Pastels ~ Stamps and Stencils ~ New Challenge

Hi everybody! Wow November already, how did that happen !! The good thing is, the beginning of the month heralds a new challenge over on the Stamps and Stencils blog.  Cec is our talented host and she has challenged  us to use pastel colours. I have to say that this found me a little out of my comfort zone. My colour palette is usually bold or grungy, so this was a great opportunity for me to lighten up ! This is what Cec has to say about the challenge.....

We have been treated to a riot of bright, warm colour since the spring bulbs made their appearance and continuing throughout summer and fall so let's go in the opposite direction and make a project with soft, pastel colours.  Don't forget to include some stamping or stenciling or both in your creation.

My project is a Christmas Planner, made from an altered manila file folder. This is how I got started.......

I've hunted eveywhere in the UK for these manila file folders and have been unable to find them. In the end I sent for a box of them from the Bic warehouse in the USA. Ha ha! we crafters will go to any lengths to get hold of stuff! I gave the folder a coat of gesso, before I set too with some cheap acrylic paints, which I've had for ages. I applied the paint to both the front and back of the folder, with a brayer, drying each layer of colour with a heat tool. I used pale blue, light mossy green and pink, I also used a little white gesso to keep the colours nice and light.....

Using a hard rubber brayer to apply the paint, creates lots of nice texture. I continued to add paint until I was satisfied with the background. I then added some stencilling, with each of the colours, this added another subtle layer of texture. Before proceeding with the next layers of stenciling, I folded the file folder into it's 'booklet shape', so that I could position the  Christmas words and snow flake stencils. I used a slightly deeper shade of pink for the words, and Deco Art Chalk Finish paint for the snowflakes.......

I also gave the front cover a light spritz of Imagination Crafts , Silver Gilt spray. There are several tutorials on the internet, for making journals from file folders. The one I used can be found here

http://mycreativescrapbook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/how-to-make-mini-album-using-manila.html?m=1

All that remained, was for me to adhere the sides of my file folder journal together. I sandwiched a piece of dyed ribbon in between the folded back pieces before gluing the side edge, and added a die cut label frame to the front. I also die cut 5 tags to go inside, I used a stencil to draw some lines across the tags, all now ready for my Christmas lists, lists, lists! 

Our Pastels Challenge is open for the whole month, so you have plenty of time to join in. Just hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog with this link and you'll find all the details, as well as seeing the fantastic work by my brilliant teamies. As a little bonus, I've got two packages of 5 file folders one for the winner of our challenge and one for a lovely person, chosen at random, who leaves me a message about this post on my blog. Happy crafting! x