La Katrina - Day of the Dead

Greetings peeps!

Here's another bonus blog post for the week.  I want to remind everyone that there is still room in our classes at Stamp Antonio, Saturday November 3.  Please call 210-764-7900 to register.

Upcycled Book Project 10:30-2:00

The upcycled book project is a monthly workshop that focuses on taking an old book and turning it into a new blank book for journaling, writing, albums and more.  This month we will take a Reader's Digest book, gut the pages and turn it into a gratitude book/album.  The inside pages are a mix of cardstock, chipboard, and fabric.  We will make an embellishment for the front cover and embellish some of the inside pages.  Please bring scissors, Xacto knife, adhesive (I recommend 3 in 1),  Crop-a-dile too,  and a cutting mat if you have them.

Paper Wings Productions Monthly Workshop at Stamp Antonio from 3-5

We offer this workshop every month.  Each month we will create 2 cards and a tag, they will be different every session. Please join us for this fun card workshop that will feature fun, unique techniques. Please bring scissors, craft mat, adhesive, and your favorite ink pads to class.

Ok, now onto our BONUS PROJECT from Norma...

Hello Bloggie Friends!  Today I have a project to share with you in honor of El Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), but I have to tell you.....this project was quite the challenge.  I worked on this one for about a week because my mojo just didn't wanna flow.  Does that ever happen to you?  It's very frustrating right, but if you push through, things will always work out in the end.  

There were a couple of things that had me stumped on this one.  I knew I wanted to use the larger Katrina Stamp and try to use up the scraps that have been accumulating on my work space    So with that in mind I started my project!

This is a peek at the final piece ;D  Interesting aye....well then let's get to work!!

I stamped the large Katrina on a brown paper bag and colored her in with my Prismacolors.  Then I outlined most of the edges with a Faber Castell fine tip marker and fussy cut her.  (Most of the time when I create, I start with a background and just let it flow so this was a bit backwards for me.)  Once I had her cut out, I started searching for something that I could use her on.  I was also trying to figure out what I was gonna do with her.  I finally settled on the idea of an alter ornament or a wall hanger so I looked through my stash to see what I could find that might work.

I found this 6x6 packaging box in my drawer and thought it could work so I pulled off all of the partitions.

In keeping with using up the piles on my workspace, I found this packaging paper that I had used to stamp on when I first got my stamps.  (I like to stamp all of my new images onto something just to get a feel for them and see how they look.)  So I thought "Perfect" and on it went with a little Modge Podge.

I wanted to be able to see the stamps so instead of painting, I decided to use Dylusions inks.  This is London Blue, Crushed Grape and Melted Chocolate.  So far so good right.....well I'm about to hit that creative brick wall, lol.

So I had this brilliant idea (or so I thought, lol)!  I'd been wanting to run metal through my Cuttlebug and I thought this would be the perfect project to try it on.  I had a small scrap of thin aluminum and ran it through with an embossing folder then sprayed it with Black Marble and Melted Chocolate Dylusions for an aged look.  

Okay.......looks decent......hmmmm.......now what........(brick wall).  Over the next couple of days I tinkered with it every chance I got........

I found this MME banner is my scrap bin...hmm...I guess that'll work.  I took the doll house window off of a project that I did at a Donna Downey workshop...hmmmm...yah, that works (kinda).  I added some doodled swirls with Gold 3-D Enamels and then another brick wall.  

It just wasn't feeling right so a couple more days passed with me tinkering here and there.  I finally figured out that I needed to trim down the aluminum to the size of the window and I added layers to the banner.

As I sat and starred at it, I finally gave in and got rid of the MME banner.  I ended up cutting a new one using the Cricut Pretty Pennants cartridge.  I think I knew it was the problem all a long but I was really trying to stick with using up my scraps.  The old pennant wasn't working at all so it needed to go, lol.  I cut Purple Bazzill cardstock at 1 1/4 using banner #2.  Then I stamped it with various Skeleton images and Gesso.  I outlined all of the purple banners with a white gel pen.  Next I cut the Scalloped #2 banner at 1 1/2 and inked all of the edges with Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress Ink.  Making this change was just what my project needed and things finally started flowing again, YAY! :D

Since my Katrina was stamped onto a brown paper bag, it was way to thin.  I ended up attaching it to a piece of poster board.  I also used the white gel pen to outline the flowers and skeleton to help them pop a bit.

I used a Cropadile to punch holes in the pennants to run my ribbon through and then attached it across the top with glue.  Since this is in honor of El Dia De Los Muertos, I wrote in "I'll Never Forget".

The flourish with butterflies is by K&Company, Engraved Garden, Sticker Medley and the black bling is Recollections.

I framed the box with Black Glittered K&Company Adhesive Borders and added a ribbon to hang it.  For this project I used the following PWP stamp sets:

Large Katrina Stamp

Mexican Tins Cling Stamp (pennant)

Skeleton Melange Cling Stamp Set and/or Skeletons Cling Stamp Set (pennant & background)

Build A Shrine Cling Set (background)

Angels Cling Stamp Set (background)

Flourish Elements Cling Stamp Set (background)

&

Circle Frame Cling Stamp (background)

I'm so happy with the way it turned out and let me tell you, when things finally clicked, I was sooooo happy, lol!  Thanks so much for stopping by and joining me as I broke through my creative block!!  

Have a Beautiful and Inspired Day!!

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