Life Is Beautiful...

Hey everyone and welcome to a brand new week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog! this week we have turned our attention to stencils and the theme called ~ STENCIL IT!! There are so many beautiful stencils available and there are so many ways to use them. Will you ink through them, maybe use texture pastes or create backgrounds ~ whatever you choose to do, we hope you'll play along and can't wait to see how you'll interpret this week's challenge!

For my project, I created my own circular canvas panel and used various Tim Holtz Layering Stencils to create a multi layered background for a vintage canvas.

and here's how I made this project!

To begin with I cut a circular piece of adhesive canvas, 20cm in diameter and mounted it onto a piece of mount board. I then applied a good coat of gesso over the top of the canvas, left it to dry before applying some Fresco Finish Chalk Paint over the top of the gesso.

Once the paint is completely dry, I added a dry brushing of Frayed Burlap Distress Paint which took away the starkness of the chalk coloured paint but still left me with a neutral base to work on.

Once the background was dry, I misted the canvas with water and applied a small amount of Mermaid Lagoon and Salty Ocean Distress Paints directly to the background. I misted it with some more water and then moved the canvas around to create a more diffused colour and also a beautiful dripped effect. Heat dry before adding torn strips of tissue tape ~ placing them coming in from the right hand side, horizontally across the canvas.

Now for the stencilling and I used three Layering Stencil for this ~ Blossom, Speckles and Dot Fade! I started with Dot Fade and used a blending tool to sponge Jet Black Archival Ink through the stencil onto the background. For the next stage of stencilling, I mixed a small amount of Spun Sugar Distress Paint into some Texture Paste and applied it through the Blossom Layering Stencil, positioning it around the edge of the circle. Leave the paste to dry thoroughly.

To create more layers on the background, I added more uncoloured texture paste through the Speckles Layering Stencil, flicks of paint in various colours and used the Type stamp, inked with Jet Black Archival Ink.

Finally, I inked the edges of the background with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and added gold foil highlights for a touch of shimmer before mounting the canvas onto a piece of kraft card, cut slightly larger than the canvas panel which created a framed border.

Now for the elements and for this, I cut pieces of paper from the Wallflower paper stash and lightly distressed them with inks and tearing the edges. Layer the papers onto the background and attach with multi medium.

I added a photo from the Photo Booth set, which I mounted onto another piece of paper from the Wallflower Paper Stash and placed this over the top of some wire, which I coloured gold using a Krylon pen.

As a finishing touch to the arrangement, I used the Tiny Tattered florals die to die cut some Victorian Velvet Core'Dinations paper and created the beautiful little blossoms which I added with some punched branches and die cut leaves.

Ink the edges of the die cut elements and attach them in a cluster to the bottom left hand corner of the photo.

To complete the panel, I attached a mini sprocket gear with a gem in the centre and a chit chat sticker before adding a final layer of Remnant Rubs to the background.

As always, if you need any further inspiration for this challenge, then you need look no further than our blog to see all the wonderful creations from all the 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....

Just click on the link below to go shopping:

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Thank you so much for all your visits today and hope you all have a great week ahead

See you again soon...love Emma xx

Products used:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix Dies and Punches: Tiny Tattered Florals, Branch Punch

Tim Holtz Stamps: Type Stamp

Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: Blossom, Speckles, Dot Fade

Distress Ink: Walnut Stain

Distress Paint: Mermaid Lagoon, Spun Sugar, Frayed Burlap, Salty Ocean

Mediums: Fresco Finish Chalk Paint, Multi Medium, Texture Paste, Ranger Transfer Foil, Collage Glue, Jet Black Archival Ink

Idea-ology: Chit Chat Stickers, Vintage Photo Booth, Mini Sprocket Gears, Botanical Remnant Rubs, Tissue Tape, Laboratorie Tissue Tape

Surfaces: Kraft Card, Core'Dinations Paper Stash, Wallflower Paper Stash, Ranger Sticky Back Canvas

Palette Knife

Gold Krylon Gold Leafing Pen

Ranger Craft Sheet

Blending Tool

Heat Gun

Big Shot

White Wire Thread and Mount Board from my own stash