The Paper Bag Princess

This is for a challenge I am hosting for the month of July over at Pages in Time called "Go Green".  It is all about re-purposing (is that a word LOL), re-using and making your own embellishments.  I will be giving a RAK to the winner and if there are more than 10 people participating, I might throw in a little something more!!!

I'll bet you are wondering why I call this The Paper Bag Princess, or maybe you have figured it out by now.  I was describing what I did to the other Design Team members and Helene (aka 2amscrapper) said that she couldn't wait to see my paper bag princess.  So, thanks Helene!!!  In case you were wondering, I did use a paper bag on the page, not once or twice, but five times!!!!  Can you pick them all out?????

This is a photo of my DD from about 4 years ago.  We went to a local Renaissance Fair and I let her dress up for the affair.  She looked so cute skipping away in front of us.  She is such a free spirit!!  So this was the way I went with the color scheme as well.  The finished page kind of reminds me of an old fairy tale book with its really rich colors and leather binding.  These really rich colors, deep woods tones and worn leather are all around you at a Renaissance Fair.  You can't forget the armor!!!

I made the flourish by using a transparency and Patina Stickles.  All you need to do is photo copy an actual bling or pearl flourish and then place the photo copy underneath your transparency and then follow the dots!!  A thing to note about Stickles is that it doesn't keep a puffed look like Liquid Pearls does.  It tends to flatten out quite a bit, so keep this in mind and try not to make your dots too big or they will blend into one another.  As me how I know!  I even tried to use a toilet paper roll on this.  I cut the strips really thin and then curled them like ribbon.  But, every time I put them on my page it was thrown all off.  Bummed me out because they were really cute.

Along the right side I used, you guessed it, a strip from a brown paper bag.  I did crinkle it and work it over to break down the fibers a bit.  I used Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain Distress inks to give it that worn leather look and then tore it by hand to give it a slight scalloped look.  I then took two Grunge Board hinges and inked them up with Rusty Hinge Distress ink and then used Walnut Stain Distress Embossing powder to give them a more aged look.  I used brass brads and beat them up pretty good with my cute little Tim Holtz Hammer. 

The page bracket I cut out using an SVG file and my Cricut.  I used a paper distresser along the edges and let it tear where it wanted to.  I then used Vintage Photo distress ink around the edges. I decided to tuck a little crocheted flower I found at Michaels.  The circle in the middle......yup.....I cut it out using my Cricut from the same paper bag.  I used the same distressing technique that I used along the side but in addition to the inks I had previously used, I threw in a little bit of Faded Jeans.  The paper I used does have some blue in it.  I also used one of my favorite stamps.  I've used this same stamp on a few of my recent pages.  It so old and rustic in person. 

For the flowers, I used Prima.  They are the flowers with a punch of color.  The other 3 flowers.....yup....paper bag.  I cut the petals out using an svg file.  I used the same petals to make the green leaves with.  I cut 15 petals for each flower.  I think next time I will add a few more.  I then sprayed them with Glimmer Mist.  I actually sprayed two of the flowers with Blue Frost and I thought it was going to work, but when they dried they ended up looking like a gun metal gray.  This actually worked for me because I could use these for the "armor" element on my Renaissance page.  The top flower I sprayed with Graphite.  I then  used a hole punch and a tapestry brad to hold them together.  I did scrunch up the petals when they were damp and once again when I got all of the petals where I wanted them.  The green leaves I cut out of copy paper from my printer and then used Pine Needle and Peeling Paint Distress Ink.  Here are some close ups:

So, there you have it!  I used a paper bag for 5 elements, copier paper for my green leaves, I made my own flourish and used my Cricut like crazy for 90% of the page.  I'm sure that you can come up with something far more creative than I have!!!  I hope that this will inspire you to re-purpose items you have at home and jump on in to my challenge over at pages in time.  Here is the web addy: http://pagesintimestoresite.ning.com/
Thanks for looking and I hope to see you at the challenge!!!