Starting Points

This weeks Starting Point Challenge over at Shimelle's was up by the time I got home from work on Sunday.  This is great for me as I get a couple of extra hours on a Sunday evening to craft.  And what an interesting starting point it was!  I love that after putting down my papers for the beginning of the page, my mind can run away with itself and I don't feel like I am scraplifting.  I love this concept more than sketches.  I have only started using sketches recently to help me move a little faster as photos are stacking up everywhere crying out to be scrapped.  But this idea of Shimelle's is speeding up my scraping and I don't feel as constricted as I do at times with a sketch.  However I do still find them a challenge!  Take today's starting point as an example ...

A very symmetrical beginning which you probably all know is not my favourite.  I can't wait to see what Shimelle does with it!  Here is mine ...

My Little Shoe Box papers

These photos were taken at The Princess' party.  They are of my boys and my two beautiful nephews.  These photos have captured each of them in typical poses.  I love them! (the photos and the boys themselves LOL).  I used papers from two different collections by My Little Shoe Box and that is one thing I love about their papers.  The colours often work together across collections.

I discovered something new today ... The felt shapes that Little Yellow Bicycle make DO NOT like distress stain!  I tried to stain some die cut circles and no matter what I did it wouldn't dry.  So I tried wiping off the stain and painting it, but the stain never fully came off and nothing else would dry on them either!  My cute little bird worked though.  I painted him roughly with some distress crackle paint and that dried on the felt!  And in the process of all this experimenting I have died all my fingers GREEN!  If anyone knows how to get it off please tell me!!!!  I have tried lemon juice and that didn't work either, I guess I will be going to work with green fingers tomorrow :-)  The little nest the bird is sitting in is made from the left over stems from my rose heads.  I twisted them together and then turned them brown with a permanent pen.

The title is a laser cut chipboard that I stained (might as well use up all the stain that was everywhere!) and then covered it in UTEE.  I then sprinkled random bits of tarnished gold embossing powder over it and reheated.  Now it looks like it has gold flecks through it.  I bit of machine stitching, a bit of fake stitching, some muslin died with more stain and the page was done.

Oh, and the little semi circles were grunge board that I embossed in one of my new embossing folders to get the sun pattern.  By then I had had my fill of distress stain and so I inked them and sprayed them!

I hope you find time to give this starting point a go this week.  I needed a happy distraction this evening and this worked wonderfully.
Chipper