Thanks for Being There

It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for another Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, where I’m in the designer spotlight this month!

This week, the theme is Thanks/Thanksgiving.

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For my project, I made an art journal page –

I wanted this page to have lots of layers to reflect recent years, and multiple elements to represent people and things I’m thankful for during those times. I started my session on a non-empty page–it had black acrylic paint smooshed over large areas from a previous session.

I then played with a stencil to create some more layers. I pounced white acrylic with white gesso through this stencil, followed by black acrylic. I waited for each layer to dry before I moved to the next. I had to work in the white twice to make it as strong as the black. While I added all these layers, I also created acrylic splatters.

Once everything was dry, I started applying some diluted colored acrylics over areas of the page, spritzing water to make them move freely and not leave solid edges behind. Again, I let each layer dry before moving to the next. I love how the background looks like bokeh!

Meanwhile, I applied orange acrylic paint to some scrap paper using a brayer. From this paper, I die-cut the focal leaves. I added some white to the leaves using a brayer again, this time with white gesso on it. I added distress ink at the leaves’ edges, followed by freely moving a black Copic marker along the same edges.

For the quote, I used a stamp with dye ink, and reinforced the text with a black fineliner. I fussy cut the ‘Thanks’, and for the strip with the rest of the words, I ran the same dye ink pad along the edges.

I finished the page by adhering the focal elements and sentiments onto the background. Ta da!

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Products used:

• Acrylic paints
• Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Dyalog Ranger Border It Stencil
• Dina Wakley Ranger Media White Gesso
• Lawn Fawn Stitched Poinsettia Die Cuts
• Tim Holtz Medium Distress Brayer
• Tim Holtz Ranger Hickory Smoke Distress Mini Ink Pad
• Copic Black Sketch Marker
• Simon Says Thoughtful Messages Clear Stamps
• Memento Tuxedo Black Dew Drop Ink Pad
• Sakura Black Ink Pigma Micron Pens

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And that was my project! Don’t forget to check out lovely thanks-themed projects from the talented design team at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for more inspiration.

The design team, as always, will choose a selection of their entries to put in the spotlight. What’s more, a randomly selected winner will get a $25 voucher to shop at the Simon Says Stamp Store!

Many thanks to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Design Team for their kind invitation to feature in the Designer Spotlight this month!

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With this spread, I’m joining these challenges –

• 613 Avenue Create Nov Challenge – Anything Goes
• Art Journal Journey Nov Challenge – Nature
• Happy Little Stampers November Anything Goes with Dies Challenge
• The Outlawz Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone Nov Challenge
• A Place to Start Nov Challenge – Anything Goes
• We Love 2 Create Challenge #10 – Anything Mixed Media/Papercrafting Goes

Challenge wins –

• Rising Star at A Place To Start
• Top Sprout at A Place To Start

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Posts in this series

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4