Brave New Year

Hello friends! A new year has begun and every week we will continue to bring you inspiring challenges at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. This week our challenge is something new. We also have a new feature, during the first challenge of every month, we will showcase a specific designer or company. We are starting the year with Tim Holtz, who has designed so many wonderful products. If you search for Tim Holtz in the Simon Says Stamp store, you get 2835 hits. That is quite something.

I did an art journal page reflecting on the new year. This page was begun on New Year's Eve and finished on New Year's Day, which made it extra special. The background is inspired by a new baby jersey of Leo's, a dark navy blue with gold stars. I don't often use as dark backgrounds, or as much gold, and I enjoyed making something a little different.

I worked in my large Dylusions journal, on a page which was first coated with gesso. Blueprint Sketch and Black Soot paint was applied with a palette knife, blending them to create a deep and rich background. When the paint was dry, I stamped it with a question mark background stamp and white paint. You can see question marks peeking through here and there. They are meant to symbolise that we don't know everything about the new year and what's coming.

I applied Texture Paste through the Stars and Rays stencils. When the paste was dry, I painted it with gold paint. Here you can clearly see one of the question marks. The background was splattered with white paint. Some extra stars and branches were punched from gold metallic kraft-core cardstock.

The words and numbers were die cut from different gold surfaces. The year was die cut with the Billboard die, using gold DecoSheet. I love the shimmer of DecoSheets.

Brave was die cut with Vintage Market from gold metallic kraft-core cardstock, and from black cardstock, which was glued underneath as a shadow. I haven't totally made up my mind yet, but I think this is my One Little Word for this year. The letters were sanded slightly to roughen them up.

Two sentiments were stamped on patterned paper and glued to the page. I also added some Industrious sticker borders and Filmstrip Ribbon - the latter is meant to symbolise life's journey during the year, like a movie.

Initially, I was planning to use a photo of myself, but when I went through some photos looking for it, I came up on this brave little zebra, and decided to use it instead. The zebra is going for a balloon flight and wears a stamped party hat.

The balloons were stamped with the Crazy Things set on Correspondence pattern papers. They were die cut with the coordinating dies. The Small Talk sticker has been a favourite quote of mine for a long time. It comes from a poem by Tolkien, and I used a more extended version of it on my Roots Canvas. You can definitely wander, without being lost. I also used some gold rub-ons from the Gilded Holidays set, both arrows and stars.

 Here you can see some more border pieces, anchoring the Zebra to the background.

The stamped hearts also come from Crazy Things. 'New' was die cut with the Block Talk lowercase Alphabet die from gold DecoSheet.

I hope you will join us in our new challenge. As always you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

If you want to, follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

If you use instagram add #sssmchallenge to your challenge entry uploads, so that we can see them on there too.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Tim Holtz Sizzix CRAZY THINGS	Tim Holtz CRAZY THINGS	Tim Holtz WORLD TRAVELER	Tim Holtz LIFE QUOTES	Tim Holtz Sizzix BILLBOARD ALPHABET
Tim Holtz Sizzix VINTAGE MARKET Bigz XL	Tim Holtz Sizzix BLOCK TALK LOWERCASE	Tim Holtz Sizzix LAUREL Large Paper Punch	Tim Holtz Sizzix STAR Small Paper Punch	Dyan Reaveley DYLUSIONS JOURNAL
Tim Holtz Core'dinations KRAFT CORE METALLIC 12 x 12	Tim Holtz Idea-ology CORRESPONDENCE	Tim Holtz Idea-ology DECO SHEETS	Tim Holtz Stencil STARS	Tim Holtz Layering Stencil RAYS THS003
Ranger Paint Dabber GOLD METALLIC	Tim Holtz Distress Paint BLACK SOOT	Tim Holtz Distress Paint PICKET FENCE	Tim Holtz Distress Paint BLUEPRINT SKETCH	Ranger TEXTURE PASTE
Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO	Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK	Tim Holtz Idea-ology FILM STRIP RIBBON	Tim Holtz Idea-ology SMALL TALK Stickers	Tim Holtz GILDED HOLIDAYS Remnant Rubs
Tim Holtz Idea-ology PAPER STRING SOLIDS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology 2015 GALLERY Industrious Stickers TH93199	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Sizzix CUTTING PAD XL Pair	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET
Dina Wakley Ranger PALETTE KNIFE	Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger	Tim Holtz SANDING GRIP	Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS

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