Time Flies!

Hello, crafty friends! I can't believe it's Monday again already and not only that, it is also nearing the end of January already! Can you believe it's almost the "month of love"??? I sure can't!  I'm as pleased as punch to present to you my first layout using WOW! Embossing Powders and Stamps. If you have never used embossing powders, let me tell you that they add an extra special element to your designs and are more versatile than most people know. Of course, if you have been following this blog, you have likely discovered this fact already.

I used a diamond stencil template to create a background for my layout using black ink and WOW Clear Gloss Regular Embossing Powder. The first thing I did was to tape the template to the edges of the patterned paper I was using. I could have used Ebony embossing powder but I wanted the pattern to fade into the existing pattern on the right side of the paper so I needed to control the intensity of the color as I applied it.  I accomplished this by using a large sponge dauber to apply my ink and when I got to the center of the page, I didn't refresh the ink so that it faded out the farther to the right I went.

Next I took an older embossing ink pad that I didn't care if I ruined and applied it over the black I had just stenciled. I carefully removed the stencil template and applied the clear embossing powder, then melted it with my heat gun. Then I taped a clock template to the paper and with a sponge dauber and white and red acrylic paint, I stenciled parts of the clock pattern on top of the diamond pattern. After the paint dried completely, I used a black Copic multiliner to enhance the numbers on the clocks as well as the numbers randomly located around the page. I also sponged a little red paint on a couple of areas and used a brayer to smooth it out.

Once my background was finished, I laid the photo of my beautiful niece I was using and all the embellishments on top of it and rearranged them until I liked the way it looked. I also embossed a couple of leaves with some of the WOW Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular powder and arranged them in with the flowers. I made the letter tiles out of some cork squares that I got from a glass shop. They were once used to separate the pieces of glass to keep them from bumping each other and breaking on the rack. I just love recycling/reusing ordinary things and incorporating them into my art!  If you look closely, you'll also see a tear strip from a FedEx box that I stripped the paper off of to reveal the corrugated interior and splashed a little red paint on it.

The finishing touch was the cute pocket watch I added.  It's actually a resin dimensional sticker by Jolee's and I found some angel wings in clip art form, printed them and colored them with my Copics. I then cut them out and adhered them to the back side of the pocket watch.  I folded some foam mounting tape about 4 times to create a wedge shape to securely support it and to elevate it above the surface of the page. This layout was so much fun to make and I can't say enough about Wow Embossing Powders.  You owe it to yourself to try one or two of the gorgeous colors it comes in.  I think you'll love them as much as we do!

So there you have it. I hope you'll visit the WOW blog and if you like what you see there, I invite you to become a follower so you can keep up with what all the mega-talented designers are doing. If you happen to be attending CHA, stop by the WOW! booth and say hello to Suzy West and the Design Team.  I wasn't able to attend this time. :o(  Thanks for stopping by today. I hope your week is off to a good start and that you'll find some creative time to do something fun this week.

Happy crafting!
Anne