School Days

Hallo, Blogging Mates! I've been gone a whole week! Did ya miss me? :-))) Well, I missed y'all so even though my Mrs.Thing Muse decided she needed a lil break, I worked on making something that's been sitting in my UFAPs (Un Finished Art Projects) for way too long.

This is an 8x8 Deco for my home decorations. I have several easels and hanging displays in my home and not enough of these Decos. It's definitely for Back to School in August but I made it ambiguous enough to use in May as well for School's Out for Summer. Reading is something kids should do all year long, including Summer, like brushing their teeth. So since reading is the focus of this piece, it can do double duty, at least until I get a dedicated piece made for School's Out.

The Back

The background base is the chipboard backing of a Graphics 45 8x8 paper pad. I used Paper Mod Podge to adhere a sheet from Cosmo Cricket's Summer Love to the back. (Don't yet know what I'm going to do on the back. Maybe nothing, maybe another collage.) Then I adhered a piece to the front side from a 12x12 sheet by Karen Foster of school lockers. I cut it to 8x8 first.

The Background

I wanted a mixed media grungy timeworn look, so I thought I would play with embossing powders. While letting that dry well, I hunted through my stamps and found border stamps and grungy background element stamps to help me "age" the lockers because they looked like they were brand new and I wanted them well-used with rust, dirt, engraved graffiti and stains.  I used rubber and clear stamps from Technique Tuesday, Papertrey Ink, Crafters Companion, Deep Red, Kaisercraft, Stampers Anonymous and Red Rubber Designs.

I began with the top border stamping in Versa Mark and then heat-embossing with Seth Apter Chunky Rust EP (which is almost an orange color and went well with my other orange elements). I then stamped a drip border image in VersaFine Clair Fallen Leaves ink and heat-embossed it in clear EP. I continued to stamp in Fallen Leaves ink around the other three edges with a grungy border stamp and heat emboss in clear EP.

I also worked on the center of the background, stamping various grungy texture element stamps to produce the worn look I was wanting. I stamped in VersaFine Clair Morning Mist this time and heat-embossed in clear EP.  I then took my black Posca paint pen and went around the edges with the chisel tip. I left the piece to rest and dry while gathering my next elements to adhere.

I stamped my quotes, sentiment and images in VersaFine Clair Fallen Leaves, heat-embossed in clear EP and set aside. I had a #8 tag stamped with my focal image, Mo Manning's Pssst Dania and Taylor
stamp already done in my UFAPs just waiting to be colored so I did, with my ProMarkers. Then, I cut down the tag to a 2" width and used my SU Tag Topper punch to cut a tag top. I used a cut piece of Lawn Fawn patterned paper (row of books) behind my tag and a smaller strip on the tag bottom and a Kraft strip with School Days stamped and embossed. I took snippets of Kraft card stock from my scraps stash and stamped all of the sentiment quotes and the round images with VersaFine Clair ink, die cut the round images using Avery Elle's Signatures die, colored with my ProMarkers, arranged my collage and adhered with ScorTape.

Some close-up shots and a final view with the challenges I am entering it in ---

CHALLENGES:
1.  A Vintage Journey: Book It!
2.  Art Journal Journey June: Words To Live By
3.  Try it on Tuesday: Make a Mark
4.  Colour Crazy Challenge Wk. 21: AG with Colouring - I've colored with ProMarkers all illustrations.
5.  Through The Craft Room Door for Jun 4-10: AG
6.  Paperbabe Challenge #94: AG
7.  Outlawz Monday Greetings + Flower or Ribbon
8.  Jo's Scrap Shack Challenge #284: AG

That's all for me this time. Thanks very much for dropping by to visit. Have a fabulous day! xoxox