Stuck?! Sketches 1 Oct/Mercy Tiara October Challenge

This month I really wanted to do a lot more than I physically was able to.  I managed to completed the Stuck?!Sketches Challenge for 1 October (there are two per month).  This one interested me with the second area of photo placement, though I was pretty sure I wouldn't place a photo there.

Anniversary Adventure With A Difference

(yes I know there is a spelling booboo in the title.  It's what comes from rushing to finish a project late at night and then not having the energy to retake photos when you realize!!)

In combining it with Mercy Tiara's 27 Day Challenge for October, I started to formulate a plan.  Shannon Daley Allor won last month's challenge and as the winner, she challenged us with this recipe:

1. Scrap some kind of celebration. It can be a birthday, losing a first tooth, a sport event, etc.
2. Use a long title.
3. Use mixed media such as mist, splatters, ink or texture paste. Anything goes.
4. Use some form of a primary color.
5. Use wood veneer.
6. Use washi tape.

Given there are few things I do celebrate, a slightly belated anniversary date on 9 October was a natural contender.  The colour combination of pink, red and blue was one I don't think I have actually used before.

Pink is an easy choice for me, but the rest of the inspiration came from the number cut-apart from Shimelle's "Glitter Girl" line.

In addition to incorporating a woodgrain pattern (as distinct to using woodgrain elements in the challenge) I thought the addition of a neutral colour would work with the others.
 
The number card used in the extra photo placement area of the sketch would make it a kind of feature embellishment and since it stood for the number of years we have been married, it made sense to emphasis it.
 
I rotated the sketch 90 degrees then "mirror imaged" it to look like the one on the right,  No particular reason other than that's just how it looked "right" to my eye.  I printed the two landscape photos pretty small since they were of questionable quality having been taken in a space with low light and forward facing selfie mode!

 
I picked the background paper for the layout pretty easily.  An older line by Crate Paper "KissKiss". but thought it was still subtle enough to be able to use with some kind of mixed media paste.

 
I wanted to try marbling pink in with white.  Since I already have a Heidi Swapp metallic pink paste that was a lovely warm pink, I decided to go with Dreamweaver Glossy White Embossing Paste.  The HS Pink was also sort of glossy and by using that rather than adding some kind of ink, it wouldn't change the consistency of the paste.  I also added a bit of Bo Bunny Glitter paste in what looks like a very neon pink but it's not!

In spreading the pastes, however carefully, the marbling effect wasn't as distinct as I hoped, but still soft and pretty.  

A heart stencil from Shimelle's "True Stories" Collection was just the right size but distorted if the past was too thick so next time I would be more careful to keep it thinner.

Titles are not hard for me to fit in with whatever I'm doing so that's 3 out of 6 prompts taken care of.  I manged to even use the word "adventure" from a set of word Thickers!

The washi in pink and gold was from a Crate Paper washi booklet (Maggie Holmes "Bloom" Collection I believe).

The wood veneer was a very last minute addition and I used what I had loose on my desk since accessing the rest of it seemed too hard so late at night.  I would have preferred some hearts but I'll leave it as is.

I really wanted to fussy cut some roses from Maggie Holmes' Chasing Dreams line.  Some chipboard in each of three groupings of embellishment (which didn't necessarily correlate to embellishment spots on the sketch).

 
The chipboard ribbon prize ribbon motif commonly used in "Chasing Dreams" hasn't been the easiest motif for me to use,  This one had a gold bunny so a label sticker and number "2" made it work a bit better,  

I have to say I had all these plans to add fussy cut butterflies and cameras and all sorts of stuff so to stop where I did wasn't bad for me.  I guess that's where I call it done...or not!





After taking the photos I decided I wanted gold mist,  Lots of it!

Keep checking back - I still need to edit the video for my Victoria Marie Challenge from last week as well as a few more things coming up over the next few days.

Love and perfectly marbled embossing paste!