I can't tell you how excited I am about this incredible special guest star, Rebecca Luminarias. I visit her blog, Thurston Post, and go into a trance staring at the unbelievable beauty found there. Imagine my delight when I met her at CHA last month! Rebecca is so lovely and sweet in person and I may have overwhelmed her with my happiness over her work, her drop-dead gorgeous photographs and staging. I know you are in for a real treat today.
Hello! I'm Rebecca and I am so honored to be guesting during the W&W Belated 2nd Birthday Bash! Full disclosure: I'm NOT an amazing stamper! I fully accept that and it humbles me when I see the phenomenal talents of you folks who turn stamping on it's head and create masterpieces. I can't do that! I literally hold my breath every time I have to stamp on a store-bought die cut or my card/tag base, scared to breathe in case there's a smudge or a blank spot when I pull the stamp away. Having said that, though, I do collect stamp sets, especially ones with tiny images or fabulous fonts, and then I use them to accent my projects. I also love pretty, shiny things, so if nothing else, hopefully you'll see something you like here today.
It was hard to pick just one challenge so I picked 3, well, 4, really, and I combined 2 of them into one project. I combined Heather H's Gold + Watercolor Challenge with Heather P's Color Challenge. I watercolored white tags in aqua, chartreuse, and coral and decorated them with, among other things, gold accents.
Using words from The Big, the Bold and the Happy Cutaways that I cut from gold glitter paper, I adhered them to the tags and added a small resin flower.
Then I stamped 'for you' from The Big, the Bold and You stamp set on a tiny white tag and clipped it to the larger tag with a bitty glitter clothespin.
The third tag is slightly different, because instead of the separate tiny tag, I stamped 'gorgeous' right on the tag (holding my breath, of course). Though it's hard to see in the photo, there is also a glitter tag hole reinforcement underneath the coral flower, which I cut with the Essentials: Katharine Cutaways.
Lastly, I made some tassels from matching embroidery floss colors and tucked them behind each tag; they are attached with the glitter clips, as well. Wanting to keep with the color challenge, I made sure each of the 3 hues was present on every tag.
It's then easy enough to attach one to a gift or treat and pass on to a friend.
The next challenge was Image Inspiration with Taheerah and I totally picked it because I had recently made a tag with all of those same colors--black, blush pink, aubergine, gold--and I adored it! So again here, no major stamping, but a few poignant accents.
Again, I turned to a glitter die cut using TBTBATH cutaway; I'll admit to die cutting All The Things in glitter after seeing Heather H's Gold + Watercolor challenge card! I layered my 'happy' cutout over an embroidery floss bow, lace, and a black and white striped patterned paper background.
My new favorite sentiment stamp is courtesy of W&W's Comfort & Joy set and it's the 'shine bright' in a very small font. It has found a new home in the little dish that sits within arm's reach on my desk of high-rotation stamps that I always go to. On this card I stamped it on a scrap of white card stock that I outlined in gold paint and attached to the jump ring of my deep purple tassel. The sequin star is from Crate Paper and I backed it with a swatch of lace. You also get a peek at one of the February Release sets as I carried on with the star-theme by stamping a few of them on the white lines in pale pink ink.
The last challenge was initially the only one I was going to participate in until I saw them all and decided to make more things! Anything But a Card with Kate had my interest immediately, since these days I tend to focus mostly on gift wrap and tags when I'm creating.
I definitely used my W&W supplies to decorate my gift bag in the prettiest way possible! One thing to know about me is that I LOVE texture. I always add in fabric, lace, glitter, wood, and any other non-paper medium that fits. I also love to layer and build dimension so I start with a base; in this case it was a leftover coral watercolor tag from my first project. Then I added lace at the bottom, and the glitter flag, which I cut with the Essentials: Katharine Cutaways die. There is another hole reinforcement at the top of the tag, peeking out from underneath the two white strung tags which are simply stamped. 'Love from me' is from The Big, the Bold and You and the sweet, sweet hearts are another sneak from the W&W February Release.
I grouped some buttons and a resin flower at the bottom, as well, and pleated some coral fabric into another flower. Using gold printed vellum, I made a tag with the Essentials: Katharine Cutaways, and the very last layer of this set is a strip of yellow leaf fabric.
And my most favorite part of this entire gift is the clothespin! 'Shine bright' fit so perfectly on this mini wood clip; I stamped it with Hero Arts Black ink and let it sit for about 20 minutes before I touched it again to be sure it was completely dry and wouldn't smudge. Since I can't resist shine, I covered the end of the clip with chunky rose gold glitter. Yup. This is one reason why 'shine bright' is my new fave!
Thanks for letting me hang out today! I'm sure the super-talented stampers will be back tomorrow ;)
