Made with Love

Merry Christmas Eve bloggers! I wanted to sneak in a quick post on a project for you guys before the madness in my house begins. Since tomorrow is Christmas, my little ones will have all of my attention for the next few days. But don't worry, remember that huge surprise I mentioned a while back? It's almost time for the big news. in just a few days I can finally tell you all and I can't wait to share! To say thank you and show just how much all of my wonderful followers mean to me, I'm dedicating my latest project to you guys, so here it goes!

Valentines Anya digi

Cuteness overload right?! How can you stand it! This is one digi that I hope TGF releases in rubber so I can watercolor her with my TH distress markers too! The papers and stickers I used came from the Doodlebug Sweetheart collection which I am in love with so if anybody knows where I can still get the 6x6 pads pleeeease share that valuable information <3 <3 <3 Anywho, I started this altered frame off by sanding down a frame I purchased at Michael's craft store for $1. After cleaning the dust off I selected a soft pink paint from my stash and pained the front and sides of the frame with a sponge brush. While the frame was drying I put it to the side and started working on my image. I hope you can see the dimension, I used a paper piecing technique that I found here. Can I just stop and say holy WOW that woman is talented! I love stopping by her blog and seeing her work, I have a long way to go but I think this project was a nice start! I started off by printing several of the Valentines Anya digis (available in the TGF Store) in a larger than average size on Xpress it blending card and one on a cute pink polkadot patterned paper from my stash. Next I colored each part of  Anya on different images so that none of the colored parts were touching. I wanted to add some shadows to the polkadot paper that would be used for her dress and hair bow so I used my copic markers in the colors RV32 R81, RV10, and RV000 for the shading and LOTS of wink of stella. Next I fussy cut out each part of my digi individually and rounded the edges using the McGill paper blossom embossing kit I purchased from here. I followed the technique shown on Mariska's tutorial I mentioned earlier to complete my image and set her to the side to dry. Right now I'm using Helmar's liquid scrapdots for my 3d effect but I will not be purchasing again because it tends to be a bit greasy and actually left a grease spot on my image, not cool! I'll be trying out a different brand as soon as I finish using up this tube so as not to be wasteful but I DID NOT like that product for card making! Once the frame was dry I began cutting out strips of DP and arranging them where I wanted them to be. Finally all that was left to do was glue all the pieces onto the frame. Normally I would use my Homemade Mod Podge but since I had something 3D and fairly heavy, this time I used the clear gloss medium I use for my mixed media canvases to stick everything down real good! A heart banner with my LaLa Land heart banner die and some cutie precious hearts from memory box and this frame was finished! If you guys have never tried 3D paper piecing it is a must, if for nothing more than to be able to say you did it. Yes it is time consuming but OMG the results are so very worth it. My advice is to try it out on a bigger image with large pieces like this anya digi when first beginning and get a good 3D glue and some good sharp precision scissors and you are ready to go! If you give it a try I'd love to see it, leave me a link in the comments and I'll be sure to check it out. 'Till next time!

-Krys