Memories...

Hello friends...

Hope you all had a good weekend and as we face another month of lockdown here in England, I hope you're all staying safe and keeping well and ready for a brand new week over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog!

This week our theme is REMEMBRANCE/THINKING OF YOU and this inspired me to create a project to commemorate the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month ~ Armistice Day! This day holds a special place in my heart as someone very close to our family fought in WW2! Sam, who I came to consider as my adopted grandfather, was a true English gentleman, and his war time stories about the time he spent overseas and the day of the D-Day landings always fascinated me, and even though he sadly passed away a few years ago, we will always remember how much this day meant to him and how he would wear his medals, together with a poppy to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph or attend the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall ~ we were very proud of this man and the contribution and sacrifices he made.

So with this in mind, I hope I've created a project that reflects how much this man would be proud of and here's how I created my very special Remembrance Day project...

 

I began by creating the poppies and for this I used an old favourite die ~ Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals and combined it with the flower from the larger of the two florals from Tim's Tropical die set and the stamens are one of the dies in the Funky Florals 3 die set. If you haven't got these dies, you really can use any floral die of your choosing and Tim has so many to choose from, it won't be too hard to find one that works.

To create the poppies, I used Dina Wakley's Cotton Watercolour Paper, spritzed with a combination of Candied Apple and Barn Door Distress Spray Stains. Once it was dry, I wanted to create two poppies and for this, I cut four layers of petals using the largest sized floral on the Tattered Florals die and two layers using the larger flower from the Tropical Die Set. 

I also cut a third flower using this die and pulled the petals apart to create five separate petals that I will attach to the finished card.

After inking the edges of each layer with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, I shaped the petals to create a more realistic look, curling the edges in different directions, and then layered the Tattered Florals petal over the top of one another, slightly offsetting each layer. After inking the edges of the Tropical Thinlits die cut, I attached each one to the centres of each of my poppies, again shaping the petals and curling them to create dimension to each layer.

For the black stamens, I painted some tissue with Black Soot Distress Paint and then using the stamen die from the Funky Florals 3 set, I cut three layers of the paper, stuck these together and placed them in the centres of each flower. I completed the poppies by colouring a Bauble Adornment with Pitch Black Alcohol Ink and placing these in the centres of each flower.

The leaves are also made from the cotton watercolour paper, spritzed with Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage Distress Spray Stain and die cut using the leaf from the Funky Floral Large die set. Ink the edges with Walnut Stain and set these to one side.

Now we have the poppies ready and moving onto the background, I chose to keep it quite simple as I really wanted the poppies to be the focal point of this piece. After cutting a panel of Mixed Media Heavystock, (which I am so happy to have back in the larger sized pack) measuring 14 x 19cm, I spritzed a very light mist of water over the surface and then used a combination of Faded Jeans, Speckled Egg and Stormy Sky Distress Spray Stains to create colour, layering each stain in turn to build up the intensity I wanted.

I then applied a small amount of Black Soot Distress Ink to my glass mat and spritzed with a little more water before dipping the card into the inks.

After thoroughly heat drying the card, I inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then machine stitched a border around the outside.

To add a few layers to the inked background, I took my new favourite script stamp from the Stampers Anonymous The Poinsettia stamp set and using Black Soot Archival Ink, stamped the script randomly over the background. I then used the speckle stamp from the same set, inked with clear embossing powder and stamped this onto the background before sprinkling with gold embossing powder and heat embossing.

After mounting the inked card onto a piece of slate coloured cardstock, I then mounted it using foam pads onto a piece of black card. To add another layer to the piece, I applied some of Tim's Design Tape around the edges of the black card ~ this is one that I had in my stash, and I'm so sorry but I don't know which set it came from as mine have become a little mixed up in a box, lol!

Now to create that horizontal strip that sits across the centre of this piece...

...I cut a piece of watercolour card, 6 x 14cm, spritzed with water and after removing the spray nozzle from the bottles, I flicked small amounts of Black Soot, Walnut Stain, Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire Distress Spray Stains across the wet card, creating little pools of ink but keeping some white space around them. After heat drying the card, I stitched down each side and then mounted it onto my background using foam pads.

To create the plaque, I cut a panel of Blackout Kraft Stash and sanded it to reveal the kraft core before machine stitching a border around the edges.

For the wording I chose to use the Alphanumeric Label Die Set and cut the letters, and the date from silver Metallic Kraft Stash. I then attached each one to the blackout panel creating my plaque with the words ~ LEST WE FORGET and the date 11/11.

I matted the plaque onto silver metallic kraft stash, and a piece of chipboard painted with Black Soot Distress Paint and then mounted it onto my project with some more foam pads to create dimension.

I attached the poppies and leaves to cascade around the plaque and then added the petals as if they were tumbling down the card.

For the finishing details, in the top left hand corner, I added a Union Jack Ephemera piece taken from the Snippets Ephemera pack....

...and in the bottom right hand corner, I added a Clippings Sticker "in memory of' and a small heart that I had previous die cut and had left over from a previous project.

Finally, I placed a Hardware piece onto the panel, together with those tiny little crosses that are die cut using one of the dies from the Media Marks Thinlits Die set.

I hope you've enjoyed how this project was created and it's inspired you to make some poppies of your own that can be displayed to commemorate all those who have given so much to create a world that ok, at the moment might not be perfect but it's the world we will live in for many years to come!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. 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 ~ stay safe and well, and see you again soon.

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Stampers Anonymous: The Poinsettia

Sizzix: Funky Floral 3, Tattered Floral, Funky Floral Large, Tropical, Alphanumeric Label Thinlits, Media Marks
Distress Paint: Black Soot

Distress Ink: Walnut Stain

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Bauble Adornments, Clippings Stickers, Snippets Ephemera

Distress Spray Stains: Candied Apple, Barn Door, Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Faded Jeans, Speckled Egg, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire, Walnut Stain, Black Soot

Pitch Black Alcohol Ink

Mediums: Ultrafine Gold Embossing Powder, Versamark Ink Pad

Surfaces: Distress Watercolour Card, Blackout Stash, Metallic Kraft Stock, Mixed Media Heavystock, Dina Wakley Cotton Watercolor Paper, Black Card, Slate Card

Prima Marketing Mini Hardware

Glass Media Mat

Big Shot

Heat Gun

Design Tape from my own stash