Caffeinated Papercuts: Pink by Design MasterCrafter Challenge

So back in August, Pink by Design put out a call; a new kind of challenge had arrived and the first 100 people to sign up got to play. Amazingly enough, I was online at the right time and managed to snag a box...a mystery box. You had no idea what it contained until you got it and you had to create a project using everything included. Whoa. Today is the day we can finally link up our projects and the voting begins to see who will be the MasterCrafter!

Admittedly, there was a short time where I was terrified - what if the box held things like pink and lace and girly-girl stuff? What on earth would I do with that?!? Turns out I had nothing to fear, for the contents were pretty darn cool.

Ooo, the shiny toys! Possibilities!

What was in the box:

- Scissor Mouse sponsored by Westcott
- DCWV Rockstar mat stack sponsored by DCWV Deals
- Cotton Bag Sponsored by State line Bag Co.
- 1/2 sheet of Rhinestones sponsored by Queen & Co.
- Sentiment stamp sponsored by Pink by Design (I received 'trust')
- 2 buttons

What I added from my own stash:

-PbD stamp set 'Happily Ever After'
-Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Wild Honey, Tea Stain, and Crushed Olive
-StazOn True Black Ink
-Lawn Fawn Twine in Natural
-13"x13" shadow box (really truly, it was just sitting in my craft room!)
-random piece of 12"x12" scrapbooking paper
-crown stamp (dollar bin at Michael's)
-foam tape
-black stamp marker from LePlume

Though I've never used it before, I've always loved the rock star paper. It's cool enough for both boys and girls - yes! So, what did I make?

My MasterCrafter design of a scrapbook layout in a shadowbox frame

Angled view; less glare from the glass

Oh yes - I made a heavily layered layout and put it in a shadowbox frame. My little boy just turned 2 and provided the perfect photos for the layout. Of course, the one thing I forgot until after I was done is just how hard it is to get a good photo of something involving glass! So...much...glare! Seriously, you're seeing the best of about 12 photos here.

Here are some close-ups of the key elements:

The muslin bag got distressed, stamped, and blinged-out with the rhinestones

The buttons got strung through some twine and wrapped around the whole page to make...

...guitar strings!

I paired the 'trust' stamp that was included with 2 more PbD ones from my stash

Yeah, that is one seriously cute, Goldfish-encrusted grin. My little love. That photo happened when he decided to come stick his face in the camera, so I clicked away. Who knew it would turn out so perfect?

EDIT: Still begging for votes, but the voting dates have changed! Please, head on over to the Pink by Design blog starting October 7th and vote for me to become the MasterCrafter. Voting closes October 11th and it would be beyond awesome to win. MWAH!

Ok, on to the photo montage of how I put this bad boy together!

I already had the photobox frame which, in this case, measures 13"x13", leaving me a workspace of 12.5"x12.5". Lots of room! So I grabbed a piece of 12"x12" paper I had lying around in a color that I really wasn't crazy about and used that as my backer piece. I decided to make a patchwork quilt out of the different papers in the pack, so I started laying out my design then got cutting.

Figuring out spacing BEFORE cutting. Sometimes I'm so smart!

Paper all sliced up and edges inked

I used the white insert from the frame to line up my paper, then started gluing

My completed background

I really, really like how it came out. That's the nice thing about paper stacks - all of the papers compliment each other. Thanks to the patterns, I could even work in some of the pink papers despite it being a boy's layout. It came across as cool, not girly. Rock on.

From here I moved on to the muslin bag. It really didn't match in its natural form, so I grabbed my Distress Inks and started layering them on. I tucked tissue paper inside the bag to prevent bleed-through and it provided a cool effect while rubbing on the inks. I have to say, that little bag loved the inks! Soooo easy. When I was happy with the colors, I grabbed the crown stamp I had that, gasp!, matched the crowns on the paper perfectly. Using the rhinestones as jewels was a perfect way to bring some bling in. I let the bag dry overnight and did wind up going back over the crown with my marker as it had faded too much. I love how grungy it came out! Since I already had my marker in hand, I added my little prince of a rock star's name and called it done.

A blend of crushed olive, wild honey, and tea stain resulted in one cool, grungy bag

Close-up of the bag; you can see the crown is already fading

Oh yeah, the bag wasn't the only thing stained...blech!

Completed bag with the crown drawn back in

While the bag dried and I scrubbed my hands clean (surprisingly easy to do, by the way) I chose and printed out my photos and got to work matting them. I also attached my "guitar strings" and buttons while munching on the hidden stash of Halloween candy in my craft room...shhhh! I laid everything out on my background and realized something was missing. In the end, I grabbed one last piece of paper from the stack and fussy-cut the flocked heart design out and added it to the middle. Perfect!

Final layout check before applying the adhesive

My fussy-cut heart embellishment

From here it was simple. Grabbing my ATG gun I glued everything down. I used foam tape to pop up the photo in the corner and the heart embellishment to give it some dimension. Then it was just a matter of lining it up in the frame, adding the bag, and I was done!