Monday, Monday and new Design Team piece!

Rise and Shine...'tis Monday morn!

Yes, indeed it is. Another new week and the chance to show you my new Design Team piece for Simon Says Stamp & Show where it's all about stars. Let's take a trip back to 1950s Hollywood and indulge in a little glamour...

I started with my background sticking torn pages from a vintage magazine onto an old book cover. I glued them with Matte Medium, swiped with Gesso and then stamped random blocks of stars with a large stamp. I like the translucent quality...you can still see the magazine images underneath! Then I set to work on the marathon task of creating all the loose elements. I cut all the larger stars by hand and covered them in American flag paper (which I made myself). They have been edged using Vintage Photo and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks.

 The retro glasses are such fun and were stamped and embossed using Denim Adirondack embossing powder. I cut them out and attached them to the film-strip with a mini-peg and added a hand-made street sign for some contrast.

 I went on the hunt through all of my collections to find the right images. I figured a flashy car ad and beautiful pin-up babe would do the trick. This is a B&W paper copy of an original ad - shrunk in the wash and tinted with pencils!

 Creating the film-strip was real fun...Started off with black but that was too harsh, then blue which was too...well...blue. I have this photo stamp of two rather passionate movie stars that was just made for the job. Could well be the dapper Gene Kelly! I stamped the same image onto glossy card-stock six times (well ten actually - some slipped away!!!) Then I cut out six smaller images from each big one, shifting my "frame" each time to get a slightly different image. I wanted to create the illusion of a real film being shot. I used my Bind-it-All to punch the holes down the sides, glued on the pics and also added some Distress Inks for a more authentic feel. I doubted at first - but got there on my third attempt.

I love those Hollywood letters and how they kind of float! I made sure I had the correct letter font, blew it up on the Mac and then spent a while snipping and painting. I also had to copy the positioning of the letters that you really see up on the Hills otherwise it just looks wrong, really!

 Just had to add some flowers of course. Here is a close-up of the trio. I used Jenny Bowlin DP's for two and the blue one is made from a vintage magazine page washed with Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Paints. It's great to be able to change a paper to the exact colour you want! I finished off with a selection of vintage buttons, two tickets and just one length of red ric-rac. It was great gluing it all together yesterday after lots of prepping, cutting and failed models...My bits and bobs box floweth over!

 So there you go...I hope I have given you a little inspiration and glamour...! What would you do with stars? What jumps to your mind? Maybe you'd like to show us! The other Design Team pieces are really great and so worth checking out.
Join in with the challenge this week to be in with a chance of a brilliant shopping voucher from Simon Says Stamp & Show Store - and maybe walk away with a much desired winner's blinkie...

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you around soon. I'm always happen to answer any questions about my blog or the challenge - ask away or just drop me a line.

Farewell from The Red Carpet,

Sarah.