August

Hi! Suzz here. I am hosting the current challenge at Frilly and Funkie Challenge called "August".  No surpise that it is inspired by the month of August. :) In doing a little online research I learned that the month of August was re-named for Augustus Caesar. He was the first Roman Emperor and was very proud of the influence he had on the architecture of the country. For this challenge I am asking you to be inspired by marble, arches or columns. You will need to create a vintage or shabby chic project using some type of marble effect, arches or columns.

I really wanted to do some marbling and so I created a huge pile of marbled backgrounds.  I tried shaving cream, alcohol inks, water, etc.  I liked the shaving cream the best and ended up doing multiple backgrounds just for this card:

To create the marble background I did the following:

1. Spray a mount of shaving cream (Cream not gel)  onto your craft mat or a sheet of acetate. Basically anything that won't hold the color after you are done and is easy to clean up or throw away.
2. Drip re-inker or spray inks into the shaving cream.
3. Now you can try alot of different ways to marble. You can swirl the ink into the shaving cream with a plastic knife.  You can just smoosh it into the shaving cream with an acetate sheet on top and pushing and moving the shaving cream and ink around.  You decide.  This is the fun part and my shaving cream smelled good and conditions your paper!
4. After you get your ink and cream mixed you lay your paper ontop and smoosh it around until it is covered in inky shaving cream.
5. Pull back the paper and lay flat.  Using a flat edge scrape off the excess shaving cream.  I use my plastic rulers and shave off the cream.
6.  Let dry.

I ended up with so many pretty backgrounds it made it difficult to decide what to do next.  I spent a few days trying some ideas.  (I cut out some arches as I knew I wanted to incorporate arches into my project)  I think it was my husband laying bricks outside in a pattern that triggered the idea of creating a herringbone tile effect.

 I love how this turned out and my family wandered in and out while I was laying my faux tile and were very impressed. :)

I googled an image of herringbone to get me started.

1. Cut your tiles to the size you want.  I cut mine 1/2" by 1 1/2".
2. Cut the background to the size you want before laying down the pattern. 
3. Sponge the edges of your tiles with a grout color.  I chose black.
4. Start in the middle with one of your tiles and start taping and laying them.

5. Tape down the first on in the middle of you paper.
6.  Lay down the next one and line up to the edge.
7.  Repeat... Repeat.. Repeat..

A couple of tips:

• I first laid this without sponging the edges. They didn't pop enough because of the marbling. They needed a grout effect.  You could do this by leaving space between the faux tiles but would need your space to be even. 
• I had a few faux tiles that were slightly wider or longer.  Your pattern wont' work if that happens. :) I had to pull mine up and re-cut a few more. 
• When you get to the edge of the page attach them as a full piece.  When you get done you can cut the pieces off to use as filler for the areas where you don't need a full piece. 

After that it was deciding how to incorporate my arches with the background. I decided it reminded me of the church and what a lovely wedding card it would make.

I hope this has you inspired of playing with the marbling or the arches!  Come join us in the challenge.

The winner will earn the chance of a Guest Designer spot at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. In addition, the Design Team will select three further outstanding entries and those creators will receive a Top Pick badge to display on their blogs!

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

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