Mix It Up Monday- XOXO Arrows

Today we are up on the Paper Issues blog for Mix It Up Monday.  This month Orange is challenging us to try embossing with mixed media!
I gathered up my stash of arrow stamps and embossed them before adding watercolors. I also had some floral stamps that I embossed and painted as well!  Love a good watercolor resist project!

The Simple Stories Love & Adore collection is so easy to work with!  I love the colors in it and that pop of yellow is just my favorite! See the embossed arrows peeking in the top corner? They were so much fun to create a pattern with on the top and bottom of the page.

I added watercolor to the chipboard Love in my title.  I love the mix of ephemera, 4x6 stickers, chipboard, and cardstock stickers included in the Love & Adore collection that worked perfectly with this page.

I added the embossed florals at the top corner of the LO and lower corner of my photo.  See the shine of the embossed arrows at the top edge?!  I love the black, shiny glitter embossing with this collection.  I love the paper elements patterned paper for quick strips of paper to add to a LO.  The polka dots paper add that pop of bold color to draw the eye to the photo.

I hope you will mix it up this month and join us on PIFF for a chance to win a PI giftcard.  Embossing on a project is so much fun to try out.  I have used this technique a few times and it is always fun (think crayon resist art as a child!!)  I love the look it creates.

Save 20% on all the things at Paper Issues.  There are soooo many new things calling your name.

Beautiful Smile

Today it's all about getting messy at Paper Issues with a new Mix It Up Monday.
The challenge this month is stamping and using stamping in a variety of ways.

This process was fun and tiring all in one.  I would stamp a few images and then quickly add the embossing powder and run over to my heat wand.  A few times I had to emboss the circles a second time as they were too faint..  I added messy stripes of water color to match with colors in Amy Tangerine's collection.

I embossed two different circles stamps.  The Amy Tangerine stamp crosshatch circle and the other was from my stash.

I painted and mixed the gelatos over the letters on the white foam Thicker title.  I love the red polka dot paper (side B) of the Around Town paper from this collection.

I added ephemera and clear acetate pieces since haven't used many of them, I challenged myself to put them in the design.  I also used clear stickers from the sticker booklet for the rest of the design details.  Since the painted and stamped background is busy, I kept the rest at a minimum!

Isn't this the cutest?  The dragonfly landed on his shoulder and stayed there for the longest time!

I hope you are inspired to try some new techniques with your stamps and mixed media on your projects!  Share with us on Instagram or in our Facebook PIFF group!  We'd love to see what you create!

Pawsitively Pets at Paper Issues

Thank you for stopping by to check out Pawsitively Pets at Paper Issues. For anyone that knows me, you know we do not have pets! However, we have many family and friends who give us plenty of animal loving time so we aren't left out!  For this challenge, I stuck with our giraffe pictures from the Naples, FL Zoo.  We loved watching the kids feed the giraffes their lettuce!

For this challenge, you are to use something you've been hoarding in your stash, and something new to you!  I used the new Amy Tangerine Oh Happy Life collection for the paper elements and the coordinating stamp to do an embossing technique with a gold watercolor wash.  This enabled me to create my own patterned paper to mimic the look of giraffe spots.

After stamping and embossing the giraffes on the white cardstock, I flipped over the cardstock and added gesso in the area of the stamped giraffes.  *Important this is added on the backside of the paper not over the top of your stamped images! This helps to create a barrier for the paper and decreases the warping of the paper.  Next, was adding the watercoloring:  

I love how the water beads up over the embossed image giving the giraffe spots!  I stitched down the bold chevron/angled paper next.

I also added the foam Thickers, ephemera, stickers, and even the packaging flap for the sticker booklet became a layer for my picture.  The "Remember" is from an Amy Tangerine Better Together transparency that I finally cut into and used!  Also, the roller stamp is the cutest with the rows of hearts!

I hope you'll check out the Paper Issues blog post and play along at Paper Issues Fans and Friends on Facebook.  We would love to see your pet or animal inspired layouts mixed with the challenge details!

If you want to try a project using Amy Tangerine's new collection Oh Happy Life, Cassie has it in the Paper Issues store.  You can get it for 20% off using my code: Stacie