Inspiration Wednesday 09/22/2010

Oh my - I'm actually posting my Inspiration Wednesday post ON Wednesday!  And well before midnight!  LOL!!  That would be because A.) I started my page before Donna posted hers, and thus, B.) did not wait until so late in the day to start; and C.) did a more simple page this week.  That said, it was a VERY difficult page to photograph (although it does seem like MOST of my stuff is hard to photograph well with my camera)...indoors, the flash shone off the Glimmer Mist and acrylic paint of the leaves so brightly, yet outdoors in the natural light, I couldn't get the Glimmer Mist to sparkle hardly at all.  So I did my best to share some of both...so hopefully you can get a feel for just how shimmery and warm this page really is!

I was glad I didn't wait for Donna to post hers this week, since I don't actually own any Pan Pastels (or any pastels, for that matter)...so I wouldn't have been able to do that part of the technique anyway.  I just did a simple coat of Ochre Yellow fluid acrylic paint (Golden brand) for the background.  I literally just put a couple drops of it right on the page, sprayed some water on the page, and used a wide brush to spread the paint over the entire page, letting it lighten toward the left part of the page.  Then I took 3 leaves I had previously cut from book text, using my Cricut (the Wild Card cartridge), and glued them down on the page.  I painted over them using Nickel Azo Gold fluid acrylic paint, building in layers, so that it is darker on the outer part of the leaves.  I love that you can see the brush strokes and the layers in some of the pictures - and that you can still see the book text through the paint - the leaves almost seem to have a 3-dimensional look to them.  

Then, I used a mask that I had cut on my Cricut (also Wild Card cartridge), using the Tim Holtz cut-your-own-mask sheets - that's the tree branch you see near the top of the page.  It's self-adhesive, so I stuck it to the page, and used my Tim Holtz distress inks in Orange Marmalade, Barn Door, and Vintage Photo over the  mask and around the edges of the entire page, before removing the mask.  I also went around the edges of the page with a little Walnut Ink distress ink.  I stamped the clock face using an acrylic stamp I made using the  cut-your-own-stamps acrylic stamp sheets for the Cricut (using the Graphically Speaking cartridge), in brown Staz-on.  I then used the same cartridge to cut clock hands from cardstock and glued them on top of the stamped image, and covered them in Glossy Accents, and glued the Tim Holtz metal "cherish" charm in the middle.  I stamped "gratitude" at the bottom of the page, and glued down two pieces of ruler ribbon on the page.  I spritzed the page with Tiger Lily Glimmer Mist - a gorgeous shade of orange with beautiful golden shimmer to it.  Finally, I added my quote and doodled a few lines around the edges using black india ink.

I love how this last photo shows the texture of the leaves!!  They were so simple to do, but I just love them!!  They make me happy!