UPC & me...perfect together!*

i know i've mentioned gina's USE, PRACTICE, CREATE "play along" project already, but other than making a fun painty card for our UPC/jingle belles crossover last week, i haven't really had a chance to do the "playing along" part yet...until now!

for january the focus is on acrylic paints; which i definitely don't use enough. (that's what i love most about UPC: the chance to re-discover & play with stuff I HAVE, as well as learning and trying new things!) so the other day i got out a bunch of blue shades, and commenced to essperimentin'.

this would be a great time to have step-by-step photos, right?! i agree! which is why it's such a pity i don't. have any, that is. because frankly i was only looking at this as a creative exercise that MIGHT give me some ideas for later on. so imagine my surprise when an experiment with clearance-acquired tim holtz masks resulted in a use-able card background!

(patterned paper: house of 3 for pink paislee + vintage sheet music; black glossy cardstock & masks: tim holtz/ranger; alphabet stickers: making memories; epoxy arrows: recollections; rubber stamps: hero arts, tim holtz, stampin' up, cherry pie; inks: ranger, martha stewart, stewart superior, colorbox; adhesives: uhu gluestick, tombow monorunner; other: folk art acrylic paints, sewing machine, dymo labels)

what i did (the SHORT version): i placed the gear and "happy" masks on a piece of white sheet music backed with cardstock. i squeeze small random blobs of 4 or 5 colors of blue acrylic paint onto the paper, and brushed them around really loosely, letting them overlap & mix in some places. when the masks were off & the paint was dry, i over-stamped the whole panel with this hero arts "birthday text" stamp (thanks, JUNE!!!) and few other pattern stamps, in various shades of blue and black stamping ink.


the masked "happy" letters weren't as clear as i wanted, so i decided to outline them with the sewing machine. i'm not sure when "outlining" turned into "filling in entirely", but i love how it looks...even on the BACK!


at the very end i added the grid rub ons to the corners and those ancient fabric letters to spell out "birthday"...which i think look surprisingly cool here. :)

the other reason i wish i had step-by-step photos is: the step BEFORE this one was actually a bit cooler! in retrospect, i wish i'd left more of the gears white, but i got carried away with the overstamping. also, i wish i'd thought about a finished card size when i laid out my masks. because i lost even more when i trimmed the panel to it's finished size of 7x6".

but as i said, i really didn't expect to come out of this with anything except messy hands and a feeling of satisfaction...so the card is a really nice "extra" anyway! ♥



*bonus ninja points if you are a new jersian old enough to remember tom kean and his catch-phrase. basically, in a blogging context, this is tracy and me; but WE are smiling right now. :)