Soul Scrappers Challenge

Hello!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO YOU!

I'm usually running around like a crazy person getting ready for our son's Birthday.  But today, it's 

super quiet on the home front.  We've celebrated birthdays at our home for a long time, 

and this is quite a change.

Our son is overseas, but that didn't stop him from making

requests on what he wanted for his Birthday.  :)

I'm so happy to announce that my layout has been featured on Soul Scrappers!

It's so totally exciting!!  I will always get excited about getting an email saying my

layout has been featured on their site!!

This Challenge is the "Sew Simple Sketch Challenge - GDT2"

Below is the sketch that must be used, but you can rotate it any way you'd like.

The Extra Criteria:  Add either some machine stitching, hand stitching or doodle stitching into

the design, making sure it's clearly visible.

I have to say the most challenging is finding a photo or photos for a particular layout and 

deciding what I'm going to use for embellies on the layout.  The rest just falls into place naturally.

Must be why they call it a "Challenge," right?  Hee Hee

Here's the direct link to their Sketch Challenge:

http://soul-scrappers.ning.com/forum/topics/gdt2-sew-simple-sketch-challenge-due-31st-july

The challenge runs until July 31st.

Here's the link to their site:  http://soul-scrappers.ning.com/

You may want to hop on over to their site and check things out.  You may even decide

to participate in this challenge.  Now that would be cool!

After some deliberation, this is my interpretation of the sketch.

This photo was taken right outside my door on a cold December evening.

What a view!  It even surprised me! 

Supplies used:

Paper: Momenta, DCWV

Chipboard, Embroidery Floss, Needle

Circles: Traced from various objects

Ribbons, Ric Rac, Flowers, Bic Marker

Folk Art Paint

Ink: Adirondack Purple Twilight

Various Embossing Powders

Heat Gun

I decided on upper and lower case chipboard letters to hopefully go along with the

title of "Unsettled."

First I painted the letters one at a time and added embossing powder.  

If I put too much paint, then it bubbled, which created a unique effect.  When I wanted a

smoother letter, I used less paint.  Kinda cool to have different textures simply by using more 

or less paint!  My heat gun determined how much "bubbling" also.  If I kept it on the letter

for longer, then it would become smooth.

Below is a close up of some letters.  I even mixed the embossing powder on a couple of the

letters.  And, there's a reason why I did that.  I had all the embossing powders open and beside one another for easier access.  Well, I was hurrying (I can't remember why) and accidentally poured the wrong color in one!  So, after scooping what I could out of the jar, I just mixed the remaining in with the right color.

So, when I used this color, it was mixed, so I went with it and this is what the "T" looked like.

I used clear embossing powder on a couple letters, but decided I would try white embossing instead.

I just added a little paint with white embossing and the effect looked like fluffy snow (see the "e" below).  That was cool!

Just a close up of my flower, creating layers of different flowers.

I wanted to do something different with the center of the flowers.  Seeing all my stuff all

layered around me, I saw the ric rac and eyed that for awhile and decided to snip a small

piece and holding on to one end I kind of "shredded" it with my finger, then attached it

to the center of the flower.  I like how it turned out.

A close up of the different ribbons I used.  You can see the small piece of the ric rac 

on the bottom of the photo. 

I used various objects I found in my craft room and pierced the holes around them.  Then searched 

for the right embroidery floss.  Once I had all the circles sewed, I didn't like the look, so I 

stitched different colors randomly on the circles and liked that much better.

The rectangle is chipboard.  At first I colored it with a Sharpie marker.  Then I added purple

ink and used clear embossing powder.  That would do for awhile, but then I decided it 

needed more.....  Yup, that's what I do.  :)

So I pressed it into the ink again and added white embossing powder.  This is the look I wanted!

I went with that. 

I wanted the ribbons "hidden" on one end so I tucked them just under the chipboard.

A flower trio finished off this part of the layout.

The sketch showed a photo in this area, but I knew I only wanted to use the one photo.  That's

really all that was needed.  Anymore photos would have taken away from the main photo. 

Well, this is my very long post for today.  Hope you enjoyed!

Have a wonderful day, celebrating Independence!

Polly  :)