"Enjoy" by Melissa Struhs

Hello Again Everyone!

I often wonder if I didn't have a creative job, would I still scrap as much as I do? Then, I think of how much my style has changed over the last 18 months of Colour Blast fun on the Design Team. Not sure if I remember what I used before these products were available to be honest.

The use of Colour Blast products on these very feminine style papers really transformed them.

I began with a mini brick template

and roughly smeared Steel  and Dusty Charcoal Colour Paste together to create a variegated look on my non stick craft sheet with a palette knife.

With small stencils, I like to throw down a few pieces of washi tape to help with the stability while I smooth the paste over.

The two colours are the lightest and darkest variations of greys in the range and the combination is really lovely and the texture of the bleeding effect is actually a slight grungy effect (but still tidy enough that neat scrapbookers will be happy!)

The brick look drifts across 2 layers of papers quite well, though my oversized enlargement covers some of it also.

While the paste was still wet, I popped a scrap of paper in the general position of where the photo would eventually be and flicked Stormy Weather Colour Shimmer Spray near the brick stencilling and in the top left corner where an embellishment cluster would be positioned.

To play up a grungy, industrial look I collected a variety of chipboard and wood veneer light bulbs

and a wood veneer title and painted them with Black Heavy Gesso to create a chalkboard finish. Usually chipboard needs 1 coat and wood veneer needs 2 to achieve a uniform look.

A few metal cogs heated and then plunged into a pot of Steel  and Just Blue Colour Embossing Powder, eliminates needing any ink at all. I love that it saves having to search through all of your colours and then having to juggle one more item in this process.

Here is the before and after of a cog dipped in the Steel colouring...it adds a thick glossy layer.

In this image, you can see close up's of the cog given a Just Blue finish teamed with the other elements.

I decided to tidy up any stencil bleeding with a row of backstitching to define the line of bricks and stamped my son's initial's to create a graffiti tag on the wall.

and the final cluster is worked around the chalked title.

With the weekend ahead, I am planning a huge few days of scrapping in complete silence until all of my favourite people arrive on Monday for a girl's scrap day! And Amanda Hartmann, if you are reading this....remember to keep your Lollipop Colour Spray to your side of the table and off my layout please!

Happy Creating!

Mel.