A Glossy Challenge, a Studio Calico contest and chasing away the pre-winter blues online crop! Whew!

My dear friend Ann challenged us to use glossy accents this month over at My Sketch World. I chose the great Amy Tangerine line form American crafts for this fab shot of my son 5 years ago. He is eating Watermelon!

I used a plain white background here and layered the pink and the olive paper which is a very cool wood grain. American Crafts is thinking ahead for added value and the camera strip came off the bottom barcode piece. The white scallop is from a package of Bazzill strips which I trimmed to fit. I then inked the edges of all the papers and distressed them too. One of my favourite things American crafts is doing lately is making matching fabric!

It's stunning and so versatile! I used the fabric paper to hand cut a banner, which I machine sewed and hand sewed the banner strip of twine. It's so exciting that The Twinery has tons of gorgeous cotton twine to choose from.

Finally, I used watercolour paints to make this sun out of Punky Sprouts canvas. Canvas adds depth and texture. Here, I wet the canvas and then used 4-5 watercolour yellows to shade the sun. After it dried, I glued it down and used the sewing machine to create the stitched corona.

The clouds are where I met Ann's challenge. I used the glossy accents here to trace the outside of the cloud to mimic the look of water.

I hope you'll enjoy meeting the challenges over at My Sketch World!

I also wanted to share with you a feature going on today over at Practical Scrappers. Our founder, Christine Meyer has created a set of beautiful designs from the Studio Calico kit. Pop over and say hi and you could win a kit of your own. (By November 15th..don't wait!)

Finally, this weekend begins the week long online crop at Two Scrapbook Friends. Chase away the pre-winter blues and join in these colour based challenges. I have posted one of my own, and it's sure to brighten your day!

So, as you can see there is lots to inspire you and lots of ways to do what you love to do!

Christa