Wild At Heart

Hello everybody, and happy Wednesday! Hope your week is going well, and that you are able to find the time to create something wonderful. I have been in a rustic, more masculine mood here lately, and when I received my package from The Rubber Cafe, I was completely delighted to see the new On The Fence bundle. I immediately knew that I wanted to do a really rustic, western influenced layout surrounding one of my favorite subjects, horses. I grew up riding, and me and my cousin Kelly spent almost every day of our childhood on horseback. We loved to pretend that we were Laura and Mary from Little House On The Prairie and her horses Milkshake and Becky were our constant companions for our adventures. It wasn't uncommon for me to jump the fences of neighboring farms and ride whatever horse I could find. No saddle, no bridle, just freedom. To this day there is no better feeling of that freedom than being on the back of a horse. I used a wallpaper image from Google, my Scraps Of Darkness May Kit -Summer Breeze, and some of those wonderful new products, as well as some older ones from The Rubber Cafe.

 I started with some of the Simple Stories papers from the Scraps of Darkness May Kit. I distressed the edges and stained them with Tim Holtz Rusty Hinge Stain from The Rubber Cafe store. For the second layer I used a technique that  one of my Scraps of Darkness Sisters, Jennifer Snyder (Jrabs) came up with of using different punches mixed together to give you a different look and relieve punch boredom. I did a more grungy style, but the inspiration was all Jen. Thanks Jen!! You always inspire!

 In the top left hand corner, I cut a strip of the kit paper, distressed and inked the edges with the same Rusty Hinge stain, and then fussy cut a damask emblem from the paper, and layered it onto the strip. The western look, metal piece is actually some metal brads that I found in my stash that were created to house typeset alphabets, but instead of using the alphas, I took some metal buttons that I had picked up at my local children's charity thrift shop and adhered them to the brads using The Rubber Cafe's Scrap Happy Glue. 

 Next, I recycled some corrugated board and cut it into a circle. I dry brushed the circle with gesso and then inked the edges with some Tim Holtz distress ink. I then took a layer of the Kit paper, distressed and stained the edges with some Tim Holtz Wild Honey Stain. I then layered on my image and took a piece of Dusty Attic Barb Wire chipboard and coated it with some Your So Fine Glitter in Copper from The Rubber Cafe, and then accented the barbs with  Puffies in Black.

 I  lightly stamped my background layer with the Wood Grain Stamp from The Rubber Cafe's, On The Fence Bundle.  I then took the Spellbinder's On the Fence Die and cut out the fence from some thin chipboard. Next, I took some Mixed Media Ink in Leather and used the Wood Grain Stamp to stamp the fence, I then cut the fence and made 2 more of those metal pieces, and wrapped some Teresa Collin's twine around them to make the fence opening.

 Here is another shot so that you can see all the wood grain texture the stamp creates. I love it!!

 I then created a flower layer using the Prima Laredo Austin Flowers from this month's Flora & Fauna Add On, and some Petaloo Darjeeling Hydrangeas from a past kit. . I then created the title pieces. The "Wild" is some of the Simple Stories Document alphas from the kit that I glossy accented, I mounted the "At" onto a paper strip that I inked and distressed, and then I took The Rubber Cafe's Wood Heart Stamp and stamped it onto some of this month's card stock add on, fussy cut it out, set some eyelets and attached a wire handle with curled ends, and then added the word "heart" onto it with some of the Simple Stories  Alphas.

 For the final details, I stamped some leaves onto Some Prima packaging using The Rubber Cafe's Leaf Set One Stamp,  fussy cut them out and tucked them into the flowers, and then made a bottom strip with some more metal pieces and twine. I love the way The Rubber Cafe helped me to create something so rustic, beautiful and close to my heart! Thanks for letting me share with you. ~Renea

The Rubber Cafe Products Used:

On The Fence Bundle
Spellbinder's On the Fence Die
Wood Grain Stamp
Wood Heart Stamp
Leaf Set One Stamp
Tim Holtz Rusty Hinge Stain
Scrap Happy Glue
Your So Fine Glitter- Copper
Puffies-Black