Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Stretch Your Sketch Featured artist @2Peas!!


So I nearly fell out my chair when I opened a message from someone over at Two Peas. I reacted with typical New Yorker suspicion and wrote back:
"Here is a reply to your email- as requested"...and that's it!
 Da noive!

Can I defend myself? My yahoo inbox is full of Viagra ads from goodness knows where since this is literally the first time I ever write the word!

My thinking? "How do I know this isn't some mysterious phishing email from random pick your country?" "Maybe they will invade my yahoo account and discover JUST HOW MUCH MONEY I SPENT ON SCRAP CRAP THIS YEAR."
"OH NO! They could steal my identity and PREVENT me from buying more!!!"
And so, my cryptic answer.

Thankfully Jen Gallacher must be used to this crazed reaction as she didn't bat an eye.
She sent this along.
The 2 Peas Stretch Your Sketch class for September premieres today.
I am so excited.. and scared...
Please feel free to swing on over and check it out. I believe you have to sign up but it's a free class.
First attempt:
Great American Road Trip
I'm supposed to use stamps as much as possible.. but didn't make them stand out in this page.
Also- doesn't it just look jumbled? Ahh but the Amy Tan paper is soooo beautiful!
And sorry but my photos ROCK!!! I just need to showcase them better.
The sketch kicked my scrap booty!
I love multiple photo lay outs.
I love large shapes on a page.
But never before had a seen a sketch with both- Jen is a scrap wiz!!!
Perhaps you were wondering- "I thought Michelle was back from vacation? Why hasn't she updated her blog?" Or not- I'm not completely delusional- I know you have a life.
Where was I? Trying to get a good hold on this sketch!

Second attempt:
Today you are two
I thought I needed to up the cute quotient so I did another page about Lola's birthday toys.
But I was explicitly asked to keep the size 12 by 12.. and I forgot.
I really like the variety of paper prints and crazy thread remnants here.
Third try (so NOT the charm!):
First Halloween..
...Was a hot mess and so is this page.
I do love this detail so this is a REDO page.

FINALLY! THE ONE!
So you don't like messy pages huh? Oh well, TOO BAD.
I like the uneven lines, the jumbled sizes and I tried to use the triangulation rule of design.
The ampersand comes from a Sassafras alpha clear stamp set so old
 it was yellowed when I got it (from A Cherry On Top.)
The circle title alphas are from Lawn Fawn.
HOT MESS TIP! When using AC Z!ng powder keep your machine sewing away or you'll get the flaking you see up there in the title. I almost lost a few letters but I persevered and it came out fine. Also- I did this BEFORE Studio Calico featured using a a title in a circle as a technique last week- just wanted to put that out there. (No, I'm not claiming the technique!)

Thank you Jen and Two Peas for this huge opportunity! If my final page was a little... underwhelming- I hope everyone can see I tried and tried. It's not the sketch's fault. It's me.

This is a 25 foot tall mural of the New York State Pavilion at the World's Fair in Queens.
It's done in CHALK- so AMAZING!!!!

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

12 comments:

  1. OOO! What a sketch! I love ALL your takes on it! Second attempt is my fav! :) Love how you did the title and all the stitching!

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  2. Wow, you really rocked this sketch! I love all the details, but your final effort is outstanding!

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  3. I love them all, especially the smaller sized one...the final layout, however, is SO DELICIOUS! I love the stitching, the embossing, the messiness, the small circles, the bicycles... *bowing down* amazing!

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  4. Michelle, you did such a great job with this sketch! all the circles and stitching are fabulous here. I just love your New Yorker style so much!

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  5. very nice took me a while to get here but it nice love your blog...

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  6. Great pages! I love how you interpreted the sketch.

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  7. Wow! These are all fantastic! Awesome work!!! :)

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  8. so much hard work, i feel exhausted just looking at them all. i'd love to know what exactly you weren't happy with at each turn. x

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  9. I love ALL of these - especially the top one. Fabulous work and great to see you get some of the recognition you TOTALLY deserve!

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  10. Love all your layouts. Love that you just kept on creating until you made one you were happy with. and then I really love that you shared them all!!
    Thanks for sharing and congrats on the recognition!

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  11. I love them ALL. So funny about your cryptic message. LOL

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Ok peeps lets CHAT! You tell me what you REALLY think and I PROMISE to keep it open minded here.