December 2011 Girlie Grunge Challenge

Hello!

Boy, I feel like I haven't blogged in a month! The past couple of weeks I've been in Portland and Seattle visiting family and friends, not to mention, fighting off this icky head cold. So I haven't had a whole lot of time for papercrafting ... but I did manage to create two projects in one: a "little-piece-of-home" for my sister Therese (who very recently moved to Seattle) and my entry for Donna Salazar's December 2011 Challenge.

The requirements for the December challenge are to create a card, layout, tag, or altered project use denim, glitter, a Donna Salazar product, and two pictures (if creating a layout.) Since my sister recently moved to Seattle, and I want her to have a little piece of nostalgia and familiarity with her, I thought I'd focus the challenge on a layout of the two of us. I ended up using the Creative Scrappers sketch #185 as a starting point for my layout. (Thanks again, Natasha!)

Here is my layout:

First, I distressed the edges of a piece of cardstock and used it as the base for my layout. I then took a piece of SEI paper from Paper Mermaids and ran it through my Distrezz-It-All, then glued on top of the cardstock. My Distrezz-It-All (DIA) was an early Christmas present my husband got me from Paper Mermaids. This tool is AMAZING! I love the ripped up, grungy, tattered effect it gives your projects. I've been drooling over one ever since I started following the Girlie Grunge Ning, as well as learning more about Donna and her playful style!

I cut out flowers from another piece of SEI paper, then rolled some of the edges to give the flowers more of a dimensional look.

The big purple flower and smaller dark purple flower were made with my DS Rose Creations die. I dusted the edges of the larger purple flower with glitter, which I'm sure has transferred onto my sister by now. (Just kidding, Therese!) The other flowers on my layout include a purple Mulberry Street flower and a tiny Prima flower, both leftovers from my Paper Mermaids stash.

Now, for the denim ... I cut up the hem of a pair of jeans, rolled them up, and turned the piece into a rosette.

Next, I took several pieces of denim, cut each one into a circle shape, then folded into a flower shape. I applied some Smooch pearlized ink (from the blog candy I won recently) to my denim flowers, then glued them to my page to create a cascading effect.

I cut a few strips of denim, cut and ripped up the edges, then glued onto my layout.

The sentiment was created using my Tim Holtz "Vintage Lace" die and his "Once Upon a Time" die, a recent Christmas present from Portland. I applied some glitter on the paper lace strip below my sentiment.

It definitely helped having a sketch to work from. I must admit, it made creating a 12x12 layout less intimidating. I think I'll do more of these in 2012. Till then, thank you for looking, and have a wonderful day!

Supplies:

SEI "Couture" paper
DS Zutter Distrezz-It-All
DS Rose Creations die
Smooch pearlized ink
Tim Holtz Vintage Lace die
Tim Holtz Once Upon a Time die
Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Mulberry Street flower
Prima flower
Restaurant doily (Save these!!)