Captured Memories at Our Creative Corner

Hi everyone. It will be Monday 1st July when this goes live - will Blogland have descended into chaos with the demise of Google Reader or will we all just be coming to terms with having to become friends with Bloglovin'? I suspect the end of the world is not nigh, but all will be revealed.

Anyway, more importantly it is the beginning of a new month and time for the launch of the latest challenge at Our Creative Corner. Linda is hosting this month and here's what she has to say about the theme for July. "Memories are fleeting but photographs help us hold dear those special people and times. Our project this month is for you to share with us how you capture your cherished memories. All types of art are welcome: cards, tags, canvases, mixed media, etc., but your project MUST INCLUDE A PHOTOGRAPH."

My DT sample for this challenge was (not surprisingly) a card. Getting this card right was very important as it was destined for my wonderful husband. Still on my 'Italian' odyssey I was transported back to a very happy family holiday on the Isle of Wight. We visited Queen Victoria's holiday home, Osborne House, built in the Italianate style. Obviously we took loads of photos and the one on this card lent itself perfectly to getting an 'Instagramatic' style photo treatment. It set the colour scheme and style for the whole card, and taught me a lot about various mixed media products.

It never fails to amaze me what some photoshop wizardry will do to seemingly average photos, and then having mounted it inside a Polaroid frame (courtesy of my DCWV Timeless Type paper pad) a covering of clear EP completes the look.

Knowing that I wanted to use lashings of Distress Paint, Stain and Ink over my new stencilled texture paste brick wall a robust surface was definitely the order of the day. Bring on the Sticky Back Canvas (mounted on chipboard). This stuff, as I was to discover, will take an amazing amount of abuse when you add layers of water-based media in an attempt to achieve the desired look. The final cocktail? DS Picket Fence over the bricks, followed by DS Weathered Wood, then DP Antique Linen. I also put touches of DP Bundled Sage, Weathered Wood and Frayed Burlap onto the bricks.

Now, stamping with Archival Ink around the edges was easy enough, but stamping on the bricks was going to be trickier until I remembered some advice from our challenge blog owner, Laura. Take the plain bottom layer from a napkin, stamp on it and then apply the tissue to your surface with watered down glue (I used matte Glue n Seal). It blended in seamlessly.

Background done, it was time to layer up the other elements. The die cut film strip and brick wall washi tape were straight forward. And I'm discovering that you can mix Distress Embossing Powder over other smooth embossing powders to give different metallic effects - in this case I choose gold EP for an aged brass look to the key. I also used the Distress EP on the smallest brown button to age it, and added Distress Paint to the aqua button to accentuate the pattern.

My team mate Alison (Butterfly) has requested a video about glass bead gel medium. Well it's definitely on the list of things to do when the school term ends in three weeks (might as well put Son 2.'s GSCE Media course and his video camera to good use eh?!) In the meantime here's a glimpse of the effect you achieve simply by trailing it across lots of other layers. Pretty cool.

Nearly there you'll be pleased to hear. The heart? A chipboard die cut covered in White Distress Crackle Paint and drops of Faded Jeans re-inker. And the sentiment shows the difference between White Pearl EP and Truly White EP on navy CS.

I'm pleased to report hubby was happy with the card and it did bring back many happy memories of a wonderful holiday.

Now it's time to see your treasured memories captured in on a project of your choosing. Can't wait to see what you come up with over at Our Creative Corner; it's bound to be amazing judging by the fantastic entries we had for last month's challenge. Which reminds me - I'll be back on the 8th July to name the winner and top 3 for the 'Recipe' challenge. In the meantime hop on over to Our Creative Corner to see what my fellow teamies have come up with - promise you won't be disappointed!

Take care of yourselves, hugs Jenny xxx

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky-Back Canvas - Natural	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - White	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - Brick Wall	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Picket Fence White	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Weathered Wood	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Weathered Wood	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Picket Fence	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Frayed Burlap
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Bundled Sage	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Antique Linen	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black	Ranger Tim Holtz Faded Jeans Reinker	Ranger Distress Crackle Paint - Picket Fence White	Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz Heart Wings BIGZ Die	Sizzix Alterations Decorative Strip Tim Holtz Mini Filmstrip & Mini Tickets	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Classics 2
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Simple Sayings