Life Is Wonderful ~ Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Hello everyone...

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and because it's the start of a brand new week, that means it's also the start of a brand new challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog and this week, it's all about...PAINT! So, whether you go acrylic or water, gesso or colourful, base layer or finishing touch ~ we all love a bit of paint on our creations! There are so many wonderful techniques and we can't wait to see what you create using paint...

This week, inspired by a medium that I use on probably every piece I make, I chose to combine quite a few different techniques using paint to create my piece. As always, I hope you love what I've made...

To begin with I broke out my much neglected Gelli Plate and added small amounts of Dina Wakley's fab new paints in Turquoise and Lime. I also added a touch of white into the mix but only the teeniest amount. After spreading the paint around my Gelli Plate, using a brayer, I then added some detail by using the dots stencil and added some splashes of white paint, before pulling my print.

I cut the print down to size, to give me two separate sections, one for the background and another smaller sized piece for me to stamp the "Wonderful Life" quote onto, using black Archival Ink.

To create my main background, I added some inked lines and splashes of black paint before stamping some text onto it, using the text stamp from the Letter To Santa set, inked with Watering Can Archival Ink.

Once I was happy with the finished piece, I set both pieces aside to work on my frame.

The frame was cut from chipboard using the Cameo die, with the largest Oval Mover and Shaper die in the centre to create an aperture. I then painted the frame with French Roast Fresco Finish paint and allowed it to dry before adding the Crackle Finish. Once this layer was dry, I then added my final coat of Snowflake paint and watched those crackles appear. 

I inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and layered it over the top of my stamped quote and added this to my background, raising it up on foam pads.

For the metal flowers, I wanted to create a rusty look to them and for this, I began by spraying the flowers with Gold Foil and Sparkling Waves Color Bloom Spray from Prima.

Once the spray was dry, I then used my fingers and added a touch of Tarnished Brass Distress Paint over the top and popped a large cabouchon pearl in the centre of each.

As the finishing touch to complete this weeks piece, I used some Garden Greens die cuts, cut from white card and yes, you guessed it...then used Distress Paint to colour the foliage before adding it to the top and bottom corners of my frame.

I do hope you've enjoyed my photo tutorial and loved all the painty techniques that I packed into this piece, which I really enjoyed making. As always, if you're looking for some more great ideas and inspiration, then you need to look no further than the blog to see all the wonderful creations from my very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. Good luck....

Products used:

Tim Holtz Sizzix Garden Greens Bigz Die

Tim Holtz Sizzix Sized Ovals Movers and Shapers

Tim Holtz Sizzix Vintage Cameo Frame Bigz Die

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous ~ Wonderful Life Rubber Stamp

Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps ~ Letter To Santa

Distress Paints ~ Tarnished Brass, Black Soot, Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint

Dina Wakley Ranger Lime Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints

Dina Wakley Ranger Turquoise Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints

Gelli Plate

Simon Says Stamp Medium Dots Stencil

Prima Color Bloom Spray Mist ~ Gold Foil and Glistening Waves

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paint ~ Crackle Glaze, Snowflake and French Roast

Prima Flowers Roses Sunrise Sunset Vintage Trinkets

Ranger Stamping Paper

Speedball 4" Brayer

Archival Ink ~ Black and Watering Can

Chipboard and Pearls from my own stash

Thank you so much for all your visits today, I really do appreciate them all and I'll see you all very soon!!

Bye for now...love Emma xx