inspired by a skirt...

Hello my wonderful friends!

Berry season is in full swing at my house. Wild salmonberries and thimbleberries are the first to show up, followed by our blueberry bushes. Now, as those are finishing up, the blackberries are starting. In my area, blackberries are considered weeds. There are so many, and they take over everything!  We have several thickets of them that we are continuously cutting back, and still, I end up picking them by the bucket full!  My mom makes great jams with them, and we freeze the rest for smoothies and other treats. YUM!

However, since a heatwave has hit my area, it is way too hot to be hiking all over the property picking berries, so I have been in my studio with the windows wide, fans going, and creative juices flowing... 

It's been a while since I completed a LO... I have some fabulous photos of the summer that I'm super excited to work with!  Here's the first one... I can't believe how much my little Ladybug has grown!!!

 When her family came to visit, we had beautiful weather, so we spent a couple days at the beach. She loves it there, and I can't say I blame her. I love it there too!

 There is a lot of texture on this LO. Some of it, like the flowers, feathers, and tulle, are very dimensional, which I love!  There is also some visual texture and dimension... I used acrylic paint that I tinted with Distress reinker to stamp directly onto the photo.  Also, those flat metallic dots of color... Creative Inspirations Metallic Inspirations. These are a fabulous way of adding pops of color without adding extra bulk (or in this case, a different layer of dimension).

The flowers I had fun with... Recently, one of my much loved skirts bit the dust. Very sad. However, it was made from this stretchy fabric that I thought would be fun to experiment with... so, I repurposed the skirt. Love doing that!  I ripped out the seams, and ended up with strips of fabric. I then started playing with flower dies... the results were fabulous!

As much as I love the flowers I made, they really didn't match the colors of the LO at all. I tried to dye the fabric, but it just wasn't working well... So, I dug around in my scrap of fabric, and found this black lace. Turns out it makes great flowers too! 

(I'll share more on that soon!)

Enjoy!

~Kassi

Supplies Used:

Paper: My Minds Eye, Core'dinations, chipboard, white cardstock

Stamps: Tim Holtz "Lost and Found" & "Regal Flourishes", Fancy Pants "Pollen Dust", Kaisercraft "Grid", Clear Art Stamps "Frame-it"

Ink: Distress ink, Mark-it, Memento

Creative Inspirations: paint (Light Purple, Tutu Pink, Ivory), metallic inspirations (Matt Purple, Fucsia)

Dies: Tim Holtz "Tattered Floral", Spellbinder "Labels 18"

Other: acrylic paint, lace, faux pearls, tulle, eyelets, canvas, Fluerettes, Perfect Pearls