Monday, October 4, 2021

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Not a Card using Stamperia's Sea World Rust Stencil

My oh my!  I am on one crazy notebook kick lately!  Here's a notebook that I made a cover for in response to this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  The theme is "not a card" and since a notebook is NOT a card, I feel pretty justified supporting my notebook-making fetish.  We're also featuring products from Stamperia, so I used their fabulous Sea World Rust stencil to add some texture to my notebook cover.  I can't take credit for the gorgeous face, either, which came from Marlene's Studio Light Mint art elements collection.


I started with Strathmore Mixed Media paper (surprise, surprise), which I finger-painted some acrylic paint onto.  I do this a lot because I figure I'll end up covering it up if I don't like it anyway, but getting some color on the paper is at least a starting point that allows me to move forward past the intimidation of the blank page.


Next I put down the Sea World Rust stencil and used white acrylic paint with it.  I love the instant texture it creates.  Bonus points if you can spot the Mickey Mouse head/ears shape that came out on the right side of the page!


I stamped some letters from Tim Holtz's Documented stamp set onto some paper, then tore off a strip of it and glued it down.  I didn't like the color combo I had going, so I painted some of it over with white (See?  Told you I would do that!) and then added some pink paint using Dina Wakley's Spaced Dots stencil.


While all of that dried, I started working on the girl that would go on next.  I got the girl's face out of the Mint Collection (by Marlene - Studio Light) which is this great little paper pad of drawn elements you can use in your projects.  The beauty is that the drawings have been die-cut around their edges so you just punch them out.  What a plus for us lazy crafters who need a break from fussy-cutting!  I decided on this beautiful girl, but the purple hair did not jive with my color palette.  I painted her hair white and rounded out the hair buns in a tribute to my cute mom, who has beautiful long hair that she's done in elegant up-do's my whole life. 

In this paper elements collection, you get two sets of each doodle, so I included a picture of the before and after here below.  The purple-haired one is the original version.  I also drew a bigger crown for my girl and outlined everything with a black Sharpie.  I also turned some sewn ripped paper scraps into a torso.


Funny that I didn't think purple went with my color palette because as I looked at everything at this point, I felt like the color palette needed some more oomph, so I decided to bring in some purple after all.  I used Distress Crayons to add those subtle purpley tones.  I also brightened up the girl's dress and her crown with some yellows and pinks.  I splattered some Dylusions Night gloss spray on the background.


I glued the girl to her new home, then sewed the cover onto a cheapy lined-paper notebook that I had lying around.



Here are the products I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Let's see what you make instead of a card this week!  Upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store!