Challenge Two-fer! MAC #18 & SSS

Greetings! I know, I know...it's not 11:57 pm!! Pick yourself up off the floor...

FIRST things FIRST: HUGE big THANK YOU!! to Simon Says Stamp and Lori for my new Wendy Vecchi stamp set, Nature's Art. I am sooooooo appreciative of your generosity! And very much in love with this set!!!

Now, on to the deets:

EWV MAC #18 and SSS Some Stitching!

Lori, hostess extraordinaire at Everything Wendy Vecchi, challenged us to work with Book 1, Page 20's example and create with striped paper and a rectangular frame. I'm tweaking that a bit, as I believe squares are just an extra special rectangles. ;-) Hopefully, my fellow Wendy Vecchians will agree. My base is actually a random dollar bin find at Jo-Ann; it's a slightly padded frame with a lovely texture...but you have no way of knowing that since my original plan to ink the frame fell through. I have NO IDEA what kind of paper was covering that thing, but NOTHING I tried worked..not even alcohol inks. Weird. Could be lack of expertise, but what a MESS! Thank God for Backup Plan A! Textured chocolate brown cardstock to the rescue!! Rubbed some Vintage Photo DI on the top to give a little more depth to the design, but the swirls were handily already on the paper.

Striped papers are from the fabulous Mr. H's Retro Grunge stack--an interesting combo of deep greens, reds & cranberries that I did NOT want to go "holiday" with. Inside the frame, I inked the stripes with Fired Brick DI and a little Tea Dye. Then used my brand spankin' new Wendy gingham background from Nature's Art in CTMH Brown Bag. The sentiment is Tim's, stamped in CTMH Archival Black & embossed in clear to give it some pop. The brads are from Bo-Bunny, Mamarazzi. The outer frame is one of Wendy's Art Parts, covered in the same striped paper. Edges inked in Fired Brick and Tea Dye. I left the background stamp off this frame use of the striped paper. A few brown toned buttons and Voila!

The flower is also a Wendy Art Part, the smaller of the two flowers in the Florals set. Paper covering the flower (and making the butterfly) is from My Mind's Eye LifeStories stack. Flower edges are lightly inked with Fired Brick, then brushed with Tea Dye. Flower's center is a Wendy stamp from Homemade Art stamped in CTMH Garden Green on vellum. Roughed up the edges a wee bit, then inked with Antique Linen DI. Finished the flower with a button, key and Cranberry Waxy Flax (CTMH). Tag is from 7 Gypsies. That one came down to a choice between one that said "Real Life" or "Become"...went with this one because the tear-off bit at the bottom says "No. 47." Forty-seven is a bit of a cultural phenomenon at my alma mater, so I just HAD to go with the 47!! Actually kept wondering if the tag crossed into 'too much of a good thing' territory, but now that I'm looking at it more, I like how it offsets the symmetry of the piece a bit.

Butterflies are both stamped from the super awesome dotty butterfly in my new Wendy set. (Have I mentioned that I LOVE it?? THANK YOU again, Simon & Lori!!) Bottom layer was given the same treatment as the center of the flower. Top layer matches the flower, but is stamped in CTMH Barn Red. Both layers were embossed in clear. Butterfly's body was given the Glossy Accents treatment.

This week, our friends at Simon Says Stamp & Show asked to see some stitching (faux or otherwise!). Since I'm not so handy with a needle, this artist greatly appreciates the leniency to be faux! I incorporated "stitching" on the striped frame & flower on this creation. Stitch stamp on two sides of the frame is from Tim's Seamless Experience set. "Hand-stitching" around the flower done courtesy of my CTMH Chocolate pen.

I'm liking this project so much,  it just may go with me to kick it in my cubical at work!

Still time to get yourself inky and play along--Simon's challenge goes 'til midnight tonight.  EWV 'til Tuesday midnight. Click the links above to get started!