Sunday 15 February 2015

Dare to be Unique...............


Hi there,
Time for another creative blog post me thinks but before I do I would just like to 'Welcome' all of you who have chosen to follow me n to say a big thank you to everyone who's stopped by to take a peek. It was wonderful to read so many lovely comments that were left about my blog n my first creative post !
So with me being such a novice at blogging  I will have to own up n say despite wanting to reply to each comment individually  I wasn't able to?  I did abit of poking around behind the scenes so to speak but with no joy so I do hope a few group replies will be ok  for now until I suss it out ! ( if anyone can steer me in the right direction it would be appreciated.)

Now for the creativity ........

I guess this piece evolved from deciding I was going to enter Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge. A quick hop gave me the brief - Red + Pink - to be inspired by the traditional colours associated with Valentines . Are you a Red or Pink person the brief asked ? hahaha - well lets just say  given a choice   I DON'T DO RED or PINK so I decided it might be fun to step outside my usual colour palette n take on the challenge!

I had in mind that I would make a card so started with the background. For this I used Tim Holtz distress paints - Fired Brick, Spun Sugar , Brushed Pewter n Picket Fence.  I used then like you would if you were doing a wrinkle free distress technique. Once I was happy with the colour I then went in with some Fired Brick distress ink  just to give a bit more depth to the red hue . Out came the Black Soot ( well I was beginning to get a bit jittery with all this red n pink going on , lol ) to darken the edges .

Some stenciling n stamping was added randomly using Fired Brick, Barn Door n Black Soot distress inks to create more interest n  depth to the background. Then I spritzed lightly with Black Soot distress spray stain n Pewter cosmic shimmer to give a subtle sparkle .

Finally a few (3)thin strips of  harlequin tissue tape were strategically placed on the background .



After some indecision ( I'm the queen of it ) I opted for one of the stamps from the dylusions stampset- 'Strength'. After stamping with Black archival I cut the image out n added some red shading to the harlequined top, the eyes n the lips !! I drew round the stamped image on black card as I wanted to create a shadow that hopefully would make the image 'pop  when placed on the background! The shadow was adhered flat n the stamped image was offset n adhered with dimensional glue .

As I love using metal bits n bobs on my work I added some small  metal washers at the ends of the tissue tape  n some lengths of chicken wire cut in half  leaving a space free for the quote ! 
The quote I opted for was one of Wendy Vecchi's -do love the fonts Wendy chooses for her quotes/sentiments . I thought it worked well with the stamped image. A quick mounting secured with brads n it was ready to go !




Although my initial thoughts were to make a card, I did infact decide otherwise n made it into a piece of wall art instead using mountboard. I  made  a couple of holes for hanging, finished them off with eyelets n used black ribbon to hang!

n here it is ..... Dare to be Unique!! 




Hope you've enjoyed your visit n hope to see you again soon !

I would like to enter this piece into the following challenge


As I have used stencils on this piece I would also like to enter it into


31 comments:

  1. Ooh fab Amanda! Love that beautiful red background and your use of chicken wire. Xxx

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  2. Gorgeous Amanda, love the red and black and the touch of wire, the touché of tape are perfect. Tracy x x

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  3. Thx so much Wendy McCarthy for your kind words

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  4. Wonderful piece full of beautiful details, also the background is great, really love it...!! Coco xx

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  5. thx so much Tracy n Corinne for your lovely comments x

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  6. Brilliant background and the image is striking and perfect with the sentiment! Thanks for playing along with us at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!

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  7. Wonderful design Amanda, love your colours on this ! I have also become your latest blog follower.

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  8. Thx Suzanne C for stopping by n leaving such kind words .

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  9. Thx Sid for yet another kind comment n thx too for joining my little group of followers .Much appreciated .

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  10. This is fab .... I love all the layering on the background. Thanks for joining in with the TIMI challenge .... good luck! Linda xx

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  11. Great work fellow newbie blogger!!! ❤️

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  12. Way, wayyyy cool! Love, love, love this. The background has such great depth and I love all the little metal bits, too.

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  13. This is a stunning hanging Amanda, I love the red, the wire looks fabulous and the lady is just wonderful. A beautiful piece of art! Hugs, Anne xx

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  14. Gorgeous! And you should definitely use red more often lol! Thank you so much for playing along in the February challenge at Craft Stamper! xxxx

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  16. thankyou so much Redanne n Trish for your lovely comments - they really are appreciated :) x

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  17. Wonderful, loving the details :) xx

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  18. Thx so much Samantha n Paula for your lovely comments n for stopping by to take a peek xxx

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  19. Beautiful! Thanks for joining us at the Take It Make It Challenge.

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  20. thk you! Renee for your kind words x

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  21. Blimey you're good Amanda! I'm so glad you finally get to share your incredible talent with everyone this way. LOVE this piece, the design, the colours, all that layering. Jenny x

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  22. aww! Thk you so much Jenny for such a lovely compliment! Means alot x

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  23. Yummy love all the layers xx

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  24. Fab project! Thanks for playing along at Craft Stamper Take It Make It.

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  25. amanda this piece of work is so powerful. you are very talented.

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  26. Totally love your project. So beautiful and so bold! And the metal wires in the background look so cool. What a great idea!
    Thank you for playing with us at Craft Stamper Take it, Make It challenge. Hoping to see you with us again in March!

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  27. thx Gilly for popping by n for your kind comment ! x

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  28. Thx Elina for your lovely comment ! Hope to be join in again in March :) x

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