10 on the 10th: February Amethyst (T-Tues)

Hello, everyone!  I have a long story to tell, so you might want to sit back with a cup of tea.  Today I've got red raspberry herbal tea--a perfect color for the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday.  Wish I could share my French macaron cookies with you--they are yummy!

Today is February tenth, so it's time for me to update you on my "Ten on the Tenth" destashing project.  When choosing a color scheme for this month, I thought of amethyst, which is the birthstone for February.  Since the art world is all abuzz about the Pantone Color of the Year being a shade of purple, I was feeling pretty enthusiastic about making some purple projects.

Inspired by the above image, I assembled supplies various shades of purple, plus a few neutrals.

Above are the ten supplies that I worked with:

1. woodgrain patterned paper from Kaisercraft (full sheet)
2. striped patterned paper from Doodlebug (scrap)
3. purple cardstock from Wausau Paper
4. maroon cardstock from Bazzill
5. embellishment: alphabet banner stickers from Doodlebug
6. embellishment: shamrock doilies from Royal
7. throwaway item: plastic purple netting from candy packaging
8. throwaway item: scrap of yarn from gift packaging
9. nonconsumable: stamp set from Lawn Fawn
10. nonconsumable: heart punch from All Night Media 

Below are the flipsides from the two patterned papers.

Like many people, I struggle to use purple in my artwork, so I thought this would be a good way to challenge myself.  I do like purple, so I'd enjoy seeing it more in my scrapbooks.  However, in retrospect, I think I should not have tried to combine so many different shades of purple at once.  I did manage to create a card, a layout, and a collage, but the process did NOT go smoothly.

I was partway through both the card and layout (pictured above), when I decided that they just were not working.  So I took them apart as best I could and started over.  I hardly ever do this, so it was strange for me.  I just felt like both projects were unbalanced, in terms of both color and scale, and I couldn't figure out a way to rescue them.

I took pieces from my discarded project, added in new alphabet stickers (Echo Park) and a new sheet of background paper (My Mind's Eye), and came up with the layout above, which I like much better.  Can you see bits of the old projects in this new one?

When confronted with a bunch of triangular letter stickers that didn't spell anything useful (except for the letters L-O-V-E, which I saved for my collage), I layered them and created my own "arrow" stamp.

I used this arrow stamp, along with Stickles glitter glue, to stamp on my layout.  

Below are photos of a few more details from the layout.

A scrap of the maroon cardstock and a piece of netting help a small photo to stand out.

I did a couple types of stenciling--I stenciled through the doily with a white pen, and I stenciled through heart punch negatives with Stickles.  I also sprinkled on some seed beads while the hearts were still wet.

I like the triangle stenciling from my original layout, but I think it works better in small doses.

I stamped with the string--again, using Stickles--to help my title stand out.

Okay, moving on now to the card that I created...  I ended up using the flowered side of the paper, with only a little bit of the purple striped paper as an accent.  I also added a happy tulle bow and a couple dots of Stickles.  I have been pretty into Stickles this month...perhaps you noticed?  :)

Here's a closeup of the sentiment block on the card (below).

Finally, it was time for me to take my leftover scraps and make a collage.  Actually, I didn't have many leftover scraps, since I'd had to start over with both my card and my scrapbook page.  However, I did have a lot of doily pieces, so I collaged them onto a big cardboard heart...

I added paint and a few splashes of mist.  I really liked this look, and I must try it again sometime, when I'll be able to leave more of it on display.  As it is, I ended up covering up much of my doily collage, to make the project you see below.

~previously blogged here~

Notice that there is hardly any purple on this heart wall hanging, which I made for my son's room?  I'm back to the bright reds, blues, and greens that I'm more comfortable using.  I plan to go easy on myself for next month's "10 on the 10th" and use the bright, happy colors that I so love...no more purple for awhile!

Still, I am grateful for the learning experiences that working with purple provided me.  I definitely tried new things and went outside my comfort zone, and I got some good ideas for things to try on future projects.

I hope that your adventures in art will go more smoothly than mine.  In the meantime, have a happy Valentine's Day on Friday!  :)