Anything But Cute September Challenge #17-Friendship

Hello friends and visitors! Today marks the start of our 17th challenge at anything But Cute! Where does the time go? The lovely and tremendously talented Branka is our hostess this time, and she chose the theme "Friendship". I'll give you some details on that shortly, but first here is an altered mini frame I made to help inspire you.

Here is what Branka says about the theme 'Friendship'....Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between two or more people. We want you to show us a mixed media creation that's inspired by friendship. You can create anything from tags to art journal pages, but make sure it's a mixed media piece. Let's celebrate friendship together!

I chose to make a tiny folding frame to send with my daughter to college. I thought she could put photos of the fun she's had this summer with her best friends in it to have near her on her desk. I picked up this frame at a yard sale about a month ago and got started right away. But because I'd much rather spend precious time with her, it sat on my worktable, and the next thing I know it was time to take her to college and drop her off. So you will see my paints, inks and stains have all run together from the tears shed over making this for her since she's flew the nest. But it brightens my days to spend time making something I know she will love.

This is what it looked like after giving the entire thing a couple of coats of gesso and blending my Distress paints over that. I swiped some of the paints directly on the frame, and some I diluted with water on my craft mat and ran the frame through, drying between layers, and dabbing at my puffy eyes with a tissue. From here on, I forgot to take process shots--oops! But nothing new here. I used Distress paints in Shaded Lilac and Wilted Violet and got some of those spots by flicking rubbing alcohol on the wet paint.

Next I used various stencils--a TCW stencil, a Tim Holtz stencil and a no-name one--and knifed through Ranger Transparent Texture Paste in Matte. While wet, I sprinkled with Prima Art Sugar in Antique Silver and a tiny bit of Clear Rock Candy Distress glitter. I allowed it to dry and brushed off the excess. I wish I had a taken a process photo, because it was REAL sparkly. I toned it down by adding some Distress Spray stain in Picket Fence straight from the bottle and spritzed with water to allow it to blend over the surface. You can get a feel for the sparkle in the photo with the Flourish stenciling below. This is one of those projects that just looks so much better in real life.

The flowers are from my stash and started as white. Distress Spray stain in Wilted Violet gives them their color with different degrees of dilution with water for the various shades. The black flower images are rub ons from my stash. Within the frame, I covered watercolor paper with clear gesso then tinted with Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet and Chipped Sapphire Distress paints. I stamped a couple of flowers with white acrylic paint and used Tim Holtz Remnant Rubs and a rub on from my stash for the advice.

Another flower rub on from my stash.

The music stamps in the background are in Archival Watering Can and are from My Sentiments Exactly, the smaller music is a rub on, and the friend sentiment is from Dylusions inked in Jet Black Archival. That's a bit of cheesecloth, my homemade art stones, and a half of a Cheery Lynn die cut tucked under the flowers.

Around back, I used some designer paper cut to fit and blended with Shaded Lilac and Wilted Violet distress inks and spritz and flicked with water for that lovely aged look. I used Tim Holtz musical Tissue tape on one of the folds and another one that mentions friend from my stash on the inner folds.

A few stashed rub ons finish this side off and are ready for a few personal handwritten thoughts.

That's it for this project--simple as it gets, but a little on the time consuming side! I hope you will pop over to Anything But Cute to see what my super talented teamies made to inspire you for this challenge. I'm looking forward to seeing all your great entries again this month; you have an entire month to enter!

I would like to enter my frame in the following challenges:

A Vintage Journey September challenge-Create Within a Frame!

The Artistic Stamper-September Creative challenge-Monochromatic

Southern Ridge Trading Company- Your Favorites One of my favorite crafty endeavors is to alter an object and give it a new life. Purple is quickly become one of my favorite colors this past year, and of course, I love texture! And I made this for my favorite daughter! (I only have one!)

Country View September Challenge- Travel What's this got to do with travel, you ask?  My daughter is taking a new journey, traveling far (for her) from home to spend 4 years in a new city.

Creative Artiste Challenge #18 Anything Mixed Media Goes

Frilly and Funkie-Floral Infatuation I tried to get this ready for It's a Small, Small World, but it wasn't happening. So thankful for this week's theme!

Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge Weeks #246-247

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday-Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday August 2016

Dies R Us challenge #56-Summer Vacation Well, summer vacation is over and college starts for my daughter. This frame was made for her to put some of her summer memories in. I used a Cheery Lynn die.

Thank you for stopping by today and for all your lovely comments! I read and appreciate each and every one of them!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily