Fortune favors the bold

Hello everyone,

I have a cool art journal page to share along with a little tutorial.

I created my spread in an old book - the same one that I used for my last project here on the blog. I prepped it by glueing a few pages together but didn't used gesso this time. Instead I chose three Distress Oxide Sprays and sprayed them over the whole spread directly. I dried between each color to avoid them fading into each other. 

Then I added some stamping. In the first layer I stamped the Twilight Zone Spiral with water instead of ink. It reacts with the sprays underneath, but not too much so you get a very subtle effect here. I also used the same stamp with Oxide Ink in Iced Spruce, so it matches with one of the colors from my background. And as I just felt like my page needed a little more contrasting element, I added the Waybill Invoice Background stamp with black ink.

To create my little scene, I stamped and watercolored the girl and the mouse. Then did a little fussy cutting and colored the edges with a black marker to make them blend better into the background.

I wanted some kind of table for the adorable mouse to run over and save its cheese, so I took a piece of design paper with that laths pattern, trimmed it to size (in fact I ripped it over the edge of a ruler to make the edge a little grungy) and blended some Oxide Inks over the edges. 

When I started to put everything together I found that my background was missing something, so I added a few stamped Chevrons and some white splatters and that helped a lot. 

I glued the girl and the "table" directly to the page and used foam tape behind the mouse. To make everything look a little more connected, I added a little shadow under my two protagonists.
For my quote I stamped both text stamps on the same design paper that I used earlier and also glued them in place. Behind the #FOODIE snippet I added some black thread as it was kinda floating in the middle of nowhere.

These are the stamps I used:
#Foodie (20010)
Surprise Girl (5544)
Waybill / invoice background (19416)
Writing Chevron (19824)
Twilight Zone Swirl (20506)
Fortune favors the bold (19949)
Mouse running with cheese (12653)

Other materials:
- Old book (or other journal) 
- Versafine Clair Ink (Nocturne)
- Distress Oxide Spray (Dried Marigold, Faded Jeans, Iced Spruce)
- Distress Oxide Inks (Iced Spruce, Ground Espresso, Black Soot)
- Watercolor
- White acrylic paint
- Design Paper with wood pattern
- Canson Watercolor Paper
- Black thread


That's it for my project. See you soon!

Mail Art Monday... Nursery Rhyme Time

Hello again!!

Its's me Tera here... 

(coming to you from Myrtle beach today!!)

Today I'm here to share how I created this fun and easy envelope inspired by this months inspiration board

Don't forget to check it out and play along with us! 

(link up your project here)

I used the words mouse and numbers to inspire me... Then went a little wild with the story book rhyme "hickory dickory dock" ... Start by stamping out your mouse/rat critter, then masking him off. 

Next stamp the clock over that ... (Also masking it off)....  At this point you begin the background.  

I began with stamping the dot textures around the clock to add depth, and I added the chevrons to create an address label.  Next I inked the background green using various distress inks (crushed olive, mowed lawn, and hints of mustered seed)

For added depth I used black glittered pan pastels around the clock and mouse. I also decided to color in my chevrons with a black glitter wink of Stella pen (just because I wanted to play with it!!! lol) 

(the quote I printed from Microsoft word and used black pen around before gluing down)

Stamps used:

Clockface 3 3/4 x 3 3/4

Creepy Rat With Cheese 2 x 2 1/4

Row of Chevrons 3/4 x 3 1/4

Doodle Dots 2 3/4 x 2 3/4

Thank you for stopping to visit with us! I hope you found some inspiration to kick off a crafty day!!

Mousey Monthly Challenge inspiration

Hello Every one!! 

Tera here today with a little something to inspire you for this months 

monthly inspiration challenge!!! 

(Click HERE to Enter)

The words that inspired me were: weird, different, grey, tan, black, white, neutrals, mice, rays, critters, cheese, numbers, splatters, light bulb, bright ideas, light bulb moment, spritz, distressed and grungy

(Stamps used at bottom of post)

To start I used plain card stock to cut out a tag measuring 2 3/4" x 4 3/4"

Next I stamped my mouse/rat and the set of 3 triangles so that I would have the placement of my focal images.. 

(if you want to make masks this is the time to mask them off... this time I just glued cut outs on top of each of these after I did the background).

now I stamped all of my background images in a kind of randomness... The coffee ring was stamped in distress ink- pumice stone, I also used this to sponge ink onto the entire background. all of the other images were stamped in black ink. (archival and versafine were on my desk today).  I also used the black ink to distress the edges of my tag

(same thing for the back of the tag)

(to make the light bulb Pop and look 3D I edged it in black pan pastels)

For the crinkle ribbon I used vintage photo, pumice stone, and black distress ink on my craft mat with a little water. 

I hope this inspired you to join in our challenge! 

I can't wait to see everyone's creations!!! 

Stamps Used: 

Creepy Rat With Cheese 2 x 2 1/4

Spoiler Alert 3/4 x 1 1/2

You Won't Believe 1 x 3/4

Dictionary Page 4 x 2 1/2

Doodle Dots 2 3/4 x 2 3/4

Numbers Set 2 1/2 x 2

Large Lightbulb 2 x 3

 Writing Triangles 1 1/4 x 3 1.4

Tape X 1 3/4 x 1 3/4

Double Coffee Rings 3 x 3

Six Staples 3/4 x 1 1/2

Plate 1455 (the last 4 above are all from this plate... Honestly this is my must have all time fave plate... so here is the link to it too) 

VLVS! @ CHA!

I had the pleasure of sending some projects to CHA Summer for 2012 in Chicago.. and one *or maybe a few* happen to have had Viva Las VegaStamps! in them...

one would be this teapot Globecraft Memories globe I altered... check it out:

The

Mouse Running With Cheese

4x2.5" - $11.00

was stamped in Memento's Tuxedo Black and embossed with Viva Las VegaStamps's Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder on Kromecote cardstock. The cheese was colored in with the Mustard Seed distress marker (we've got the best deal around on these!!) by Tim Holtz. 

Papers used are from Echo Park's Be Mine collection, and the steam for the teapot is the cotton from a q-tip!