A New Year and New Challenges

Hello Everyone

I don't really make New Year Resolutions but I have resolved to stretch myself this year and do some different things, apart from the normal cards, tags and chunky ATCs.  I have also resolved to use up all the products lying in my cupboards, untouched and unloved, or things that I bought on a whim, thinking it would come in useful one day..........

Now, I hope you will forgive me but I have a new computer, brand new yesterday and I have not yet figured out how to edit my photos with it, so my photos may appear quite amateurish - and uncropped - sorry, I will eventually work it all out.  However, if you click on the photos you will see them better.

In my stash, lay a Journal, unloved and never used together with some stencils, embossing paste and some Fresco Finish paint together with my newish Wendy Vecchi stamps and some Tim Holtz stamps that I have never opened - shocking I know!  So I set off to make some journal pages.  It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be, it was very messy and I learned that you need to clean stencils immediately after using them with embossing paste........but that's another story.

I started by coating the pages with Gesso, then Fresco Paint in Mermaid, stuck on some ripped pages from an old dictionary and I then smudged some white acrylic paint all over to add some contrast.  I randomly stamped a harlequin design using Peacock Feathers distress ink.  I outlined a few of the harlequin shapes with a black pen.  I took a Crafter's Workshop stencil and used matte black Dreamweaver embossing paste to create a random design.  I really love the contrast of the black against the blue.

I stamped four Wendy Vecchi hearts in Ranger Black Archival ink, cut them out, then triple embossed with clear embossing powder and added these to my pages.  I added the Tim Holtz saying - 'Wishes are the magic in our heart that cause beautiful things to happen'.












To finish off I drew a squiggly line around both pages with a black fine-line pen.

I am entering this into Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge where the challenge is to Embrace the Old and which can be something old or can simply be stuff that's been around a long time or has been forgotten about.  Check on both those counts!  There is a $50 prize draw and the DT will choose their favourite pieces too.

I am also entering this into Pan Pastel UK Challenge 2 which is New Year - New Technique.  This suits my effort as I have never done Journal pages properly before, nor have I successfully  used embossing paste, or  paints to create a background on paper so I think my entry qualifies.  The prize is a starter kit of Pan Pastels and the winner will be randomly chosen.

Thank you for looking and double thanks if you leave me a comment!  Hugs, Anne x