Time to Travel for the Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media challenge ....

Happy Friday evening .....

Yeah! ..... the weekend is here!
Should have kept my mouth shut yesterday about the sunshine.  No blue skies today I'm afraid ..... and it's cold!!!  It was a little fresh on the prom this morning .... glad I wasn't on the boat! 
Never mind ....... this time next week I shall be in Italy, on the beautiful Amalfi coast.  Sunshine (hopefully!), delicious food (no doubt!), nice wine (of course!) and seven relaxing days .... I can't wait!

Lot's to do before then though!  Including getting this month's Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media challenge started.

This month's theme is Travel ...... hmmm. Had to think about that one, even though I am getting in the holiday mood. 
In the end I came up with a pretty tag (could be classed as a luggage label I suppose) and, as I couldn't find any stamps relating to Italy in my stash (must do something about that!) I chose another of my favourite places to visit ...... PARIS  (something else to go on the To Do list .... haven't been there in a while)

I started out with a plain manila tag and simply added some colour using Distress Oxides directly from the ink pad onto the tag (I think it was Worn Lipstick and Twisted Citron)  I then used a wet wipe to blend the inks and cover the tag.

I used a couple of stencils to add more detail to the background ..... a heart stencil and the Worn Lipstick ink, and a leaf stencil which I used a wet wipe with to take away some of the ink and give a ghosting effect.

I stamped the beautiful Eiffel Tower onto the tag using my MISTI, just to make sure I got a clean image. I then added a touch more colour to the flowers, using the Distress Oxides again

And you can see I added a little bit of white gel pen to the centres and also to  highlight the main word.

I added a final layer to the tag by using the leafy stencil again, this time with texture paste .....

and a sprinkling of fine crystal glitter

As always there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the challenge winner ...... and don't forget if there's HLS stamps on the winning project, then the prize is doubled!!
You have to be in it to win it though ..... happy stamping!!

It's been a busy few days challenge wise, the beginning of the month always is.  Thank goodness I was prepared and had everything ready to go. 

What I wasn't ready for though was my workshop, which should have been this weekend ..... sorry ladies!
I'd moved it forward a week because of the holiday coming up,  then I went and put my back out didn't I.  I haven't been able to sit in the craft room and prep everything so unfortunately, I've had to cancel ....... sigh!  I really look forward to our monthly meetings ...... never mind, the May one is a week earlier than it should be too.  I'll be all prepared for that one ..... hopefully!

Thanks for popping by ....... have a lovely weekend, whatever you have planned.
Finger's crossed the weather gets a bit better. We're off out tomorrow evening, it's Chris's girlfriends birthday so we're going out for dinner ...... and maybe a cheeky cocktail or two!!

Cheerio until next time ......