During the month of May the Cosmo Cricket and Tattered Angels design teams are teaming up to show you how to use their great products, together!

Personally, this was a lot of fun to work with, because I've been a fan of Cosmo Cricket for quite some time.  I was on their design team in 2007.  So it was delightful when I received a Paper Crafting Kit to work with called 'EverAfter'. 

Now, this line is obviously intended for Wedding / Anniversary themed pages.  But I tend to design completely away from whatever theme was intended.  Call it showing off versatility, or simply how my crazy mind works – but the first thing I thought of was a tomato.  You read that right.

The red color in the patterned cardstocks swirling around with the light blues and yellows made me think of a picture of my daughter, Brianna, proudly holding the first tomato she picked from our garden.  So I went off in search of the pictures.  And then I returned to the kit to see what I could possibly use to tie my pictures' theme in with the paper kit's themed quotation strips.  It just took a minute – before I spied: 'I Picked You'.  You see?  It really is a gardening paper kit.  LOL!

So since these pictures are outdoor, messing in the garden – I decided to rip up and distress the papers a bit.  I wanted a tattered, rolled and vintage-looking type of distress.  So first, I selected my Glimmer Mist colors:

• Frost (blue)
• Honey Dew Mist (green)
• Burnt Red (*tomato!*)
• Tattered Leather (brown)

For under the focal point photo, I distressed the edges of the papers with a Tonic Paper Distressor.  You can also get this look by running the edges over the blade of an open pair of scissors.  Once the edges were distressed, I sprayed some Glimmer Mist onto a Misting Mat and used a makeup sponge to gently color the worn edges of paper and get the Glimmer Mist onto the border of the paper.

I also used this technique on the larger paper squares that I tore and placed for a layered base.  Once your paper edges are colored the way you want, you can take advantage of the fact that they are wet to further rip and roll the edges and expose the color on the other side.  I made a niche for the adorable vintage-looking children cardstock sticker that came with the paper kit.  I also used an exclamation point cardstock sticker for my title border strip.  I placed a scalloped cardstock border sticker along the bottom of my title, running the width of the page.

I used Tattered Angels' new Bingo Boards set, 'Outdoor' with my chosen colors of Glimmer Mist.  I also painted the scrollwork and dragonfly's wings printed on the calling cards, that are included in the set, with a waterbrush, dipped into Glimmer Mist on my Misting Mat.  Who could resist using 'Favorite Finds' and 'Field Notes' with this prized tomato page? 

And to make that tomato really stand out on the page, I sponged and sprayed Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist onto an outer frame from one of the Framed Fonts Regal Chipboard letter sets and overlayed it with a spyglass piece from the Glimmer Glass Nature Cocoa set.  I took a few Glimmer Glass leaves, and made them peek out under the torn edges and placed a butterfly in the corner as well.

Finally, I layered the entire border with Cosmo Cricket's scalloped velvet ribbon.  I used all of the brown velvet ribbon from the Everafter collection as well as a bit of green I had from the Vintage Palette trimmeries set I had on hand to complete the border.  But not to make it too girly (husband is on the page too!) I used a stapler and created 'x's to attach the papers to the trimmed base in each corner.

Ok, we've proven that Everafter can be about a girl, a boy and a tomato (why do I feel like singing, "That's Amore" and seeing Moonstruck?)

Now let's go more 'on theme' and use it for a card.

My parents are celebrating their 49th wedding anniversary this month.  WOW!!  So it was easy to take these elegant papers and make something suitable for the occasion.  I especially liked how the image sticker (ring in box, bottom right), had a yellow antique feel to it.  As if the piece had been through the years together with them.

Once I'd assembled the paper layers, I placed a Glimmer Screen flourish from the Designer Series on top and sprayed Huckleberry Glimmer Mist over the top.

My mom really likes blue – and so I wanted to make a focal point that would work with the pretty blue/grey/patina strip of paper.  Problem is, I didn't have a color of Glimmer Mist that would match.  So I did a bit of Glimmer alchemy.  I took a nearly empty bottle of Patina, and added some Denim Blue to it.  Then an equal amount of Huckleberry.  And voila – a blue/grey/patina color of Glimmer Mist!  There probably is a color that matches this already – but it wasn't in my craft area (and that is saying something) – so I made my own. 

I used Grey ink to catch the embossed areas on the butterfly and then gave it a heavy coating of Patdenblerry.  (That's my new color's name.)

Once the butterfly was dry, I tied a bow, using ribbon from the Everafter collection through the antennae holes and placed it on my project.

Ok, quick notes – always make sure your Glimmer Mist is throughly mixed before pouring into another container.  Also label your concoction with the colors and the ratio / formula you used to create it.  Otherwise you are TOAST if you want to recreate that color.

And finally, when Glimmer Mist runs out – save that bottle!  It's good to use, not only for mixing new colors, but for getting SPLATs of color.  Yes, I like those!  I specifically place a fraction of Glimmer Mist into an empty bottle so I'll get random, air-mixed-in, chunky spurts of color and glimmer on my project where I want them.

I hope you have enjoyed my projects today.  Please be sure to check out the following links this month of the design team members for each company:

TODAY May 11: Danielle Layton, Maren Benedict, Michelle Jackson, Sally Lynn MacDonald*
May 18: Melissa Phillips, Michelle Van Etten, Yukari Takanashi
May 25: Debbie Olsen, Leah Killian, Liz Hicks, Vicki Chrisman

Tattered Angels website
Tattered Angels blog

Cosmo Cricket website
Cosmo Cricket blog

And prior postings for this month's blog hop are here:

May 4: Cheryl McAdam, Natasja Verbeek, Trisha Ladouceur