August Make ART Challenge - Monochromatic

Hello all of you Wendy Vecchi fans! Are you ready for this month's challenge? Kim here, and I'm super excited to be hosting Wendy's challenge this month. Wendy just returned from a whirlwind trip to the UK and is now rushing to meet some looming deadlines. Before I share the details on my project, let's review our monthly challenge rules: (PS - How do you like my kid's Kiwi Crate easel? It's perfect for holding art projects! **giggle**)

• Our August challenge opens today and anyone can participate!  Just link a photo of your project (on your blog or gallery), using the Linky Tool, at the end of today's post.  (If posting from your blog, please only insert the URL of the specific challenge post, not just your blog title)
• The challenge ends on Thursday, August 27 at midnight (EST).
• A random winner will be selected from all of our participants and announced here on the blog on Friday, August 28.  You may enter multiple projects, however, your name will only be entered into the drawing once.
• Each month we will have a sponsor and the sponsor will award the prizes.
• You must use at least one Wendy Vecchi product in your project.

This month Wendy is our sponsor! She's going to be sending our winner a prize package filled with some of her favorite goodies.

And now...on to this month's challenge...It is to create...a...

...MONOCHROMATIC project...

Did you guess that by looking at my project? **smile** Monochromatic means that you'll use shades of just one color...and I chose brown! Any guesses why I chose brown, besides the fact that I love the color brown? Well..I was digging through my scraps and found a discarded pocket watch die cut (from Tim Holtz) that I had die cut and embossed ages ago, but never used. I had cut out the middle part of the pocket watch die and as soon as I found this piece, I knew what I wanted to make!

I started by die cutting a circle and stamping/stenciling. I started with the Checkmate stencil, added the Price Chart stamp, and then used a blending tool and Potting Soil Archival Ink to add just the branch from the Stamp It, Stencil It Build a Blossom set. The last step was to age the circle edges with Gathered Twigs. You can just see the background peeking through the black text in the photo below.

After my background piece was complete, I die cut another circle from Clearly for Art and stamped text from an older stamp set, Parisian Art, onto the plastic. The plastic piece was attached directly to the pocket watch die and then I separated the background piece from the plastic with foam tape for some added dimension.

One of the tricks to keeping a monochromatic project visually appealing is to use different shades of the same colors, incorporate texture, and add lots of layers.

After I assembled the pocket watch background, I inked an Art Parts flower, using Distress Inks, and stamped the Mesh pattern on to the top of the flower. I added little gold dots, using a gold paint pen, and used Potting Soil to emboss the flower middle.

The swirls and sentiment are from the My Kind of Art stamp sets (one of my favs!) and both were stamped on scrap paper and fussy cut. I, of course, added more Gathered Twigs to everything that was cut out. To finish my project, I added some hand dyed ribbon and that cutie bird (I love that bird!) from the License Plate Art stamp set.

Now that you've read about my project...it's your turn to create! To be entered into the challenge, simply add your blog post (please link the specific post instead of your blog name) to the link list below. Once your project is listed, you'll be entered into our drawing. Thanks so much for playing along!