A Kind Of Magic...

Hello friends and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! This week our theme is called Animal Magic and the DT are also showcasing Tim Holtz products within our projects. We'd love for you to join us and play along and can't wait to see how you will interpret the fun challenge theme ~ have fun!

For my project, I couldn't resist being inspired by one of the most famous animals of all time, the one and only Mickey Mouse and I created a framed panel, inspired by the magic of Disney and 'the mouse that started it all". I hope you'll love how I created this piece using products from Sizzix, Tim Holtz and Ranger Ink to bring Mickey to life!

So let's get started ~ it's time to begin...

I started by painting the frame and I used one of Tim's Framed Panels, which comes in two pieces ~ the frame and baseboard. I applied a coat of gesso to the frame and also around the edges of the board and allowed it to dry. Once the gesso was thoroughly dry, I applied Candied Apple Distress Paint over the entire frame and sides of the baseboard. Again, allow it to dry before dry brushing the surface with Black Soot Distress Paint. I apply a small amount of the paint to my glass mat, pick up some of the paint with a paint brush and then brush away the majority of the paint onto a kitchen towel before then applying it over the top of the frame. If you feel you've added to much, then just add some more red but always remember to dry between each painted layer.

Once I was happy with the frame, I dried it and then added a touch of Vintage Gold Alchemy Wax over the top to accentuate the beading around the frame.

Next, I added the background, and for this I used the star design paper from the Etcetera Paper Stash and cut a piece to fit the aperture of the frame. I adhered the paper to the baseboard and then attached my painted frame over the top, attaching all the pieces with Matte Collage Medium and then adding a coat of the medium over the top to seal the paper and the paintwork.

Using the Gathered Twigs Distress Crayon, I ran the crayon around the inside edge of the frame and then blending out the colour with a semi dry wet wipe.

The frame is now complete and we're ready to move onto the central section and focal point of the project...

To begin with I started with the background and cut a panel of watercolour card, slightly smaller in size than the inside of the frame and applied a misting of Distress Resist Spray to the background.

NOTE: Always use the Splatter Box when using Distress Resist Spray as you don't want to cover the surrounding areas. Allow the spray to dry thoroughly and then spritz the card with a light mist of water before I then added some colour using Distress Spray Stains ~ Antique Linen, followed by Pumice Stone, Frayed Burlap and a hint of Iced Spruce.

Gently heat dry the surface area of the card and if you need to add more stain, just spritz away but I was happy with mine and just inked the edges with some Walnut Stain Distress Ink. before machine stitching a 'wonky' border around the outside.

I matted the background onto a panel of gold metallic kraft stash card, followed by a piece of black card, each time leaving a border showing and then mounted the matted layers to the centre of my frame.

Now for the letters/words for this quote, and this is actually one of those pieces that is great for using up some leftover die cuts which you always have when cutting out letters and words ~ the small letters that I used all come from the older Alphanumeric Thin die set and I also had some random letters that I had cut from the Traveler Words Die Set but if you don't have either of these, then I would recommend using the brand new Alphanumeric Label Set which would be perfect for this.

TOP TIP alert: Use adhesive sheets on the back of all your card, as this will really help you once you start to adhere all the letters I cut the majority of the letters for this quote using red classic kraft stash but you will also see that I cut one word, 'it' from black classic kraft stash. I then cut all the letters for a second time from gold metallic kraft stash and layered the coloured letters over the top, slightly offsetting them to create a shadow.

Placing my letters to one side, I then cut my larger font using my favourite die of the moment, the brand new Handmade Die.

These letters were cut from black chipboard ~ twice, layered over the top of one another to create a little more dimension to the letters and then, I layered over the gold metallic die cut letters to create the shadow.

Now that I have all my letters, I attached them directly onto my background to create the Walt Disney quote, "If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It".

For Mickey's silhouette, I used a combination of Tim's Stitched Circles die to die cut the face and for his ears, I used a 1" Circle Paper Punch ~ all cut from black chipboard. Once I had all three of my circles cut, I pieced them together to create the silhouette before adding foam to the back to create height and dimension and attaching Mickey to my framed panel.

In the corner of the panel, I added 1928, the year Mickey was born and used Remnant Rubs to create the date.

For the stars that I cut from yellow classic kraft stash, I used the Swirling Stars die and just cut myself a selection of star which I then adhered with Matte Collage Medium, directly onto the background. I added a hint of Black Soot Marker Pen around each of the stars, blending away any harsh lines with my fingers and then placed a few Pretty Pink Posh Metallic Gold Jewels in amongst the stars.

To complete the piece, I added some Hardware Heads, aged with a little Distress Paint ~ Rusty Hinge, Evergreen Bough and Antiqued Bronze and placed the painted hardware to each corner of the corners of the inner panel.

...and that completes my panel and project for this week and hope you've enjoyed how I created this little slice of animal magic.

Don't forget, you can find more inspiration from my talented teamies over on the challenge blog and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Handmade, Alphanumeric Label, Circle Punches, Stitched Circles, Swirling Stars
Distress Paint: Candied Apple, Black Soot
Distress Spray Stain: Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Pumice Stone and Iced Spruce
Distress Resist Spray

Distress Crayons: Gathered Twigs
Distress Ink: Walnut Stain

Idea-ology: Hardware Heads, Framed Panel

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium
Surfaces: Watercolour Card, Etcetera Paper Stash, Classic Kraft Stash, Metallic Kraft Stash, Black Chipboard
Pretty Pink Posh Metallic Gold Jewels
Prima Marketing Alchemy Wax ~ Vintage Gold
Tim Holtz Blending Tool
Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Heat Gun
Palette Knife
Big Shot