First DT reveal for OUAS January

Hey friends! We are well into the second half of January 2014 and I pray it's been good for you so far! I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to a nice holiday in Japan in just 2 weeks' time. Meanwhile, I wanna share with you my very first DT reveal with Once Upon A ... Sketch. You know, this is so surreal, I was so surprised to make it onto a team with some of the most talented ladies in the industry, including my idols like Limor Webber and Elena Olinevich. It's a real dream come true and I'm still pinching myself! A big shout-out to founder Nadia for this awesome opportunity, thank you so much babe!

So anyway, here's the beautiful sketch for January:

Journalling Theme: "Lesson learnt..." 

You are free to interpret our theme ANY WAY you like. It is for your inspiration and this theme word DOES NOT need to be part of your title or journalling. But please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes journalling (hidden journalling is fine). Acceptable journalling is MORE than just a sentence, or generic writing such as date/place etc. It needs to be present and at least 3 lines long. Remember, hidden journalling (under a photo/tag or behind your page) is perfectly fine but please DO let us know in your post where your journalling is! 

Wonderful sketch isn't it? And here's my take on it:

One of the most important lessons I've learnt for 2013 is to know when to let go; letting go of expectations, of things that aren't meant to be, letting go of things I want but are bad for me, and letting go and let God take over. The real story behind this is journaled at the back of the page. It's pretty long so I didn't want to clutter the page. The photo wasn't my own - I got it off google search and it was done by an artist from deviantart. 

Some close-ups and techniques:

I've used Green Tara flowers here and they are amazing! The tiny roses and cherry blossoms were colored by misting some colors on my craft sheet and gently dabbing the flowers to lift up the ink. I've torn apart the velvet rose and layered a Blue Fern bird cage in between the two pieces. The chipboard was heat-embossed with Lindy's Stamp Gang's EP. I'm falling in love with those!

Have I mentioned before the "Graduated Circles" are my mostest favouritest chippie? They are just perfect for framing photos, sentiments and if not, just for making your project a little more funky. Well here, I coated the chippie with a layer of gesso and randomly sprinkled some more LSG EPs all over and heat set them. I then went over with gesso near the end to soften any edges. 

For the bird chippie, I primed it first with gesso before coloring it with Faber-Castell gelatos. I dabbed on just a tad more water near the wings so that when I heat-dry the paint, there would be a nice gradient of colors. This was followed by some stamping and I finished it off with a coat of crackle paint.

For this cluster, I did a big bow with the polka dot organza ribbon from Green Tara. Absolutely love how pliable this ribbon is and I've used it more in other projects. For the Dandelion chippies, I coated them with chalk ink and highlighted the ends with Liquid Pearls from Ranger.

I hope I've inspired you with my take on the sketch, do hurry over and link up your projects. Rules have changed a bit and the challenge now closes at the end of the month instead of the 25th, so you've some extra time to get in your entry. Good luck to all!

Love,