Sunshine, Freedom and a little flower

Hi everyone! It is Monday and we have a new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for you, A Piece of Paradise. Lots of options with this fun topic, be inspired by beaches, waves, travelling, tropical colours or anything else you can think of.

I made a mixed media canvas about creating your own little paradise wherever you are. I was inspired by a quote by H.C. Andersen, and used butterflies and flowers since it fit with the quote. The colours of the canvas were inspired by the tropics and the focal piece is a Tim Holtz Found Relatives card.

A 5 x 7 canvas board was coated with gesso. I die cut my own stencil with the Butterfly Frenzy die and Simon Says Stamp new fabulous Masking Paper Label Sheets. I'll be using this masking paper a lot. Place the stencil on the canvas and apply Texture Paste with a palette knife. After the paste dried, I painted the canvas with Distress Paints. The clock was coloured with Patina Ink.

The butterflies, from the Stamper's Anonymous Classics #17 set, were stamped twice on Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art Modeling Film and once on watercolour paper. I watercoloured the latter with Distress Ink and coloured the other two with light shades of brown alcohol ink, to give them an old look. After heating the film with my heat gun, I shaped the wings to give it life. If you are not happy, you can just reheat the film again (just be careful not to burn yourself). It keeps its shape perfectly when cool.

Here you can see the dimension of the wings better. I stapled the butterflies together with the Tiny Attacher. The small butterflies only have one layer of Modeling Film.

The Found Relatives card was distressed with a sanding block and a scratch tool, and inked. It was also softly coloured with Distress Inks to resemble old tinted photographs.

I made the flowers with the Tattered Flower Garland die. First, watercolour paper was coloured with Distresss Ink, by smearing ink on my craft sheet, misting with water and pressing the paper into the ink. I also die cut flowers and leaves from Tim Holtz vellum. The mix of the watercolour paper and the translucent vellum makes for interesting looking flowers. A little bit of Rock Candy Distress Stickles was smeared on the petals. I coloured the brads with Patina Ink.

The background and the photo was stamped with a script alphabet stamp, and I splattered brown paint here and there.

Here you can better see the texture of the butterflies. Almost any die can be turned into a stencil, and it is a great way of getting more out of your dies.

I hope you will join us in our challenge this week! Just like every week, one randomly drawn participant wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp.

Thank you for the visit!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies (affiliate links):

Tim Holtz MERCHANTILE	Stampers Anonymous CLASSICS #17	Tim Holtz Sizzix BUTTERFLY FRENZY	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Stash WALLFLOWER VELLUM	Wendy Vecchi Modeling Film CLEAR
Simon Says Stamp MASKING PAPER Label Sheets	Ranger WATERCOLOR PAPER Inkssentials	Tim Holtz Distress Ink TATTERED ROSE	Tim Holtz Distress Ink TUMBLED GLASS	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK MUSTARD SEED
Tim Holtz Distress Ink VICTORIAN VELVET	Tim Holtz Distress Ink VINTAGE PHOTO	Tsukineko JET BLACK STAZON	Tim Holtz Distress Paint SQUEEZED LEMONADE	Tim Holtz Distress Paint PEACOCK FEATHERS
Tim Holtz Distress Paint WALNUT STAIN	Dina Wakley Ranger UMBER Acrylic Paint	Tim Holtz ALCOHOL INK GINGER	Tim Holtz ALCOHOL INK PEBBLE	Ranger Vintaj Patina Kit WEATHERED COPPER
Ranger Vintaj Patina Kit VICTORIAN GABLE	Ranger TEXTURE PASTE	Ranger 4 Oz. MULTI MEDIUM MATTE	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO	Tim Holtz Distress Stickles ROCK CANDY
Tim Holtz Idea-ology FOUND RELATIVES	Tim Holtz Idea-ology LONG FASTENERS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology TIMEPIECES	*im Holtz Idea-ology GAME SPINNERS	Tim Holtz Tonic CRAFT SCRATCHER
Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET	Dina Wakley Ranger PALETTE KNIFE	Ranger Inkssentials INK BLENDING TOOL	Sizzix CUTTING PAD XL Pair	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE
Tim Holtz Ranger ALCOHOL INK APPLICATOR Tool	Tim Holtz SANDING GRIP	Ranger Inkssentials US HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL	Tim Holtz TINY ATTACHER Stapler	Tim Holtz Tonic Craft SCISSORS

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