Mission:Impossible...

 Hello friends...

As another Monday comes around, it's time for the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week we are showing the love with our fun theme which is all about our FOUR LEGGED FRIENDS!

Now when you mention four legged friends, the first thing that came to my mind was Snarky Cats and I decided to create a fun piece, inspired by a favourite movie franchise and a very famous actor who I replaced on this occasion with one of those mischeivous cats who seems to be up to no good but...on this occasion, I have a feeling that no matter how hard he tries, he just can't quite make it and this mission, might be impossible! *cue mission impossible theme tune*

 So, let's get started and let me introduce you to TC...no, not Tom Cruise, this is Tom Cat!

To begin with I am using a Mini Etcetera tag as my base and I started by inking my background. I cut a panel of Distress Watercolour card the same size as the tag and I spritzed the card with a light mist of water. I then spritzed the card with Salvaged Patina, Antique Linen, Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass Distress Spray Stains.

After another light mist of water that allowed the colours to blend, I then spritzed a little Salvaged Patina Oxide Spray over the top before another spritz of Salvaged Patina Distress Spray Stain. The colours blended beautifully and left me with this gorgeous background with a fresh feel to it.

I machine stitched a wiggly border around the outside and then attached the panel to my etcetera tag using Matte Collage Medium.

Moving onto the scene and after inking one of the cats from the Snarky Cats Stamp set, I stamped the image onto Distress Watercolor Card with Black Soot Archival Ink and then watercolored the image using a waterbrush and Distress Re-Inkers. I then used the matching die set that I have in my stash (you might've been lucky enough to get one of these before they sold out at the end of the year), to die cut my image.

With the background and star of the show ready, it's time to start building up the scene and I began with the branch.

BRANCH

For this I used the branch from the Arthur Colorise Die Set. The branch consists of two die cut pieces, which I cut twice from Woodgrain Distress Card before layering them to make one substantial die cut branch. I then applied some Translucent Grit Paste over random areas of the branch and allowed this to dry.

Once completely dry, I layered Distress Paints over the top and used a combination of Ground Espresso, Walnut Stain, Black Soot and Antique Bronze.

With my branch ready, I attached it to my tag using foam pads before adding some leaves. 

The selection of leaves and foliage are all cut using the Sizzix Garden Greens Thinlits Die Set by Tim Holtz from Mixed Media Heavystock Card, inked with Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage Distress Inks. I cut all the foliage pieces down into smaller sections so that I could arrange them onto the branch and then attached them with hot glue.

I then attached Tom Cat, using foam pads and placing him to hang from the branch.

Now for the next step...

FISH SCENE

The scene is made up of Etcetera Trims and Mummy Cloth and starting with the trims, I took one of the deepest Pinked Trims to place across my tag. It does slightly overlap the sides but I like this effect.

I then applied a coat of gesso to the trim, allowed it to dry before adding a good layer of Crackle Paste over the top. Once the paste was dry and had done it's thing I added Walnut Stain Distress Crayon which I watered down and allowed this to sink into the crackles.

After attaching the trim to my tag, I then cut a strip of Mummy Cloth which I coloured with Speckled Egg and Antique Linen Distress Spray Stains. I arranged the cloth to cascade across the tag to give the effect of water before tucking small amounts of moss in between the layers and attached it all with Matte Collage Medium.

The seaweed is die cut from the card that I used for the leaves and I used one of the dies in the Funky Nature set. I attached and tucked my die cut pieces into the Mummy Cloth and once again, I cut them down to make them slightly smaller in height.

In amongst the green fronds, I also cut some more of the same pieces from gold metallic kraft stash card to give a slight glisten and shimmer and then finished with some moss that I have in my stash.

Now for the fish, and this adorable little fish is die cut using the Under The Sea 1 Thinlits Die Set. I inked each the main body with a blend of Spiced Marmalade and Crackling Campfire.

After assembling the little fish and adding his white stripes and the little eye which is cut from black card, I placed him onto foam and attached him into his new home.

We're nearly there and all that's left is the lettering and the finishing details.

I attached a few Little Things From Lucy gems to the background to look like bubbles floating up.

For the lettering I used the Label Alphanumeric Die Set and cut each of the letters from Blackout card with a self adhesive sheet attached to the back. The colon is made from the dots on the question marks. I attached the letters underneath my water scene.

Finally, I added the little details ~ some Hardware Heads placed on the crackled Etcetera Trim and altered with a little Rusty Hinge and Black Soot Distress Paint to make them look rusty.

A remnant rub in the top right hand corner.

I then completed it with some tiny brackets of embossed metallic kraft card that I wrap around the edges of the tag to form brackets. You might have seen these on some previous projects that I've made and I just think they had an extra touch without too much fuss. These tiny pieces are usually the offcuts that I have left over from previous projects and these particular pieces were embossed using the Sizzix Foundry 3D Texture Fade by Tim Holtz. They are then altered with Distress Paints to add the rusty colour tones.

I then placed some more Hardware Heads over the top.

 

So that's my project finished for today and I hope you've enjoyed the step by step of how I made it.

As always, if you make anything, or been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!

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 keep well.

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Sizzix/Tim Holtz Dies: Arthur Colorize, Under The Sea 1 Colorize, Garden Greens, Funky Nature, Label Alphanumeric

Stampers Anonymous: Snarky Cats, Mini Etcetera Tag, Pinked Etcetera Trims

Distress Paint: Rusty Hinge, Ground Espresso, Walnut Stain, Black Soot and Antique Bronze

Distress Reinkers

Walnut Stain Distress Crayon

Distress Spray Stain: Salvaged Patina, Antique Linen, Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass

Distress Oxide Spray: Salvaged Patina

Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Spiced Marmalade and Crackling Campfire

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Hardware Heads, Halloween Trimmings

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Distress Crackle Paste, Translucent Grit Paste, Black Soot Archival Ink

Surfaces: Watercolor Card, Metallic Kraft Stash, Woodgrain Distress Card, Heavystock Mixed Media Card, Blackout Cardstock

Little things From Lucy Gems

Glass Media Mat

Heat Gun

Sizzix Big Shot

Moss from my own stash