Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #121 - "Anything Goes"

This week's challenge is an "Anything Goes".  I don't know how you react to these challenges, but I love them.  Even so I find my mind going "ping, pong" all over the place, thinking of first one project, then another, and so on.  It takes quite a bit of determination to rein myself in and focus on just one thing.

As usual that's the way I started out for this challenge.  And then I thought that it would be great fun to create something that isn't quite a card and could be a display item for someone I love.  Of course that brought to mind a framed piece.  But I've made a number of those and wanted this project to be different.  And then it came to me.  Why not do the framed piece but create it inside a shadow box frame?  I've been wanting to make one of those shadow box frames forever and this was a perfect opportunity.

Amanda Bates, to my mind, is the "Queen of shadow box frames".  She has included many in her blog posts as well as picture tutorials.   I found her tutorials easy to follow and have discovered that once you've made one, it takes only about five to ten minutes to make subsequent ones.  They really are that easy.  I've also discovered that I can make them in any size.  Basic rule:  whatever your inside measurement (the size of the stamped image piece you intend to frame), you just add five inches either way.  In other words, if you are intending to frame a 4" x 5" piece, you must begin with a piece of cardstock (easiest) or Designer Paper that is 9" x 10".  Once you know that, you can make small, medium or large frames.  Your limitation would be the size of your paper.

I decided to create an image using the new At Home With You bundle combined with the Sitting Here stamp set.  I love both sets and find they really compliment each other.  I also decided that I would back the stamped piece with Whisper White to put a white matte around it as if it had been professionally framed.  My piece, therefore, was 5" x 6 1/4".  The cardstock for my frame would, therefore, have to be 10" x 11 1/4".

I followed all the directions given by Amanda and wound up with a wonderful Early Espresso frame for my stamped piece.  Of course it needed a really striking sentiment to go with it and so I turned to the new Colorful Seasons set and heat embossed one of my favourites using the clear embossing powder over Early Espresso ink.

I hope you've enjoyed my little frame project.  And now it''s time to check out the wonderful creations by the other Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

Since this creation is very masculine in style, I'm linking it up to the SUO challenge this week.

I'm also entering it into the Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge since these are some of my favourite masculine colours.