When the 50th isn't common anymore

So I just got home this weekend from my in-laws house, where we celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. I love to hear of the big anniversaries like this, because they are so far and few between in our world of "irreconcilable differences." To celebrate, I gathered my favorite paper, Basic Grey and my favorite embellishments, Tim Holtz/Ranger products and got to work.




If you haven't gathered from this post, you will soon enough...I'm a distressing addict. I confess. Distressing is a wonderful tool to add dimension to your project. Don't be afraid to add a masked image over top of a busy patterned paper. If you choose a color ink to use on your mask that is already part of the patterned paper, you'll get a more natural look, as if it were already there (notice the clock image above).



These Idea-ology items from Ranger are so fun to play with. I grabbed some grunge board items here and used crackle paint to give an antiqued look finishing off with some Perfect Pearls for the edges.







Don't forget to pop up some of your embellishments with foam for more depth. Make your own die cuts by stamping an image and then cutting it out. If you have not learned to use a swivel exacto knife, I promise you, it will become one of your favorite tools. Give it a try.

Here I used the same mask as on the front, except did a reverse embossing. I used Versamark ink to cover the areas surrounding the mask and then embossed with clear embossing powder to give a reversed embossed effect.