Tropical Seahorse

Howdy!  I am sharing today my Funkie DT project for the Frilly and Funkie "Out of the Cold" Challenge.   Cec is hosting the challenge and here is what she said about the challenge:  "It is winter and that means snow and cold in so many places so let's head to the tropics. Create any vintage or shabby chic project that will make us feel warm - think lots of sunshine, bright colours, flora and fauna and even animals hiding in the rain forest."

Well, I took her words to heart and channeled the warm tropical winds and here is what happened...

I started from these pretty Wendy Vecchi flowers and made a large batch of them. I like fussy cutting and cut them out while watching t.v. with the hubby.   If you like to fussy cut with scissors like me I want to recommend getting the mini scissors.  I have about 4 pairs.  I keep one just for my ribbon, thread, or material and the others for cutting paper.  They make such a difference when cutting if you have a smaller pair of scissors to navigate through the intricate designs or small spaces.

I stamped them with black archival ink on mixed media paper.  I then sprayed them with distress stain spray. I started with Squeezed Lemonade but decided I needed a stronger color and loaded them up with Abandoned Coral.

 I wanted something summery to go with my flowers and I looked through my dies and the seahorse caught my eye.  I cut multiples of him as well as pulling out some previously cut horses. 

They all got a special treatment of crackle embossing paste through the harlequin mini stencil.  While it was wet I tried a variety of colors but loved the orange and yellow mix the best. I left them soaked to dry with all the color pooling up in areas.  I came back later and heat dried the embossing paste to get even more bubbling and texture.

I then cut out a variety of leaves and branches which were sprayed with a mix of yellow, green and blue.  I then laid a big sheet of mixed media paper over it and got the cool background you can see with the reverse image of the branches.

 I had so many extra seahorses and flowers I set up journal page with all my leftover bits. Our weather this week has been tremendous for February and this challenge fits right in with the great weather we are having.

Come play along with us and share your warmth with us in the challenge.   The team will choose their top four picks with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot here at Frilly and Funkie and the next three will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Sending you warm tropical breezes...

Suzz

Products:

*Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Sand & Sea Bigz Die	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Spiced Marmalade	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Squeezed Lemonade	Ranger Tim Holtz Twisted Citron Distress Spray Stain	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Peacock Feathers
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Abandoned Coral	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - Crackle	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black Pad #3	(February Pre-order) Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamp Set - Art in a Jar	Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamps - Artful Life
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencils - Set 9 THMST009 (March Pre-Order)	Sizzix Alternations Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Holiday Greens	Tim Holtz Tonic Studios Mini Scissors

Tropical Birthday

I haven't played along in the Hero Arts Blog challenge in forever and a day!  But I just received one of their new layering stamps sets which allows you to stamp the different layers in different colors and decided to play along in their fun "Tic Tac Toe" challenge that is going on all month!

 I played around with the colors to try different shades and after a few different attempts I ended up with something very similar to the shades used on the packaging. :)  I went browsing at Lin's blog as she is always so inspiring with the flowers and came up with this design:

I decided to cut out the flowers and layer them onto an acetate card.  I went to the crafty store for some tape refills and came out with some fun bamboo washi tape which had me die cutting the letters from it and then I used the Hero Arts Chevron background stamp on the bottom of the cardstock with the same green used on my leaves.

 I followed the tic tac toe line of  "Background Stamps", "Die Cuts", and "Birthday".

The Hero Arts Challenge is all month long and they have 4 prizes up for grabs.

Products:  Hero Arts Color Layering Hibiscus,  Hero Arts Cling Chevron,  Simon Says Stamp - Birthday Die, Bamboo Washi Tape,  Ranger Distress Inks - Shabby Shutter, Peeled Paint, Barn, Mustard Seed, Rusty Hinge, Ranger Archival Ink - Black

Happy Sunday!

Suzz