WPlus9 Birthday Celebration: Stretch It

For week 4 of WPlus9's Birthday Celebration, they are challenging us all to "stretch it" - to try a different style or a technique that we haven't done before.  I have avoided stencils and paste like the plague but I love what I am seeing with them, so that was clearly the technique that I needed to try.  I wandered over to Hobby Lobby because I knew they had a number of stencils in their scrapbook section.  Funny enough, just when stencils appear to be hitting it big in blogland, Hobby Lobby had all of them on clearance including the pastes!  I found raindrops and I knew that I had a WPlus9 set that fit them perfectly.


The technique isn't nearly difficult as I had imagined.  Find something to smear a little bit on - an old credit or gift card works great.  It does take a little time to dry.  (After I had done this one and let it dry, I realized that the raindrops come a little too far in for balance and they are too "regular", but I don't have time to let another one dry.)  Then carefully lift the stencil straight up.  Set it out of the way of any place you might accidentally set something on it or a where a cat could walk across it....trust me!
The paste that Hobby Lobby had on sale is pearlescent and I like it for raindrops.


The stamp set is WPlus9's Heartfelt Mix.  I bought the whole darn set for that line on which to hang things.  Not that I don't use the hearts, clouds and sentiments that are also in the set - but that line is really cute.  I have used it for birds, for pennants and for baby clothes - not just with the hearts that come with it!
The colors are also out of my comfort zone.  Crazy 4 Challenges came up yesterday to use Pantone's IT color of the year.  One look at it and I realized it was Stampin' Up's old Marvelous Magenta (at least that's the way it looks on my monitor!)  You could also add gray and white - I have two grays (even though it looks black) - Steel Gray and Grout Gray.

I'm off to finish up final projects in my courses.  The classes in this program run two for two months (instead of the more typical four for four months) - so I am at the end of a term.  I don't have the words to tell you how ugly this term has been, 60 to 70 hours a week, not to mention issues with the curriculum and the professors.  After I submit everything sometime before midnight tonight, I have a week off!   I am so looking forward to visiting everyone's blog and seeing what you have been doing.  I've missed you all!

• Stamps: WPlus9 Heartfelt Mix
• Paper: Stampin' Up Marvelous Magenta, My Favorite Things Steel Gray
• Ink: Stampin' Up Marvelous Magenta, My Favorite Things Steel Gray and Grout Gray
• Accessories: Prima Raindrop stencil, Creative Imaginations Modeling Paste, My Favorite Things Grout Gray button, Hemptique 10-lb white twine, corner rounder