One Little Word

Elizabeth Craft Designs | Colourful Fitted Circles

| Marsha.

Marsha Valk | Elizabeth Craft Designs: Colourful Fitted Circles

I’m over on the Elizabeth Craft Designs blog today, sharing this new colourful, vibrant project!

I don’t believe in new years resolutions, but I do choose a word for each year. Just to start the new year with intention. It’s a new chapter after all!

I have thought long and hard about how I want this chapter to feel and I came up with: bright, active, upbeat, happy, buzzing… vibrant. So that’s the word I chose!

I always like to create something that I can look at to remind me of my word throughout the year. I usually create a canvas or a scrapbook page, but this time I decided to add something vibrant and shiny to a shadow box frame!

The idea for it came from these scraps that I had left after die-cutting rainbows with the new Rainbow Sky die set:

Marsha Valk | Elizabeth Craft Designs: Colourful Fitted Circles

I also happen to be studying the life and works of Sonia Delaunay for the Love Art Happy Life E-course that started January 1st! The shadow box frame is heavily inspired by her Electric Prisms. I love her art and it fits my word so well!

But before I started die-cutting Shimmer Sheetz, I experimented with coloured paper first. It’s a good thing I did, because I found out that a combination of layering and inlaying the pieces worked best for me.

Marsha Valk | Elizabeth Craft Designs: Colourful Fitted Circles

Here are the steps to create the layered, checkered circles:

Marsha Valk | Elizabeth Craft Designs: Colourful Fitted Circles

1 | Choose the paper/colours you want to use and then the sizes of Fitted Circles you want to layer. I looked at Sonia Delaunay’s work for colour inspiration.

2 | Cut squares of Clear Double Sided Adhesive to the size of the Fitted Circles you have decided to layer.

3 | Cut the paper in squares to adhere onto each quarter of the Clear Double Sided Adhesive squares. The paper squares in the photo are huge: you really don’t need that much excess paper!

4 | Position your Fitted Circles dies on top of the paper. The point where all four colours of paper meet, needs to be in the exact middle of the Fitted Circle.
Marsha Valk | Elizabeth Craft Designs: Colourful Fitted Circles

5 | Die-cut the circles.

Marsha Valk | Elizabeth Craft Designs: Colourful Fitted Circles

6 | Adhere the checkered circles one on top of the other.

Marsha Valk | Elizabeth Craft Designs: Colourful Fitted Circles

7 | Optional: add leftover Rainbow Sky pieces!

I used the same steps to create the Shimmer Sheetz shadow box frame. I found that I did not need to use the Metal Adaptor Plate this time, but most times I do use a Metal Adaptor Plate for the best results when die-cutting Shimmer Sheetz.

Here’s a look at the result of my experiments:

Marsha Valk | Elizabeth Craft Designs: Colourful Fitted Circles

Happy, vibrant crafting!

Supplies: 

Elizabeth Craft Designs:
1075 Alphabet 2 Lower Case
1117 Fitted Circles (coming soon)
1151 Rainbow Sky (coming soon)
Shimmer Sheetz
Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape or Sheet

Other:
Extra deep frame (mine came from local discount store Action and is 6.3″)
Coloured cardstock
Craft foam (black)
Label writer (Dymo)

Replenish (OLW #92)

| Marsha.

Marsha Valk | OLW: Replenish

This month’s One Little Word is REPLENISH.

I created this art journal page last week. I used working on the page as a REPLENISHMENT after a crazy week followed by a fun-filled weekend.

I’m an introvert, so I really do need to fill the well again after running around and being around people. Going into my craft space, turning up the music and playing with paint and stencils, a white marker, ink, a couple of NeocolorII’s and charcoal did the trick.

I’m curious to see what REPLENISH means to you. Please consider playing along with us this month!

Magic (OLW #78)

| Marsha.

131211_MarshaValk_OLW_Magic

There’s a new word up at One Little Word and it’s an extra special word this time! I got to choose it… and I chose MAGIC!

2013 was supposed to be my MAGIC year. 2012 was a rough year and I was really looking forward to a year of everything miraculously going right. It would be the year I would make ‘it’ happen, whatever ‘it’ would turn out to be. All problems would disappear overnight, the wind would blow only fun and happy things my way and everything would just get better.

That was the kind of MAGIC I was thinking of at the beginning of the year.

But the reality is that I think that kind of MAGIC requires supernatural powers that I’ve yet to discover. So 2013 turned out an OK year for me… or even a good year. And I don’t know how you experienced it, but to me it felt like it wizzed by like someone had cast a fast-forwarding spell over it!

I’ve learned one trick though, that helps me find MAGIC even if it’s way to dark outside and I’m cold and I feel like none of my dreams came true all year… It’s called: looking back through my planner and browsing my photo files.

Because MAGIC often happens when you’re not paying attention. It can be found in lots of little things that you might not always remember after the moment is gone. It’s in a glance, a smile, a peaceful moment, time spend together… it’s in finding your mojo and creating up a storm… stumbling upon the perfect gift… hearing that special song… and in the glowing lights on the Christmas tree.

I actually found evidence of quite a few little things that MAGICALLY appeared in 2013. So even if this year didn’t turn out as spectacular as I had envisioned beforehand, I do realise not all MAGIC was lost!

And now it’s up to you… Head on over to the OLW blog, take a look at the DT’s wonderful creations and play along! We would love to hear about the MAGIC in your life!

Crazy (OLW #72)

| Marsha.

130627_MV_OLW_Crazy

I love the One Little Word challenges… I still remember back in the day when Liesbeth and Haggith used to play a long with e v e r y single word. And when Revlie (to me) was just this super cool Dutch chick that was on the OLW-team…

I think I entered only a couple of times. It seemed so out of my league back then! But I felt gutted when the prompts stopped, because it’s such an awesome concept. The challenge of just creating from one simple prompt and having the freedom to do whatever comes to you (with no required materials and/or colour combinations!) is what I enjoy most of all.

I was really happy to see Ronda Palazzari recontinue OLW last year. And of course I promised myself to play a long this time around. But you know how it is: other commissions and challenges always needed to be finished/completed/send in first and before I knew it, another month had gone by, and another, and another…

Anyway, at Art Fusion, I got to hang around with Revlie for one whole day. We talked and talked (and learned and created of course!) and she reminded me once again to check out OLW… So I did. And even better: because I’m on top of my assignments right now, I assigned myself some ‘free’ time and I created a lay-out with the latest word: CRAZY!

I think I made at least five different background pieces in the process, so you could say I really have gone crazy with this prompt. It was fun!

I still dream of going back and ‘do’ all the words. I don’t think I ever will, but it sure is nice to know that there is a list of words that I can go to if I ever get stuck and need inspiration! So check it out: One Little Word!