Essentials by Ellen March Mix It Up Challenge

Hello, friends!  I'm here with a last minute entry for the March Essentials by Ellen Mix It Up Challenge.  This month they're mixing it up with Pretty Pink Posh.  I don't own any PPP stamps or dies (although I love everything they have to offer), but I own lots of their gorgeous sequins!

I've been wanting to try out my new Distress Crayons that I got last month and today I finally had the time for some "messy" play!

I don't know much about using these crayons yet so I did some experimenting today.  I used watercolor paper and first tried using the crayons directly on the paper and blending with my finger.  The blending worked pretty well on untreated paper, but when I tried removing some of the crayon by placing the punchinella stencil over it and dabbing with a baby wipe not much of the crayon came off.  So I flipped the paper over and added some gesso to it, which I've heard really helps.  After the gesso was dry I again applied the crayons.  This time the blending was easier, and when I placed the stencil on and used a baby wipe the crayon came off beautifully as you can see in the photo above.  I used the Essentials by Ellen Mondo Hydrangea stamp and simply stamped over top in Versa Fine black ink.  I then used my heat tool to dry everything.  The sentiment is also from Mondo Hydrangea.  To finish the card I added some 4mm clear Pretty Pink Posh sequins to some of the flower centers.

I guess I should mention my thinking behind using the 3 shades of Distress Crayons (Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, and Chipped Sapphire), with the hydrangea stamp.  I love hydrangeas, and love the variegated colors in them, so I thought it would be fun to "color" the flower with the blended crayons, rather than actually coloring in the individual petals of the stamp.  As for using the punchinella stencil, it's a riff on the tiny petals in the hydrangea stamp.

So there you have it.  Hope you're having a terrific day, thanks for spending part of it with me :)