Wonder at ArtStacks

Hello! I've been having a blast playing with the new "Tissue Backgrounds" pack at ArtStacks! I love these new background designs. They're so versatile!

I made a scrapbook page about a trip we did in Mexico where we saw millions of butterflies. I simply took the printed tissue sheet of butterflies and wet the area around the butterflies I wanted with a brush. I then tore the section out and applied it to the page with clear gel medium. I also scattered some other butterflies around the photo.

The gorgeous hearts and strips of colour are all from Shana Bebeklis' "Happy Scraps" pack. I adore these colourful papers. My quote at the top of the page is from the "Trees & Leaves" pack.

All these packs are available here.

I hope you try these tissue packs and love them as much as I do!

Happy scrappin'!
Heather

An Elemental Challenge at More than Words!

Welcome to February!

The challenge this month at More Than Words is a bit different. Here it is:

To explain, Chinese New Year will be on Feb 3rd and it will be the Year of the Dragon.

Chinese astrology is based on the year of your birth, and you will be a specific animal depending on which year you were born, but you will also be a specific ELEMENT (eg you could be a metal tiger or a water rabbit). If you want to use your element here is an easy way to work it out:

If the last number in your birth year is 0 or 1, your element is Metal.
If the last number in your birth year is 2 or 3, your element is Water.
If the last number in your birth year is 4 or 5, your element is Wood.
If the last number in your birth year is 6 or 7, your element is Fire.
If the last number in your birth year is 8 or 9, your element is Earth.

So for example if you were born in 1981 your element would be Metal and so on.

Feel free to use your element (or not) and/or the prompt Dragon (for Year of the Dragon) or Red (considered to be the luckiest colour). You can also include your word of the year if you like.

For my page I used Water (my element) and Red.

I'm a bit besotted with Tracy Verdugo's watery images over at ArtStacks so using them was a no-brainer for me. In contrast to the busy left side of the page, I kept the right side uncluttered and created a little white-on-white effect using texture paste through a stencil. All the papers on the page, including the title, are from Tracy's packs.

Will you work out your element and join in this month?

Happy art journaling!

Heather

Full Deck Challenge Cards

Have you seen the Full Deck Challenge on Facebook? It's run by Shana Bebeklis, also known as shanoukiart on Instagram.

It's a fabulous challenge. The idea is to alter playing cards. Shana sets up new challenges regularly and the beauty of it is that you can join in any challenge at any time.

Shana also has paper packs at ArtStacks so I decided to give some of the challenges a go using only Shana's papers plus the other challenge requirements. Shana has two paper packs - "Full Deck" which is based around images (and distressed playing cards) specifically for these challenges. The second pack is called "Happy Scraps" and is equally suitable for these challenges. This really was a lot of fun!

For this piece, the base card is from the Full Deck pack and the gorgeous colourful paper, heart and sentiment are from the Happy Scraps pack.

For my second entry everything except the lace is from the Full Deck pack.

You can see Shana's stunning papers in detail here.

If you'd like to give the challenge a go you can join in here.

Happy creating!

Heather