To the Moon and Back: Ad-spiration Challenge

I am up on the Paper Issues blog today to show you how this Ad-spiration challenge came together!

The dark background was a fun depature into space and away from the normal light or white cardstock base!

Here's the stunning ad for the October challenge:

I love that you could also be inspired by the books, 

stars, reading quote, night sky, latern light,  and colors!

 I took in the night sky vibe and went with it! 

 I layered mix media swirls on the background, splattered paints, and then topped it off with gold thread machine stitching!

So many swirls of stitching! 

 My machine did not like the tacky surface of the paint and

 I ended up re-threading the machine so many times! 

But, in the end, I think the effect of golden circles was worth the extra effort!

 If you haven't tried using a dark background recently, 

I challenge you to try this out-of-this-world background with an outer space vibe!

Thank you for stopping by the PI blog and playing along in the Facebook group with this month's challenges.  The Monster Bash Fall Crop is this week-- are you joining in on the fun?

Crop details here in the Facebook Group

Save 20% in the Paper Issues store on all.the.things!!

Use code: Stacie

Grab the new October kit while you are shopping!

You Color My World

Hello! Brian and I just celebrated our 20th anniversary yesterday and it was the perfect inspiration to document a picture of the two of us last summer!  Today I am up on the Paper Issues blog with my take on this month's ad to inspire- Ad-spiration challenge.
I was so inspired when I saw the McDonalds ad with the paint strips.  My Jillibean Soup stash was immediately put to use!

The print ad from McDonald's that  I was inspired by:

I kept close to the main design elements including using the "golden arch color" for my border!

I started with the cloudy paper by Pretty Little Studio that is included in the July Kit. 

The color matching with acrylic paints was a fun Netflix watching activity! Anyone else like to mix up paint colors until it's almost perfectly matching?!  

Easier way--just buy the Jillibean paints that are in the PI store!

Then I stitched on the "paint strip" papers and layered my photo and title.

 I love all of Jillibean's foam letter/phase stickers! We even have these black foam phrases in the shop! Grab some before they're gone! I love that Jillibean coordinates their colors so collections are mixable!

I love adding dimension to my photo layers and background elements with foam dot adhesive or foam sheets from the kid's craft section.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I hope you are inspired to join in the July challenges!

 There is still time to play along! 

Try out Ad-spiration and show me your interpretation of the ad.

July Challenges are posted in the Facebook group right here!

As always save 20%  on all of your purchases at Paper Issues!

Code to save: Stacie

Try It Tues: Summer Best Day Ever

It's Try It Tuesday at Paper Issues and Amanda has a fun technique to try out!  Get out your acrylic paints and a scraper to blend the dots of paint to create a custom background or layer for your photo!

I went with fun blues and created a larger background to mimic the water for my summer picture at the lake.

First I started with dots of acrylic paint in varying shades. Then I used an old gift card to do my scraping.

Messy threads on a water design is all kinds of texture and fun.  I love the stitching border I used.  I was going to frame it with patterned paper, but the background is so bold and colorful it was better to create texture and lines with multiple rows of machine stitching.

I love the watery and movement this background creates with the paint scraping technique.  I hope you will give it a try and show us your creative take.