Embrace Imagination

Hello everyone!  I'm very happy to be here with my second post of the day (if you're after the Calico Crafts Guest Design link, it's here)... and delighted to present my DT make for this month's Our Creative Corner challenge.  Over at OCC you can check out what the rest of my amazing teammates have created for this mid-month reminder, and here's my offering.

The Recipe Challenge hosted by the brilliant Jenny (a.k.a. Buttons) is such fun - if you haven't played already, then do give it a whirl.  And if you have already played, come and have another go (to a maximum of three entries only, of course).  There are three lists of ingredients, and you have to use at least one from each list, and let us know what you've used.

List A - Lace, Fabric, Ribbon

List B - Metal, Wood/MDF, Clay

List C - Inks, Paints, Stains

Since I'm only with my crafty stash for half of each week at the moment, those days are under quite a lot of pressure to get done what needs to be done.  

So it was pure pleasure to work with these lists, and just have some play time with some of my favourite things.  No surprise that it ended up being a tag, I guess!

I used A Ribbon, B Metal and C - the full trio - Inks, Paints and Stains, and had a fabulous time.  To be honest, I can't even remember how I started - it looks as though it's wrinkle-free distress technique, with some ink blended over the top.  

And I know there's Broken China and Rusty Hinge Distress Ink involved, and I'm pretty sure some Vintage Photo got in on the act.  But again, the details are rusty (hinge!).  

I certainly did some stencilling, blending ink through the gorgeous Crafter's Workshop Harlequin mask.

And there's some stamping using Broken China Distress Paint with one of Tim Holtz's texture stamps from the Ultimate Grunge set.

I used my "most-favouritest" text stamp of all, from the TH Apothecary set, to add some stamping texture, and some of the magnificent rub-ons for added detailing.

I coveted this La Blanche stamp from the very first moment I saw it, and was lucky enough to get it on offer recently.  Inking it up for the first time was just as pleasurable as I'd hoped. 

Since the background is quite busy, I decided to add some detail clear embossing powder to my Black Archival, so that the image would have extra impact from the glossy dimension the embossing gives it.  

The metal pieces are mostly from Idea-ology, but I think some elements from the Papermania Chronology collection may have snuck in there too (that clock face, for instance).

And I inked up some Idea-ology Chitchat Stickers to go in my Ornate Plate.  

I didn't want to cover up too much of my background (which delights me) by sticking a whole oval of paper inside there.

Then, of course, there are the ribbons... some seam binding dyed with inks, paints and stains.  

The lighter ribbon tying them together has some Distress Paint in the mix, which gives it that slightly more opaque look.  

The main strands are done with inks and stains, and have that fabulous translucent glow of colour as a result.



Well, I hope that's provided some inspiration.  As I say, if you'd like to see the rest of the mid-month projects, they're right here, and well worth a visit I can tell you.  And then you'll find all the challenge details and the linky (as well as the first half of the inspiration projects, of course) here.


And if that's not enough inspiration, it so happens that my Calico Crafts project also fits the Recipe bill (Lace, Metal, Inks and Paints), so if you've time to hop over and see that, it would be grand!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I'll see you out there in Craftyblogland.

Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.
Albert Einstein

Invitation
If you are a dreamer, come in, 
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, 
a hope-er, a pray-er, a magic-bean-buyer... 
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire 
for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. 
Come in! Come in!
Shel Silverstein


I'm just in time to get this in as a second entry in Tag Time over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges.
And I'd also like to add it to the Anything Goes challenge at The Hobby House Challenge Blog.