Imagine, Inspire, Create

Hello everyone, and welcome!  I'm here on my first official duties for The Artistic Stamper.  The new monthly challenge starts today, and - what could be more perfect? - the theme is Words.

So here's my little piece of inspiration for you...  If you visit the Creative Team blog, you'll find lots more inspiration from some of my fellow team mates, as well as all the challenge (and prize) details.

It's a busy day today, so if you're looking for my GD piece for Country View Challenges, it's here.

And don't forget today is the launch of the first challenge at the all-new Our Creative Corner (thankfully I'm not on duty until halfway through the month, or I'd've been on a hat-trick of posts today!).  

I'm not going to go in to how much cursing and swearing was involved in the making of this but, you can take it from me, there were plenty of Words involved that I shouldn't repeat here in Craftyblogland!  


But the words we're really focused on here come from the Journalling Words II plate, and from one of the lovely Calligraphy Mats (mini 19, in case you're interested). 


I started with one of the delicious papier-mâché hanging boards - the small size (which is about 5 x 2 inches and half an inch deep).







Alert followers will notice that this is the second hanging board in a row, but I so enjoyed making the first one that I dived (dove?) straight back in.  (Click that link if you want to see what it looked like before I started playing.)

For this piece, I turned the board on its side and snipped off the original hanging twine.  I painted it with Distress Paints in Picket Fence and Antique Linen, then sanded back the edges for a slightly shabbier look.  










Then some inking - of course! - with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.  I love the chalky, aged look of the finish, like a medieval fresco on a plaster wall.

I randomly added some of the Calligraphy, stamped in Coffee Archival - I love this stamp.













The central words are embossed with Wow embossing powder onto kraft paper.

I did some more inking, and a little bit of spritz and flick, as well as sanding the surface and scratching it with the Craft Scratcher for a little extra texture.

I added some Vintage Photo DP to one of the Idea-ology Philosophy Tags, wiped it back to leave the word Imagine highlighted, then fastened it to a twiggy heart with some rusty wire.











The wooden "logs" I picked up in the cheapy shop, Kik, here in CZ (always a useful bargain to be found to add to the stash).  

They've also had a lick of DP and some inking so that they tone in with the rest of the piece.

Then it was just a question of roping the whole thing together with some burlap twine and some more rusty wire... and this is where the cursing came in.









The brilliantly simple idea in my head turned out to be a little more complicated to put into action than I'd thought.  And curling the rusty wire was, for once, more of a pain than a pleasure!

In the end, I had to press some tissue tape into service to hold things in place.  

Since it was doing an "engineering" job, I used the da Vinci-esque tape full of cogs and gears... so I actually rather like the look of the back of it too - purely accidental, I assure you!!












There were a number of points during this make where I thought I might have to chuck it all in and start again, so I'm thankful that - in the end - I do love where it's finished up.  

I hope it inspires you to jump in and create something for the Words challenge at The Artistic Stamper this month... just make sure that what you imagine is workable in real life before you start!!




Thanks so much for stopping by today, and sharing in the first step of this new journey with me.  Your generous comments and feedback always put a huge smile on my face, and I'm so grateful for your continued support. 

Do one thing every day that scares you.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Ingredients used (click to go shopping!): 
Journalling Words II
Mini Calligraphy Mat 19
Papier mache icon, small
Distress Paints: Antique Linen, Picket Fence, Vintage Photo
Distress Inks: Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain
Wow Embossing Powder
Idea-ology Philosophy Tag
Hemp twine
Tissue Tape, Commute
Retractable Craft Scratcher
Twiggy hearts, rusty wire, and wood sticks from my stash


I'd like to enter this in the following:
Fashionable Stamping Challenge's current Sentimental challenge
At My Time To Craft, they are Using Kraft
At the Vintage Udfordring they would like to see Paint or Gesso - my background and logs are painted for the shabby chic vintage look