighted the raised areas with Mushroom Pigment Ink. Some gold wire and beads from my stash made a quick hanging to finish this off.

 

 

Do you like birds, feathers, or things to do with flight? If it's your thing, create some type of Art depicting it and enter it into our challenge. You just might be the lucky winner of a $50 voucher to Simon Says Stamp. You can also be named as one of the "Top Three Picks" for this challenge. Good luck, and please visit the other DT member's blogs to see projects that just soar!

 

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!