Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #13 - A Year of Choices (And Some Changes)

It's the first of the month. That means it's time for another challenge over at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge. We are celebrating our 1st Birthday!! It's been an awesome year and we have lots of fun things planned for our birthday celebration. Be sure to check out this month's challenge post for some amazing inspiration.

We are also implementing a few changes to our challenge rules, so be sure to remember the following when creating your June post.

1. You must include the challenge graphic.
2. You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs to be eligible for prizes and recognitions.
3. You may combine with 4 other challenges.

Also, our sponsor this month is Maya Road and they are offering 2 prizes filled with Maya Road Goodness to our 2 lucky random winners.

Our theme this month is "A Year of Choices." You can pick out any theme we have done over the past year. How fun is that? For my project I used several themes: Spray Inks, Around the House, Stamps and Flowers.

I made a very Patriotic American Shadowbox. Since Memorial Day was last week and the 4th of July is coming up and I bought an awesome new Unity Stamp Company Patriotic Stamp set, I was in the mood to make some thing red, white and blue.

Michaels has had these 7 Gypsies Shadowboxed in the Clearance section a while now and I finally picked one up.

To create the background I brushed on some Decorate Twinkles Glitter Paint in Blue Galaxy.

Then I sprayed on Decoart Spray Ink in Primary Cyan and Maya Road Spray Mist in Strawberry.

Here's the final project.

When I was trying to decide what to do, I thought my big Unity Flag Stamp would fit perfectly in the big opening - and it did!! I also used the smaller round star with stripes Unity stamp. I used Decorate Media Matte Medium to adhere the stamped images to a piece of thick chipboard before I adhered them to the box. I stamped Let Freedom Ring on a Maya Road Ticket and stenciled a red star on the ticket with Decoart paint and an Andy Skinner Stencil. I attached it to the shadowbox with a Maya Road Mini Clothespin in White.

In the lower left corner of the box I added a Maya Road Kraft Flower that I colored with Stampers Big Brush pens in red and blue. Then I added a wood 4 and 3 blue Maya Road flowers. For the rest of the embellishments I used stickers from various companies. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will play with us this month!!

You Are Here Card

I made this card for the Virginia's View Challenge. The challenge is to use a stencil. I used this US stencil by The Crafter's Workshop. I sprayed the stencil with Heidi Swapp Color Mist in Coral. Then I used several pieces of Heidi Swapp Color Magic Ephemera that I sprayed with Heidi Swapp Color mists in Chartreuse, Mustard, Teal and Cherry Red. The card stock is Neenah White and Tempting Turquoise by Stampin' Up. Thanks for stopping by!

CAS-ual Fridays - Gingerbread Couple

I made this card for the current CAS-ual Fridays Challenge to use a misting technique on your card. Today while I was reading Card Maker magazine I saw this technique used by a Colleen Schaan on one of her cards in the current issue. She left the die on the paper after cutting it and sprayed the mist on the paper with the die on it. So that's how I got this nifty white edge around the Nestabilities scallop oval. The stamp set is called Gingerbread Cookie by Gel-a-tins. 

Here's my card.

Materials
1. Card stock - Whisper White, Garden Green - Stampin Up
2. Ink - Tuxedo Black - Memento, Markers - Copic
3. Stamp Set - Gingerbread Cookies - Gel-a-tins
4. Die - Scallop Oval - Nestabilties
5. Spray Mist - Strawberry - Maya Road

Hero Arts Holiday Trees Card

Yay!! I finally had time to make a card. I have so many new Hero Arts Christmas stamps that I've been dying to use so tonight I used some of my new stamps for this card. I wanted to be more like my friend Barb and have an interesting embossed background so I used clear embossing powder on the background, then sponged over it with Iced Spruce and Broken China Distress Inks and sprayed it with Vanilla Smooch Spritz Spray. You can't really tell, but the background is very shiny from the Smooch Spritz. Then I stamped the trees in Iced Spruce and Broken China, cut them out, and adhered with foam tape. No challenges for this one - just fun for me. Thanks for taking a look!!

Materials
1. Card stock - Whisper White, Baha Breeze - Stampin' Up
2. Stamps - Christmas Reindeer, Holiday Background - Hero Arts
3. Distress Inks - Iced Spruce, Broken China - Tim Holtz
4. Embossing Powder - Crystal - Martha Stewart
5. Heat Tool - Heat It - Ranger

A Memory Lasts Forever

I made this card with some new stamps I just got today. I used distress ink and pearl mist for the background.

Materials
Card stock - Black, White (Stampin' Up)
Embossed Card Stock - Katydid (Core Impression: Cosmo Cricket Classics Collection)
Clear Stamp - Say Cheese (Lawn Fawn)
Wood Stamp - International Skyline (Hero Arts)
Dye Ink - Black (Stampin' Up)
Distress Ink - Broken China, Frayed Burlap (Tim Holtz)
Spray Mist - Perfect Pearls Mist - Interference Red (Ranger)
Twine - Charcoal (The Twinery)
Small Library Clip - Black (Stampin' Up)
Tools - Embossing gun, sponges


Instructions
1. Make card from card stock - Finished size 4.25 x 5.5
2. Cut embossed card stock to 5 x 3.75 
3. Cut 2.5 x 2.5 square and sponge on distress ink then spray with pearl mist
4. Dry square with heat gun then stamp skyline 
5. Stamp Polaroid, cut out and adhere small square, then adhere to embossed card stock with foam tape
6. Add twine and library clip and adhere embossed paper to card

Shine Brightly

This happy card made from Lawn Fawn stamps uses distress inks and spray mists to create vibrant, shiny colors. 

Materials

Stamp Set - Lunar Lights - Lawn Fawn

Inks - Stampin' Up Ink pad in Basic Black

Distress Ink - Broken China - Tim Holtz

Spray Inks - Adirondack Color Wash Fine Spray Mists in Butterschcotch, Wild Plum and Stream - Ranger Industries; Smooch Spray in Vanilla - Stampin' Up

Card stock - Stampin' Up Whisper White & Basic Black

Tools - Paper snips - Martha Stewart, sponge

Instructions

1. Create card from Black card stock

2. Cut 5.25 x 4 inch rectangle in whisper white

5. Rub distress ink over rectangle and sponge until you achieved desired effect

6. Spray three scrap pieces of whisper white paper with each of the spray mists

7. When they dry (you can use a heat tool to speed up drying process) stamp one lantern on each one in black ink

8. Then carefully cut out each lantern with paper snips

9. Adhere each lantern to rectangle and add other stamped items including "ray" lines, hanging lines, decorative hanging cords and sentiment

10. Spray the entire card with Smooch spray for a shiny effect and adhere rectangle to card