Keep Calm and Hop On

Today I went out of my comfort zone to create a mini canvas. The 5 challenges I entered today required and Easter theme (Stampin Dragon Designz) with a humorous twist, clean, simple design that was NOT a card (CAS-ual Fridays), pastel colors and ribbon (3 Girl JAM) and buttons (Craftin' Desert Diva's). The challenge is freestyle at Hiding in My Craft Room - HIMCR. Hopefully you will play along. Here are the links:

• CAS-ual Fridays - CFC96 Funny Bunny
• 3 Girl JAM Challenge #15 Pastel with Ribbon
• HIMCR #91
• Stampin Dragon Designz - Easter challenge
• Craftin Desert Diva's Craft it up; link it up party #3

Because this project was out of my wheel house it caused my creativity to soar! I used all new materials and techniques. First of all, this is way too small. I usually create A2 cards or 12x12 layouts. Smaller = stress for me. However, I challenged myself to make this without becoming stressed. Pre-planning and then letting my imagination run wild as I was creating were key.

The first step to creating this project was stamping the bunny. I wanted him to be blurry a little to show motion. He is hopping into a cartwheel. Then I stamped the same image on cardstock, cut it out and adhered it to the stamped image on my canvas (masking). Then I used a stippling brush to layer color on the canvas to make the background.

Once the background was the way I desired, I used a small portion of a flower stem stamp to create the grass at the bottom of the canvas. I inked the stem and lightly (yet randomly) stamped it several times before re-inking. The light and dark parts help to create depth. Adding the clouds (one half on the right and the other half of the stamp on the left) in the same ink as the sky worked well. The sentiment was supposed to say keep calm and shop on. However, I removed the ink from the "S" with a Q-tip. I was feeling very cleaver.... All that was left to do was remove the mask, add the button, ribbon, twine and chipboard button. In strategic places I added double-sided tape to hold the ribbon still.

Supplies:

1. Artist's Loft primed wooden cradle board 1" (4 x 4")
2. stamps - bunny and grass: Sandylion girl clear stamps, clouds: Recollections Fun Borders, Sentiment: Stampin' Up! Carry On
3. Ink - Technique Tuesday green chalk ink, TPC Studio Clearly Better Green Ink pad, Clear and Simple Stamps Hybrid ink perfect black dress, paint the town pink, Simply Blue-tiful
4. Ribbon/Twine: Stampin' Up! Marina Mist striped grosgrain ribbon 1 1/4", Mon Ami Gabby Couture Accents twine
5. Buttons: Chipboard patterned button and mini blue button - stash
6. Stippling brush
7. Adhesives: Zots glue dots, Scotch ATG, Scotch double-sided tape

La-Vie