Reach for the stars, an altered file folder for Mixed Media Monthly

Happy July and welcome! The first of the month means a new challenge over on the Mixed Media Monthly challenge blog and this month our theme is "Reach for the Stars". I altered a file folder to keep all my travel documents safe.

We have an amazing sponsor this month, who will also do a guest design post. It's no other than the wonderful Seth Apter!!! Here is our graphic for the month, if you want to play in our challenge to be in with a chance to win one of his amazing stamp sets, don't forget to add this graphic to your post!

My project is a full size file folder and I started by cutting a bit of card slightly smaller than the folder and then adding some scrapbook paper as my first layer.

Next I gave it a thin coat of gesso and then added various elements such as lace, strips of fabric and tape to add some texture. I also did some stenciling, using a variety of texture pastes.

The only Seth Apter products I own are two of his stencils and I used elements from them both for my background.

Time to add some colour, - I used a mix of sprays, inks, Distress Crayons and Gelato, but decided to keep my folder in monochromes. Below a few close ups:

The next and final step was to add some embellishments:

A large stamped and embossed butterfly adhered over a clock die. Both are by Tim Holtz.

Highlighting the stencilled words with Gelato and Distress Crayon.

A large flower I had in my stash in similar colours was dry brushed with a little gesso, - I also added some stencilled and wooden stars and that was pretty much it.

Do hop over to the blog to see what my talented teamies have created and to get all the details of the challenge. Of course we all hope you will decide to play along and if you do, don't forget to add our graphic to your post!!

Thanks for your visit like always and have a creative month!

xxxxx