Are you up for a challenge? I am!

If you are, please join us! As you view the projects this week, think about this...

...you live in a rural county, in fact so rural the closest scrapbooking store is many miles away and you get the chance to shop only once in a while. You shop online normally at BlueMoon Scrapbooking! On a whimsy, your neighbor says, "I'm going to town, want a lift?" Well, you hop in and the neighbor says, "I'll drop you off and pick you up in a bit." Fabulous!-except you have been dropped off at the hardware store with only cardboard shapes, nuts and bolts, wire and mesh available. Time to push the creativity button as you work with the supplies from the hardware store.

For the challenge we used the Donna Salazar Cardboard Shapes and any other hardware store items we had. I also used Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints. By just mixing a few colors you can get some really pretty colors. I just love the way these paints mix. In the past I have used the cheap $.50 paints from the craft store, when I'd mix, I'd get mud. When I'd paint I have to go over the spot 4-5 times before I got the look and coverage I wanted. Talk about alot of wasted time in-between drying times. I have said it before and I'll say it again, these are the paints to invest it. You don't need alot, you don't need 5 coats. On Claudine's site, they have a color mixing chart. Just print this out and stick it in your paint box.

On my project I used colors which coordinated with my daughter's bedroom. Let me tell you she loves this project. She even asked if I could make a bigger one.

For the sun I used a round cardboard circle and a straight scalloped edge and just by bending and stapling I ended up with my sun shape. Cardboard is very forgiving too! I painted it a sunny yellow, sprinkled with yellow glitter and outlined in yellow stickles. For the cloud, same idea-I mixed a pretty blue paint color together, blue glitter and stickles.

I used some magic mesh on the inside part. The mini paperclips are by Tim Holtz are perfect to hold my little pictures in place. I just slid one end in the mesh and they stay in place.

of course, I need a hanging piece and since I was in a "hardware" store, wire was available. To get this effect I started out with a length of 16 inches or so. Used a pencil and wrapped it around the wire about 3 times, slide 3-4 beads on and again repeat with the wrapping the wire around the pencil. Do this until you reach your desired hanging length.

Can you see all the layering on this piece?



I thought the cardboard shapes would be cute hanging off the bottom, I used the same wire technique as before. To attach them, I poked a hole through the cardboard pieces and wrapped the end around a bit so it wouldn't slip through. I wanted these pieces to look a little tattered so I scrapped some of the top coat of cardboard off to show off the corrugated areas.

I was going to share with you step by step pictures, but I start painting one night and forgot all about it. However, I can share my original idea, I just kept moving pieces around until I got the outlined shape. The bottom piece is a flat piece of cardboard, I painted it pink, attached the magic mesh to it and trimmed around the edges. I cut the left/right and top/bottom cardboard edges to fit perfectly and went back to paint them, after they dried I attached it together with wet glue. While that dried I played with the wire and formed the 3 dangling pieces and the top hanger piece. I put it all together to get the finished piece.

So go ahead make a trip the "hardware" store and get ready to play with Donna's cardboard shapes! It can be a layout or a project. Go play & have fun and when you done, post it in the BlueMoon Gallery so we can see it!

Make sure you check out the store, tons of new products are arriving daily!

Have a great Day!
~Melanie