Summer Days / Pinkfresh Studio July Challenge

Happy Monday, friends!  The July Challenge is up over at Pinkfresh Studio...yay!  Check it out...it's all about SUMMER and bright colors.  I hope you'll play along with us for the chance to win a $50 Gift Card...woo hoo!

Here's what I created.  I used the new Pinkfresh Studio Let's Stay Home collection for this, which is full of beautiful rainbow colors.  I wanted to create a mixed media background, so I pulled out some of the Mini Ink Cubes that matched these colors.  I used textured white cardstock as my background, which I first coated with clear gesso.  I scraped each ink cube right onto the cardstock and then smudged the strokes with a bit of water.  I love that effect!

 I love using textured cardstock for this technique because you can see the texture through the color.  I rubbed the ink pads on lightly, leaving a big stroke of each color.  I used a water brush to squirt just a bit of water in a few places to make it run and blend into the next color.  I wanted a big title to match, so I used the Adore Alpha Die Set and cut each letter a different color from patterned paper.  I love this die set because you get the letter as well as the open outline.  I used the open outline here, creating a tone-on-tone title.

I embellished with stickers, die cuts, chipboard stickers and fussy cut images from Let's Stay Home.  I added adhesive foam behind most of the pieces and scattered them around the inked area.  I tried to keep those tone-on-tone a well.

I love using small embellishments like this because I can still see a lot of the background.  I wanted a lot of it to show, so big embellishments would have completely covered it up.

I created a little cluster here using more stickers, die cuts and even part of a big pocket that I cut up.  I used most of it under the photo as a layer, and I cut the "together" circle from that as well.  I added blue thread here since this was the blue section.

This side was more of the reddish color, so I embellished with mostly that color.

Before I glued down any embellishments, I splattered some watered down white acrylic paint.  I love doing that against bold colors...it just gives it a fun touch.

I fussy cut "days" from a die cut to complete my title.

I hope this inspires you to play along with us for the July Challenge!  I had a great time making this, and I love how it turned out.  You can find all the information for the Challenge HERE on the blog.

Be sure to check out my process video here to see exactly how I made this!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great day!