Loving Those Leftovers at Our Creative Corner

Hi everyone and welcome to the start of a brand new month over at Our Creative Corner, and it's a special one at that; one whole year ago Laura took over ownership of Our Creative Corner and we are celebrating this month with some very special things taking place.

Hop on over to Our Creative Corner to find out more...

Now for the next challenge; it's time to Love Those Leftovers with our host Linda. She's back with a redux of the intended March theme encouraging you all to use your leftover bits from prior projects. Be sure to tell us in your post what it is you've given new life to.

Let's start with my scraps - you'll see here remains from 'What's Your Poison' and my version of the 'April Tim Tag' projects.

With the new Frameworks dies I will NEVER be at a loss for what to do with all the scraps I can't bear to part with. In fact boxes are being filled with them as we speak! This challenge gave me the chance to use those die cut scraps with a healthy dose of inspiration from the talented duo that are Wendy Vecchi and  Anna-Karin. Let the sun shine...

I loved Anna-Karin's idea of pushing die cuts into embossing paste and Wendy's way of colouring metal with her fantastic range of Archival Inks and wondered if it was possible to combine the two ideas. Having die cut the scraps of embossed metal foil and reached for some leftover die cut pieces from the April ATB I looked around for other textured scraps. The only ones left in the box with a 'metallic' finish were a bronze colour so I employed the same technique to create a silver version...

After applying a couple of coats of Silver embossing powder to a scrap of card I layered on some Black Soot Distress embossing powder.

If you heat it up for longer than usual and let the two powders blend thoroughly you create an aged piece of 'steel'.

With a mix of textured die cut pieces to hand it was time to create a card. I started with a piece of Specialty paper smooshed in Dandelion Archival Reinker and surgical spirits. Having scraped Wendy's Silver Embossing Paste over sections of the paper I pushed the die cuts into it.

Once the paste had dried I went back over some of the background with the pad version of the Dandelion Archival Ink and a coordinating Prima stencil. The ink applied to the paste was splattered in a little more of the surgical spirits to give it a more mottled look.

Time to 'paint' the individual die cut pieces; if you use a fine nib brush and Archival Reinkers you can colour them with some of the new colours Wendy released back at the beginning of the year. Then carefully I took the Dandelion pad and gently skimmed it over the raised surfaces to create a two-tone effect on some of the embossed parts and colour the remaining silver areas.

When your background is this detailed it's important not to overload your project with lots of embellishments. I had a piece of mustard patterned card sitting in a box (you know, when you buy a bargain and don't use it?!) Having die cut a window and some more Frameworks pieces they were stamped with Forget Me Not Archival Ink. Finally I added the Kraft Core ivy and a Wendy sentiment before doing a spot of essential matting and layering. I'm so glad the sun shone brightly for these photos so you can see the shimmer that embossing paste creates.

Now it's your turn to get creative with those scraps. Link your posted project to the Our Creative Corner challenge to be in with a chance of winning. There are also chances to win just by commenting so take a look at the Our Creative Corner blog for more information on that. And of course my talented prize winning team mates have even more incredible inspiration of their own on offer to get your heads spinning with ideas.

Take care of yourselves,

Jenny xxx