Monday, February 11, 2013

Challenge: Something Messy

Whether distress stains or paint splatter, tearing up a sheet of paper or a layered collage, mist or a glitter burst - let’s get a bit messy this week! It is the first week of March, and they say this month starts like a lion right? So let’s roar and make some creative mess! OK, so you don’t have to stain your hands with Dylusions as I so often do, and you don’t have to make a messy looking project, but let's see where our design team takes the idea of 'messy' with this challenge.
 
 
Trace is trying a new kind of messy this week.
I am going to call it "pretty" messy, and I am starting with my first art journal. My goal with it is to be more free and messy and to just let art happen - not to think and stress so much about the project. I must confess, my Dylusions Creative Journal is so pretty that I just held it for a few week before I finally cut loose with my Dylusions Ink Sprays in Crushed Grape, London Blue , and Bubblegum PinkI had to pretty up the page a bit with my Dylusions Dotted Flowers Stencil and The Crafters Workshop Mini Zinnia Template. I really like how the White Gel Pen by Uni-ball just helps the colours to pop, and show off the "pretty" flowers.

Dan's messy piece has a colour story that was initially inspired by a fragment of cardstock.
This piece was a tricky so-and-so this week, but it was really my own fault. You know how, when you start doing something, you have it all planned out in your head, then you can't stop changing your mind once you've started? Well that's how I was with this. I had a small fragment of Retro Grunge card on my desk which I decided to use as my colour inspiration. My initial plan was to make this a celebration of Dina Wakley stamps, and you can see her Grungy Circles in the background of my composition. As I worked however, I kept seeing "Jake" staring at me and I finally gave up the Dina plan and made this a Jake-a-thon instead.

Sandra Mouwen is a very messy crafter, just ask her hands!
I really am the messy type of crafter. It doesn't necessarily mean all my projects are messy, it's that I make a mess crafting! Making this card was no exception. The paper in the back is a piece of Antique Book Paper - I love that it's so light weight. I stamped the edges with the Craftsman stamp and distressed it a bit with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. On top I've cut out the bigger Ornamental die and cut also out the Mini Hearts. Oh and of course my dear Mr. Scrubby is so nice to clean my inky fingers afterwards.

Tracy got in touch with her messy side to create and inky background to showcase her fabulous textural heart.
To say I created a mess for the love of my art this week is an understatement; my fingers were covered in ink and glue and so is my garden table! I sprayed my inks outside on my garden table so that I could go mad and spray to my heart's content, using vibrant turquoise and melted chocolateDylusions Spays. I added a little sea salt into the mix (if you are going to make a mess you may as well go the whole hog!) and after mopping up my mess I began again. This time with the textural heart cut from card using Wendy Vecchi's Stencils for Art Large Heart. It's so invigorating to just let loose now and then.

I (May) used water to make a bit of mess on my latest card.
This Tim Holtz Ruler background stamp is so cool all on its own, but I knew when I saw it that I wanted to use it with a homemade stencil to create this card from the heart. I used distress inks on this card intentionally because I knew that if I did, then misted with water it would react, bleed, and make a mess in the most wonderful way. Like many members of our design team - my fingers are more often an inky mess than not and I wouldn't have it any other way.



 
Ashli has a hard time NOT getting messy when she makes a project. So, to make this a challenge for herself, she decided to try using messy mediums in a clean way.
Oh yes, messy is what I love to do! But, this is supposed to be a challenge right? What better way to challenge myself this week than to use loads of messy mediums and attempt to make a "clean" project? I upcycled an old toy package as my foundation for this Valentine's Day home decor piece, but I do believe a Configurations Box would work quite nicely as well! I created my heart embellishments using some chip board, Glitz Cashmere Dame Patterned Paper, and some SticklesPink Paislee's Secret Crush Papers line the interior of my shadow box, while a good healthy sprinkling of Silver Glitter and Color Shine sprinkled about adds sparkle. Overall I do believe I was able to get a rather clean look with all of these messy mediums!

Candy had such fun playing and making a mess to create this 8x8 canvas.
This challenge is the perfect opportunity for me to keep a promise I made myself to not let the "fear factor" deter me from experimenting with different styles and products. This canvas is the result of a messy play session involving layers of Black and White Embossing Paste, Dylusions Sprays, Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls Mist, Jet Black Archival Ink, Snow Cap Paint and paper. This art journal style canvas was so intimidating to me before I started it.  But, I dove in head first and I have to say that this form of self expressive art is something I definitely will do again. It's fun!
 
 
 
 
Anna-Karin loves to get messy and often walks around with blue or green hands, or, as in the case of this accordion card, pink hands, with a touch of Perfect Pearls.
For this project I got messy with my Dylusions mists, Perfect Pearls and of course some Distress Inks. Since it is Valentine's Day this week, I wanted to use my new Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Valentine Blueprint stamps and decided to showcase them in Karen Burniston's fun Sizzix 3-D Flip Accordion Album. I used Crowded Attic patterned paper for the frame pieces and embellished my card with wood veneer hearts, arrows and people.



Anita loves to get her hands creatively dirty! You'll never find her sporting a manicure.
Have you ever regifted a gift? That is what this tag is all about, and I just couldn't help myself. I got plenty inky messy in the process of  getting this regifted tissue paper on this tag all ready to give away. A few of the roses were colored using Tim's new Distress Paint in Spun Sugar, as well as Dyan's new Dylusions Ink Spray in Funky Fuchsia.

Suzz heard the word messy and decided to get out the shaving cream and Dylusions Ink Spray and create some marble backgrounds that smell good.
My youngest daughter and I love this technique as it involves the shaving cream and blending different colors.  She loves smearing the shaving cream on and not knowing how it is going to look when you pull up the paper.  We created a variety of backgrounds and I picked out  this soft blue, yellow and gray background to create my triptych.  I decided to create a floral pattern across the the panels using the Stampendous Hollyhocks. The butterflies are one of my favorite stamps to use, and they are stamped in the same beautiful Aged Gold Embossing Enamel as the flowers.
 
Sarah spends lots of time getting messy everyday, but that tends to be nappies and baby mealtimes at the moment! So for once she was glad to go wild with all her craft table had to offer in a mixed media canvas.
It's been ages since I had time to play in my Art Journal so I decided to express myself on a chunky canvas instead. I didn't have any idea what I was going to create so I let myself be led by the many wonderful products around me and my feelings of the moment. I just love to work on building up layers of colour, ink, paint, paper and sprays. Adding, taking away, playing with translucent and opaque layers, letting the contrasts appear by chance. I used lots of Dylusions Inks, gesso, Wendy Vecchi stamps, touches of Tissue Tape to name but a few... This kind of messy was just what the crafty doctor ordered!

 
Be sure to click on our design team's blog links so you can learn more about how they love to get messy and see more photos (and full supply lists) for their projects. Then it is your turn! Play with inks, make a mess, or take this challenge (as always) in any direction that inspires you.
 
This week Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by Random Generator. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here. This challenge will end at 11:59pm on Sunday February 17th EST.

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.
 



19 comments:

  1. Sme great inspiration from the design team! Trace x.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Realy amazing work from SSSS team, thanks for inspiration! I love to get messy, so it is perfect theme for me!
    Hugs from snowy Slovenia

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great challenge! Love seeing all the ideas...which leaves me wondering how messy your work spaces are? I know mine can get quite messy :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Super inspiration from the team, all so different and fabulous x

    ReplyDelete
  5. great challenge to allow for creativity
    ava g

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love getting messy! Great challenge & wonderful inspiration!
    Alison xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wonderful DT inspirations. Anna-Karin's accordion card is spectacular! Thanks for the get messy challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  8. thanks for a great challenge, and some lovely samples from the team, Debi x

    ReplyDelete
  9. As usual, the SSS teams inspirational pieces are marvelous! Happy Valentine's Day!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks everyone! We really appreciate your comments. Thank you for the sweet comment Wendy!

    ReplyDelete
  11. You inspired me to get messy~thank you! It was just in time too...I just received my sprays~

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks so much for all your kind comments. Tracy x

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a fabulous array of inspiration from the team... looking forward to my hop round!
    Alison xx

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great "messy" DT projects! Thanks for the fun challenge!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks for another great challenge to link up to.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Funny how I have to clean up my work space to get ready to get messy lol.
    Laura

    ReplyDelete
  17. LOVE this challenge & the DT inspirations...just fab!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Fabulous challenge and we have certainly got Messy...................with great results.

    Good luck to all

    Hugs

    Annie x

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.