November AJ Page-Time

Hello friends and happy weekend! Monday will be the first of December already! Wow, time seems to be going so fast especially at the end of year! This is exactly what my page was inspired by in this post!

Last Saturday of November brings us to the monthly “SMASH OUR STASH” Art Journaling. I’ve collaborated with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) to join in. Here’s my AJ page with the NOVEMBER prompt of “TRADITIONS”:

This is a little different type of style, but most of the time I just come up with whatever happens to pop into my head and hopefully with older items I have from my stash!

This may not seem like I’ve used the “traditions” prompt for this month, but if you look at the wording at the bottom of the pocket watch, It says “Sentimental Traditions”. I was thinking of “old timey” type of things and the story about traditions on my page comes from my family going to our favorite place every fall for picking apples and now my children go every year as well, so it’s fun to know they’re still enjoying the same tradition we had with them.

For the background: (size of Mixed Media paper is 5.5″ x 8.5″) I ink blended with brushed corduroy oxide ink and spritzed with water to create the watermarks. I stenciled the dots with fired brick oxide and went around the edges with black soot oxide. I added some background paper to the other side that has the apple tree and then I added the paper doll couple over top and then added the “TIME” lettering that was die cut with black cardstock above them. I also sponged around the edges of the apple tree paper with black soot oxide. I added a gold metallic sticker line in the center between the paper and ink background.

I took a really old Whimsy Stamp stamp set with the pocket watch stamp and stamped it with black ink and then used a pen to write the words: “TIME has a way of showing us what matters.” I then stamped a couple more of the pocket watch image in brushed corduroy oxide and then splattered some gold watercolor over right side of the page.

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – A Moment In Time
Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – No cards
Creative Artiste – #121 Anything Goes Mixed Media

October AJ Page-Magical Potion

Hello friends and happy weekend! It’s the last Saturday for this month and next week will be November 1st! Can you believe it?! We’re nearing the end of the year, but I’d like to stop and enjoy the wonderful Autumn season right now while it’s here!

Last Saturday of October brings us to the monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” OCTOBER prompt of “MAGICAL”:

I couldn’t let this month go by without adding in a Halloween themed AJ page! I love making them and getting out lots of dies from several different companies that made this one a fun project to pull together.

Background: I used an 8.5″ x 5.5″ piece of Mixed Media cardstock and blended the background in various colors using a light yellow for the center where the window is open and the cauldron is brewing up something magical!

I then took a cogs and wheel stencil and sponged on some gold ink in various places. I took a cool background stamp from Whimsy Stamps called Vintage Wallpaper and stamped it in random places. I also cut a strip of wood plank background paper from my stash to add at the bottom of the page. I then took my gold ink pad and swiped it around the edges of the page.

Die Cuts: The large spider web cut from holographic paper, the witch, the fire, and cats all came from Whimsy Stamps. The Cauldron and potion bottle came from Taylored Expressions, the window came from Simon Says Stamp and the wood under the cauldron came from Lawn Fawn. For some of the pieces, I ink blended or added a gold highlight to the edges. For the potion bottle, there is a tiny label on it that says “Moon Dust” with a moon on it. (It’s hard to see in the photo.) I added some glitter to the contents. After ink blending the flames, I covered it with a glitter brush pen.

I took a marker to added some shadows under the witch, cat and cauldron. I took some yellow sequins and added it under the potion bottle to make it look like she’s added it to the potion. Lastly, I took a couple of Tim Holtz sentiment clippings to add to the scene.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today! I had fun with it! Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Steampunk/Halloween or both
Creative Artiste – #120 Anything Goes Mixed Media
Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – No Cards
Penny’s – #608 Anything Goes Using Paper
Little Red Wagon – #830 Not a Card

June Art Journal Page-Positive Thoughts and Positive News!

Hello friends and welcome to the weekend! June has seemed to go by so very fast and I don’t know how time seems to keep flying by, but I think keeping busy is the best thing to do to stay in a positive mind set. I also have some positive news at the bottom of this post!

Speaking of positive….it’s our monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” JUNE prompt of “ABSTRACT FIGURE(S) or SHAPE(S)”:

I didn’t really have a plan in place when starting my page. I happened to remember these fun nesting dies that I had which remind me of a body of water/pond, but I thought they would work great for the “ABSTRACT SHAPE” prompt for this month. I started thinking of a rock or cave with these holes or crevasses where a rainbow light is coming through and a girl is in deep positive thought where butterflies are floating above her.

For the background: I started with a 8.5″x5.5″ watercolor cardstock and the oxide inks in Black Soot, Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone. I rubbed the ink pads onto a glass surface, sprayed with water and “smooshed” the paper multiple times after drying with a heat tool in a process of about three times. I then stamped the “IMAGINE” definition text all over the background and went around the edges with black ink.

Each die cut shape was cut from a rainbow paper pad that I lined around the edges with a black marker. I black heat embossed the heart and the sentiment above the girl. The girl was cut from a magazine and placed on the largest rainbow shape so that her feet were dangling off. The butterflies were cut from a printed file and attached randomly over the page. Lastly, I covered each butterfly and the center of the heart with a glitter brush pen. You may be able to see some of the shimmer in the photo.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my AJ page today! Thank you so much for checking out what I’m doing over here! I appreciate your kind thoughts! I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – People
Try It On Tuesday – Add Some Text (not one word/greeting)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge – Anything Goes
Creative Artiste – #116 Anything Goes Mixed Media
Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – No cards

Positive news! My first grandson was born this week! He’s the most precious thing I’ve ever seen! I didn’t want to leave, so I hope I can come back very soon to see him again!❤️

This is me having a lovely conversation with him. LOL

Sending Love Using My Stash

Hello friends! Just popping in with a quick post to share a card I’ve made for a few challenges.

This year, I’m going to try and “shop my stash” instead of buying and buying and buying all the things. YES…I know it’s easier said than done, but I’ve joined a fellow crafter that I’ve known for a long time to join in her monthly challenge prompts in her group on FB (This & That With Danni’s Dreams) to help keep me motivated in spending less. I’m sure she’d love you to join her, so check it out. Her monthly prompts are from her “Use Your Stash” challenges that she just started this year.

Her themes/prompts for January 2025: gnome(s), embossing folder, border die/punch, heart(s) and 12×12 paper. (You can choose one, several or all.) Here’s the card that I’ve made “Using My Stash” with ALL of the prompts:

I think gnomes are cute and I happen to have several stamps, so it was no problem finding one of those! I’ve used an older gnome set from Whimsy Stamps Gnome One Like You. I colored him up with Copics, but I fussy cut out the gnome and the heart balloon to pop up over the image on the circle that I’ve stenciled some pink clouds on.

The background has an older Sizzix embossing folder not sure of the name, but it’s a 3D embossing folder with hearts piled up. The embossing folder and hearts was another two of her prompts. I splattered some gold watercolor over the background before placing it over an A2 sized top folding cream card base. I also used a corner chomper to round the edges of the right two corners.

I’ve used some very old 12×12 papers from Stampin’ Up! called “Fan Fare”. I hoarded it for a long time and even wrote the coordinating colors on the back of the package! It’s high time to use some of it up…even if it’s a small strip! I’ve also taken the Whimsy Stamps Basic Border dies (not available any more) to cut a mirror gold strip along the edge of the papers. (The remaining of her other prompts used.)

I gold heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set over a piece of the cream cardstock. I cut it out with a banner die and sponged some light pink ink around the edges. Lastly, I covered the heart balloon with a glitter pen and added a couple of tiny sequin hearts around the gnome.

I had a great time pulling out items from my stash and it felt good to be using them! I certainly plan on doing more of these every month! So stay tuned for more posts to help “Use Your Stash”! Thanks so much for dropping in! See you again soon!

Challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches – #FMS668
Creative Friday – #376 altrosa (Old pink)
Crafty Calendar – Add a Die Cut
Stamping Sensations – Anything Goes optional: hand colored image

Anniversary Gnomes

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great start to your week! I’m just popping in to share the card I made my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary…he’ll be getting it this morning and then we’re off to a date ~~night~~ (afternoon as we’ve gotten older)!😆

I think this turned out pretty cute! I dug into my Whimsy Stamps stash and colored up these cute gnomes and fussy cut them by hand to add to the scene. I cut off the string and heart in the center of their hats and stamped the image over the green cardstock with the cut out image layered over top of it.

For the background: I blended some Autumn colored inks in various places and then stenciled in the leaves with a light brown ink. I die cut the mountains and attached them to the background by sizing it up with the green die cut tree border for placement. I stamped the “love you” sentiment all over the green background and then layered the colored image over top of the other. I added some silver sparkle on the heart in the center of the hats.

I also took a die cut silver cardstock frame to go around it and then I silver heat embossed the “happy anniversary” sentiment at the top of the scene.

All the layers were cut with a scallop rectangle die and placed over a side folding A2 grey card base.

And here’s what I put on the inside of the card. I thought it up myself and printed it out on the computer. It was cut out with the same scalloped rectangle die and attached. I still need to sign it as I’m typing this up!

Here’s the inspiration that I used to help me create this card:

These are some more photos that we took while we were in Alaska last month. After our cruise, we took a land tour and went on a train ride that took us up to Denali Park. We had a good day to take a 3 mile hike one day and ran into someone that took our photo and we took their photo too!

I will be back later to share some photos of the stamp retreat I just came back from! Always lots of fun and great to see my crafty friends! Thanks for stopping by today!

Challenges:

Retro Rubber – #rrcb242 Fall by the Lake (all products are at least 3 yrs old)
Little Red Wagon – #779 Emboss it! (sentiment)
Penny’s Challenge – #583 Anything Goes Using Paper
Krafty Chicks – #739 All Occasions (Anniversary)
CRAFT – #738 Anything Goes
Just Us Girls – #750 Stencil Week (leaves)
Creative Knockouts – #533 Halloween or Fall (Fall)
Crafty Catz – #681 Anything Goes with optional: dies/punches (I used dies)

October Art Journal-A Strange Feeling

Hello friends! **THIS IS A PRE-SCHEDULED POST AS I’M AWAY AT A STAMP RETREAT!!**

The weather is finally starting to cool down now and we’ve finished cleaning the yard to prepare for winter months to follow soon. Halloween will also be here in a few days, so I thought it would be fun to make my page today with that in mind!

Today is the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” October prompt of “ODD/Oddities” (anything unusual or strange):

I don’t know if this is considered odd to anyone else, but I certainly do! This weird scientist looking guy has a strange facial expression as he’s holding up a head in the bottle! I’ve put so many details in this page that I thought you’d need to see close-up photos below.

For my background: Starting with a 5.5″ x 8.5″ heavy watercolor paper with pre-punched holes at the top for binding later, I sprayed the background with mica sprays in Hocus Pocus, Jack-O-Lantern and Flickering Candle. I sprayed some extra water over top to get them to blend together as they seem very concentrated and they didn’t move much over the watercolor paper after spraying a few times. I took a leaves stencil inked over places with light brown ink. I then ink blended the edges with black ink and stamped some lettering stamped randomly. Lastly, I splattered with black and gold watercolor.

Upon a closer look at the bottom: I needed an area for shelves to hold the potion bottles, so I took some Tim Holtz Halloween collage paper and attached it with matte medium. It crinkled a bit, but I sort of liked that look. I then found some decorative strips in my stash and added those for the “shelves”. The crow and “curious” ephemera was also found with all of my Tim Holtz Halloween stash….along with the paper doll “guy”. I cut off a head from one of them to place inside the jar. I added some thin metal wire around the jar and cut a slit in the guy’s hand to make it look like he’s holding it. I also added a bit of color to the guy’s flower and bow tie on his jacket outfit with markers. BEFORE popping up the paper doll guy to the page, I ripped some black cardstock for the ground underneath him and tucked in the bones.

For the Bottles: I used a Taylored Expressions “If You Dare” Stamp & Stencil set to make all of the bottles. I also used the TE “If You Dare Halloween Labels” to foil and cut out to place over each jar. To die cut some extra “strange things” to put inside a few of the jars and the bones at the bottom, I die cut pieces from the TE “Little Bits Cauldron Confetti” dies. (The die cut bats from this were also used on the top of the page.) For more finishing details, I doodled in some of the jars and then added some colored glitter/sparkle and pearl drops for the inside contents. If you look closely at the crow’s eye, you can see I’ve added a tiny dot of yellow sparkle. Some of the details were popped up and some were just glued down.

A closer look at the top: Mostly die cut pieces were used at the top and the first I put down was the spider web and spider from Whimsy Stamps called Spiders and Webs…they’re huge! (this store is so good at spooky things!) I drew a line with a black marker from the spider to the web. For the window, I die cut it out from a really old Mama Elephant die I’ve had in my stash…not sure if it’s still available. BEFORE I placed the window down, I die cut the moon from the Lawn Fawn Shadow Box Halloween Add-On die set. I blended in some yellow and gray and covered it with a glitter sparkle pen. I added the die cut bats and placed the window over top.

Lastly, I took some Tim Holtz Halloween clippings word strips and added to the page. I took a black marker and went around the strips above the paper doll “guy”.

I know there are people that are not Halloween fans or care for the spooky things, but I really enjoy the weirdness of it all and have fun making things with it! In the words of Lydia from Beetlejuice: “I myself am strange and unusual“.

Winona Ryder in a hat as Lydia in Beetlejuice

I do hope you’ve enjoyed my page today and I really appreciate you stopping by! I will be back later with things we’re doing at the retreat! See you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Autumn Colors & Inspiration (Purple, orange, yellow and black!)

Halloween Hauntings

Hello friends! It seems like this month has really flown by as I now realize that Halloween will be here next week and I wanted to get some cards sent out that I’ve made!

So here are my Halloween cards for this year….I had so much fun!

This one was so much fun putting together and it wouldn’t have been put together if it weren’t for the parameters on Craft Roulette #237 this week! The four parameters consisted of these – 1. Project: Pop Up Card, 2. Colors: Trick-or-Treat, 3. Element: Boutique and 4. Random: jewelry

I used the Lawn Fawn Platform pop-up die and the build a house die with the Halloween add on plus a few other dies and stamp sets all from Lawn Fawn. The front “welcome” sentiment was printed out from my computer and I made up the “Bougie BOO-tique” language to fit with the parameters of the challenge.😆 These ghosts are all blinged up and hanging out around their favorite “BOO-tique” to catch up on all of the latest trends in style! One is wearing a necklace, another a tierra, another carrying a purse, another styling glasses with bling and the front ghost has earrings and a sparkle wand.

The background was done with the Lawn Fawn Platform Pop Up Add On around the back of the pop up. I ink blended and then splattered with white Copic Opaque White mixed with water to get the starry night background. This card went to my husband because he really enjoyed it and said that it wasn’t going anywhere, but it does lay flat for mailing.

This card was done for an Inky Inkspiration Challenge over on FB for September and they were asking for a slimline card. I’m more into making the mini slimline size rather than a full size, so that’s what I went with! I’ve used the cute Bat stamp set for all of the images, except for the background panel, which you’ll notice it looks like a BINGO card and it is! It was the game that we played in a Zoom class that I took with Inky Stamper and we actually used this Bat stamp set for the projects we made and the BINGO card was included. I decided instead of throwing it away, that I would use it as background paper for my card. I just stenciled in some gray clouds over top and stamped some bats from the set with it. The rest were just cut out and placed on the card with the bat being popped out with foam tape.

(I would’ve showed photos from the class, but I forgot to take photos of them!)

And here’s another card I made for World Card Making Day using the fun sketch from the Inky Stamper Inkspiration Group on FB. I’ve used this really CUTE Zombie stamp set from Inky Stamper for this card. I had so much fun coloring him up!

And this last card I made for someone who loves the spookiness of the season almost as much as I do! I pulled this really cool image from an older paper pack by Whimsy Stamps. In fact, all of the images on this card came from this store.

I die cut the image out with the WS ATC Antique Frames including the sentiment that was white heat embossed. The background was black heat embossed with the WS Vintage Wallpaper stamp over kraft cardstock. I sponged some black ink around the edges which was also cut out with the WS Wavy Pieced Rectangle dies. I cut out a few ghosts from white cardstock using the WS Boo die set and sponged some green ink at the very bottom edges.

I thought it would be fun to make the eyeballs of the skeleton and the edges of the ghosts glow in the dark, so I used some glow-in-the-dark embossing powder over them and finished off the sentiment panel with green gems. (It’s too hard to take a photo of the glow-in-the-dark!)

Well that’s it for me today with all of the Halloween cards! I hope you’ve enjoyed them or have been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you again on Saturday with another Art Journal Page for the month!

Challenges:

Creative Fingers – #287 Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – #255 ‘H’ is for Halloween
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #240 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – #PIP2442 Anything Goes
Make My Monday – #237 A Spooky Halloween
Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
Crazy for Stencils – Anything Goes using stencils + Halloween (2nd bat card)
Unicorn – #103 Autumn/Halloween

July Art Journal Page-Watercolor Winds

Hello friends and happy weekend! It’s the start of the Olympics and it’s something that I enjoy catching up on a few events here and there when I can as it’s very inspiring to see these dedicated athletes perform. I do hope you’re enjoying your weekend however you’re spending it.

It’s time for the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” July prompt of “WATER” (actual water or the look of it):

Do you enjoy watercolor? Do you enjoy the water? I happen to really like both! I think I am more apt to dabble in the watercolor medium than I am to actually be IN the water though!😆 I decided to use both for my page today. It would be a dream of mine if I could ever experience sailing…maybe one day!

Background: I started with an 8.5″ x 5.5″ pre-punched holes on a Canson coldpress watercolor panel and painted the background with my Kuretake Gansi Tambi watercolors and a brush. I started with the yellow and worked my way out to the darker color. I wanted a warm sun with a contrast of darker sky/clouds over to the left. I stamped the birds to the right corner.

For the clouds, sails and water, I pulled out some fabric and die cut the pieces out with the exception of the boat. I stamped the boat with Staz On ink over the fabric and hand cut just the sails out with scissors for the fabric. The boat was stamped on cardstock, colored with watercolor and cut out. I used fabric glue to attach all of the fabric pieces.

I popped up the bottom layer of the dotted fabric water waves with foam tape and used a micron pen to make the stitch marks. I also went around the edge of the page making stitch marks. The sail boat was tucked in between the waves and I added a button with thread on the bottom of the boat.

The clouds were attached on the background with the fabric glue and then I stenciled with white ink over top of that and added a few marks with a white gel pen on the clouds.

Lastly, I printed out the quote and die cut it out with a stitched banner die. It says:

“Withstand the storm, and when the wind doesn’t blow you away, adjust your sails.”

I sponged around the edges of the banner with blue ink and attached it to the page.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today! Thank you for taking the time to stop in and I hope you have a fantastic day!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – “I’ve got a notion” (sewing related items) fabric/stitching
Creative Artiste – #106 Anything Goes Mixed Media

Things That go ‘BUMP’ in the Night for Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great weekend! Did you have “good luck” on Friday the 13th? It’s getting closer to Halloween! I don’t send out very many Halloween things, but it’s something that I share with friends and my adult kids because it holds some special memories of just having fun.

Today begins our October challenge at Sparkles Monthly with a theme that was my turn to pick: Things That go ‘BUMP’ in the Night (Does not HAVE to be Halloween!) So, if you’re not a Halloween person, this theme is open-ended. Try nocturnal animals, Santa on the roof, etc. Just have some fun crafting!

Of course, I love Halloween and had fun making my card:

I thought these mice were just too cute! They were out bumping around in the night trying to be scary but scared each other instead! LOL

The mice came from the STAMPtember collaboration with Whimsy Stamps and the set is called Spooky & Mice. I colored them with Copic markers and die cut them out with the coordinating dies. They were popped up with foam tape over the background.

For my background: I used a cloud stencil on a white piece of cardstock and blended some clouds with purple ink and then blended around the edges with black and grey ink. I then took the SSS Spook Up Some Fun stamp set and stamped black stars over the background and I also white heat embossed the oval sentiment panel that was in that stamp set over black cardstock and set it aside. I’ve also splattered the background with black, white and silver acrylic paints.

While that panel was drying, I heat embossed the Whimsy Stamps Spider Web Frame with a white sparkle EP and then cut the middle of it out with scissors so the cloud background would show. I stamped the spider hanging down onto the background while sizing it up with the frame and then drew a black string with a marker for it. Glued on the frame, attached my oval sentiment panel, and attached it to a top folding A2 sized grey card base. (Then added the mice with foam squares.)

Lastly, I’ve added some silver gems on each side of the sentiment oval and attached a few clear sequins over the night sky background.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you’ll be able to join along in the fun with us this month! I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

Two Old Bats Halloween – Anything Goes Halloween
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with an animal
Critter Crazy – Anything Goes with a featured critter
Creative Inspirations – Autumn or Halloween
Craft Rocket – Autumn and/or Halloween
As You Like It – Favorite Halloween or Fairies & why? (I love to make Halloween theme because it’s so fun with cute, scary or fun characters and I love the colors too!)
Most Magical Time of the Year – Anything Halloween or Christmas
Creative Moments – “It’s Alive!”

August AJ Page-A is for Adventure

Hello friends! Wishing you a happy weekend! We’ve had a heat advisory in our area all week, so I’ve been staying indoors organizing, cleaning and crafting! Hope that you’re taking some time to enjoy your weekend even if it’s just for a moment of time.

I can’t believe we’re at the last weekend of August, because it’s time for the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” August prompt of “LETTERS”:

Thinking of YOUR stash, what do you come up with from the prompt? I think as crafters, we probably all have some type of lettering in our stash! I have stamps, stickers, chipboard, wood, stencils, ephemera, etc so I knew this would be a good opportunity to pull out something. And if that doesn’t work for you, I suppose you could take the prompt literally, and attach an actual written letter or make one up yourself to add to your AJ page. Lots of ways to interpret a prompt which makes it easy to come up with a plan to inspire you. So this is what I came up with.

For the background: I started with a 6″ x 9″ Strathmore Acrylic paper with pre-punched holes at the top and stenciled some crackle paste over my Tim Holtz alpha stencil and let dry. I then took some Distress Oxide sprays in the colors kitsch flamingo, salvaged patina and speckled egg and mixed with sprayed water to let the the colors run over the stenciled areas. After it dried, I used the Tim Holtz Grunged stamp set and stamped more letters over the background with black archival ink. The edges were blended with dark gray ink and then I splattered the page with gold and white paints with a fan brush. Lastly, I took some white gold metallic wax and went over the stenciled letters.

The film strip came from the Whimsy Stamps Slmiline Film Strip die cut out from black cardstock. For the three image sections, I found some packaging with maps images on them and cut it out with the same die. Since the packaging had a slick surface, I painted it with clear gesso so I could stamp over it. After it dried, I stamped the three panels with the TH Grunged stamp set in the same colors of Oxide inks as the background and then stamped the travel images with black archival ink from an old Stampin’ Up! set called “Traveler”. To finish is off, I used an old chip board letter “A” from my stash, painted it black and added some more of that white gold wax along the edges, found a TH “small talk” sticker to go over it and then I drew some lines around it and sponged it to make it look grungy. I finished it with more ephemera I found in my stash from Tim Holtz and Stamperia… and decided to call it done.