Shades Of Blue

Well, we’re halfway through the first month of 2014!  It’s already starting to go so fast.  Christmas will be here before you know
it!  Ha ha!  Thanks for joining me for another week of
Mark’s Finest Paper’s Color Challenge. 
This week our challenge is to use shades of blue.  It’s pretty self-explanatory… basically just
use any shades of blue and neutral colors such as black, white or beige if you
would like.

I dug through some of my old photos until I came across one
of my daughter taken when she was in college, seven or eight years ago.  I can’t believe college was that many years
ago for her, and I can’t believe I’m getting THAT old!

For this week’s challenge 
I chose to use Mark’s Finest Paper’s Swans stamp set, that was just released
this month.  Even though I didn’t use any
of the images there is still a lot of sweet sentiments, including I love you, love, and forever.  I tried a new technique this time, and also
accidentally stumbled into a second one that I’m really excited about.  I used some chalk board paper made by DCWV
that I have in my stash.  I used VersaMark
ink to stamp the sentiment and then heat embossed it with white embossing
powder.  Then I wanted to add some
doodles, so I used a bistro chalk marker, but didn’t like the way it looked up
against the white embossed areas.  It
wasn’t as bright and bold as the embossed words.  So, I decided to try something new.  I drew a couple of doodles with the chalk
marker, put white embossing powder on them and it actually stuck!  I was able to emboss my scribbles without
using a VersaMark ink pen.  The nice
thing about this for me is that if I mess up a doodle, using the chalk marker,  I can wipe it right off.  Versa Mark ink does not come off as
easily.  So I was able to draw and
doodle, fix my mistakes, and then embossed what I decided I liked.  I’m super excited that it worked!  When I was happy with all of my embossed
areas, I allowed everything to cool off a little and then I used some regular white
chalk to scribble on the chalkboard paper, and then just use my fingers to wipe
it off.  That gives the effect of a
chalkboard that someone has erased.

I used my Silhouette Cameo and a file I purchased in the
Silhouette Store for my background.  I
mounted my picture on blue card stock, added some bling, and a journaling card
from my stash.  Poof!  Layout is done!

Please consider joining us this week for the shades of blue
color challenge.  You have until next
Wednesday at 6 PM PST to link up.  See
you there!