Artisan Award Entry #1

I promised back in March that I'd post my Artisan Award entries after the winners were announced on May 16th. Contestants were asked to submit (3) 12x12 pages, (2) 3-D items and (5) cards, to be judged on the basis of creativity, color, consistency, variety of styles, etc. This is the first item I made, a scrapbook page:

This page was created on Old Olive 12x12 Textured card stock, then strips of Bashful Blue Textured card stock were added, with the word 'sweet' (from the Sweet Shapes stamp set) stamped in Bashful Blue ink on the strip. The flower from the same stamp set was stamped between each word, and a center dot was placed in each flower with the white gel pen. Strips of Summer Picnic Designer Series paper were used to fill out the red background, and for the journaling rectangle. An oval frame from the Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware Kit was attached with some Old Olive brads, and Bashful Blue striped grosgrain was used to finish off the background.

Each cherry "medallion" pictured above was created by first stamping the cherries from the Tart & Tangy stamp set in Old Olive ink, then stamping them again in Real Red ink. The Old Olive images were then punched out with a 1-1/4" circle, and layered onto a 1-3/8" circle punched piece of Bashful Blue card stock. Each of the red cherries was then cut out individually, and adhered over the Old Olive cherries with Stampin' Dimensionals®. The starburst backing to each medallion was created with the Scallop Circle punch. First punch one Scallop Circle out, then adhere it to a piece of scratch paper, line up the points of each scallop in the center of the punched scallops, and punch again. (watch for a punching tutorial later) A white squiggle border from the Perfect Day rub-ons set was laid down before the medallions were placed.

The journaling was printed on Summer Picnic Designer Series Paper, using the Write Me a Memory Vol. II Font CD. Of course, the jackpot theme of the journaling was tied into the page with the three cherries in a row going across the top of the journaling block--the 3 cherry bunches were meant to suggest a winning image from a slot machine. My daughter's name was created using Perfect Day rub-ons, but there's only one of each letter of the alphabet included, so I had to manually create the larger 'L' at the beginning of the name. I used the Word Window punch and punched two pieces, then trimmed and fit them together, and used that as a template to cut out an 'L' from a single piece of card stock. To finish it and make it coordinate, I drew a white outline on the letter with a white gel pen.

I spent a lot more time on my Artisan Award entries than most of the projects I've ever stamped. Please keep that in mind as I post the rest of my entires, and know that this much detail is NOT necessary to make a great scrapbook page or card. In case you haven't guessed from the rest of my blog, I'm very much an instant gratification stamper, so spending an entire week (plus) putting together my 10 entry pieces for this contest was quite out of the ordinary for me!