Guest Designer for Words 2 Craft By

Hello!  I’m thrilled to have been invited by the extremely awesome and talented ladies at “Words 2 Craft By” to be a Guest Designer on their blog for their September/October challenge!  Also, this is very special to me because it’s my very first time as a Guest Designer!!  Please stop by Words2craftby.blogspot.com to check out their site and the amazing and inspiring samples made by the team for the current challenge: 

“Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best they can possibly be”.   Rita Pierson

There are many people who could fit this description, but since it’s back-to-school time,  I thought a teacher would be a great example.  I think most of us have had at least one or two teachers who were special and motivated us to do our best.

 With so much going on in this 8×10 canvas, it will probably be a lengthy and picture-heavy post (sorry!).  I’ve had “Learning Curves” paper by Bo Bunny for years and decided to finally use it.  Since my paper is all 12×12, I did have to copy and re-size some of it.  Originally, I wanted to use the back of the canvas….I even made a few embellishments I hoped to use.  I love the chalkboard – the actual paper is green and I reduced/copied it in black when I was extremely low on ink – love how it turned out.  I wanted to put the teacher on the left and a student on the right, but got overly ambitious and it didn’t all fit.  

On to Plan B….I picked out 5 of the papers I wanted to use.  Usually I’ve seen mixed media canvas with the papers torn into much smaller pieces, but I thought it wouldn’t look right on an 8×10, so I tore my paper into strips.  After inking with Vintage Photo distress ink (I pretty much use that on everything!) and adhering with Ranger Multi Medium Matte, I applied a thin layer of gesso over the canvas to tone it down.  When that was dry, I used my Tim Holtz Schoolhouse stencil and texture paste (mixed with Black Soot distress ink) to add the numbers.  I wanted to add one more set, but not enough space.  The last thing I did when it was all dry was to use my Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush Pen around the perimeter and the torn edges for a little more depth and definition.

I’ve been on a bit of  Julie Nutting Doll kick lately.  The dolls I used were:  Natalie (teacher), the new Catgirl, and Aidan – Aidan was one big stamp and he had to be reduced to about 85% to work with the other 2.  I used patterned and Kraft-core paper for his outfit, using distress inks to color wash the patterned papers so they weren’t too pristine, and to make the jeans look more like denim.    Also, since I first inked around the edges with my Ground Espresso distress marker, that bled into the colors a little bit when I added the water.  I did the same process for the teacher and little girl’s clothes (little girl’s bow is from the Elizabeth Craft Designs Props 1 die set).  Her shirt and his pants were from Tim Holtz Seasonal Paper Stash, using the reverse, “distressed” side of the paper.  I love the boy’s tennis shoes – Kraft-Core paper and laces added with a white gel pen.

For the hair, I used my Prismacolor colored pencils and blended with Gamsol.  I used 2-3 colors on each, but didn’t write down which ones I used.  Coloring hair is not easy for me to do, but these turned out okay.

My very favorite thing on this canvas is the armoire – love how it turned out!  This is from the Julie Nutting Armoire tag pad, but I copied and reduced to about 80 or 85%.  I made 2 copies so that I could cut out extra panels and make a shelf.  I cut the doors open, cut out the drawers, inked (Vintage Photo) and used my distress tool around the edges of all pieces, then inked a little more.  From the papers that I had copied and reduced, I cut out the contents of the armoire and drawers – except for the globe, which is from the Prima School Memories wood embellishment set (this was colored with distress inks and bits of silver foil was added.  A reduced map from a previous project was glued behind the open areas). 

For the “open” drawers, I used pop dots.  The top drawer has one  layer of dots, and the bottom drawer has 2 layers so it could extend beyond the top drawer. 

My armoire needed a little something extra, so I embossed the door panels with a flourish design – I think I used a Darice embossing folder.  I distressed and inked the edges, and added flat pearls for the knobs – these were white, but I colored them with a black Sharpie (you can recolor white pearls with any alcohol marker).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my sentiment, I cut out a tag from my papers, inked, stenciled the little heart with distress inks (of course!)  and then applied Tim Holtz Distress Vintage Collage Medium so it wasn’t so white overall. 

I think that about covers it!  Thanks so much for stopping by, and please feel free to leave comments.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

http://scrap-creations1.blogspot.com/2016/08/going-grey-with-scrap-creations.html

http://craftingmusketeers.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/welcome-to-challenge-41-back-to-school.html

http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.com/2016/09/septembers-challenge-back-to-school.html

http://blog.emeraldcreek.org/2016/09/happy-anniversary-pt1-super-heroe-style.html

http://www.happylittlestampers.com/2016/09/hls-september-mixed-media-challenge.html