Rainbow Twinchie collage

My first ever craft-related blog post! (Please forgive the boring layout... I'm so very new at this!)

For the past several weeks, I have been working on a Rainbow Twinchie collage and it is now completed!!

I was inspired by this photo by swanlady21 on Flickr. Ever since I saw her collage, I couldn't get out of my head how much I wanted to make one of my own! I started by going through all of my papers and cardstock and choosing papers that more or less matched the colours of swanlady21's project. Most of my choices were plain cardstock, but some were patterned paper and some were textured paper. I started by looking through my enormous pile of scraps. Then I arranged all the papers in the order that they would go on the collage:

After the pieces were all in order and tagged with a number, I cut them all into 2"x2" pieces. I kept the leftover pieces in a box so that I'd have them in case I messed up a square and needed to start over - this happened just twice, but it saved me having to go back through all my scraps to try and find the piece I needed!

I noticed that swanlady21 had put each coloured sqaure on a slightly larger black square, so I did the same thing. My black squares are 2.25"x2.25", which gives an 1/8" border around each coloured square. These are all mounted onto a plain white 12"x12" piece of cardstock:

After everything was cut and put in order, I went through ALL of my embellishments: sequins, ribbons, buttons, gems, random stuff I've collected over the years - EVERYTHING! I saw this as my opportunity to make good use of my ridiculous and eclectic stash of craft stuff. (A large portion of my craft supplies are things I've collected over the years - bits and pieces of this and that that I would never be able to find again. Many of them are not the greatest quality (dollar store purchases from my early crafting days), so I tend not to use them and they just sit there and cause me guilt whenever I'm at the store, contemplating buying some new (and nicer quality) embellishments!) As I went through all my embellishments, I pulled any piece that matched a square. I wasn't thinking of anything specific for the squares yet, I just pulled everything that matched so that I'd have lots of options when I got around to the fun part of creating.

One of my current crafting goals is to use stamps that I've loved and bought and catalogued, but never gotten around to actually using. I'm very proud to say that with this collage, I used 52 different stamps - 40 of which had never been used :)

I didn't create the squares in any particular order, but it was important to me that each square be its own little thing - a microcosm, I guess. I tried to keep each square as monochromatic as possible. I also wanted there to be variety in the overall work - I tried not to put the same embellishment types on adjacent squares.

Here are close-ups of all the squares, and a list of any HeroArts stamps used (and maybe some other info that I think might be of interest). I've numbered the squares 1-25, going from left to right and top to bottom:

1) This is just a textured piece of paper from a big bag of scraps I bought. I highlighted different parts of the pattern with markers and stickles.

2) Patterned scrapbook paper, with some pearls (BasicGrey) and ribbon.

3) Regular cardstock, dry embossed with a Fiskars texture plate, sprayed with perfect pearls and then 2 little star embellishments glued on.

6) The unicorn stamp is from Nikoart on etsy.com (she has many lovely stamps!). The frame is a stamp I fell in love with four years ago while shopping at a Michaels store during a road trip and bought full price, but just never seemed to be able to find a use for (until now!). Both images are embossed with "psychedelic" embossing powder, which is very sparkly.

7) Pig stamp is from School Animals (LP120). The square stickers are from a dollar store and have been languishing at the bottom of my embellishment drawer for seven years.

8) Sentiment is a Studio G stamp, the flower stamp was a dollar store find, and I covered the flower heads with sequins and put a gem in the center of each.

11) All stamps are Studio G. The envelopes are coloured with a very light purple colour because after I stamped them and cut them out, I realized that the cardstock I'd chosen was the wrong shade of pink! The sentiment is stamped on a piece of foam left over from my craft time as a child (as are all foam pieces in this collage) - we're talking about an embellishment I've been holding on to for close to 20 years!

12) Ribbon from my very large stash of scraps. Flower is coloured with Prismacolor pencils, the stamp is by The Artful Stamper.

13) Sentiment is Studio G

16) Two different flower stamps used, both by BasicGrey. On foam piece: flower outlined with purple Spica marker, dots are Elmer's 3D glue, purple gem in the center of the flower.

17) Dots and flowers (S5213) - quite easily my favourite design block! Stamped with versamark, clear embossed, dots highlighted with stickles and 3D glue.

18) Background is Flourish Trio (H5261) - quickly becoming a go-to stamp for me! Butterfly sequins are from the dollar store, pearls are BasicGrey. Sentiment is from Oceans of Joy (CL372)

21) Owl is from Nikoart. Vines are from the LL199 set, leaves are highlighted with a Spica marker for a bit of sparkle. Sentiment is from Birds and Branches set (LP134)

22) I LOVE this design block (Poinsettia and Birds, S5068) :) Pearls are BasicGrey. Image is coloured with Prismacolor pencils.

23) Both stamps are from the Happy Everything set (CL066). Coloured with Prismacolor pencils.

4) Fiskars corner punch, stickles, dollar store butterfly sequin.

5) Bird is BasicGrey, coloured with Prismacolor pencils. HeroArts stamps: CL218, CL110. The bird's wing is an earring that lost its post ages ago... It was so pretty that I couldn't bear to part with it and knew that one day I would find some use for it :)

9) I think the flower was once a barrette adornment... I found it on the ground 18 years ago, thought it was pretty, picked it up and cleaned it off, and have been waiting for a reason to use it ever since. Flower stem is BasicGrey. Flower pot origin is unknown. Sentiment is from All Occasion Messages (CL272). And, of course, the lovely Clouds design block (S5215).

10) For the ribbon, I tried to do the scrunchy ribbon trick I've seen on a few people's cards, but couldn't pull it off. So I cheated and used little bits of double-sided tape to get the effect I wanted ;) Stamps used: LP120, CL396, CL155, CL218.

14) Sentiment is Studio G. Stars are from various HeroArts sets (CL155, CL318, CL110). Foam star was coloured with a Spica marker. Gems are from a HeroArts Sparkle Clear set.

15) Dollar store sequins, sentiment is Studio G, Raindrop Background design block (S5101)

19) Heart stamp is Studio G, sentiment and banana are CL396

20) Sentiments are BasicGrey and Studio G, Flower stem is BasicGrey.

24) Chick with balloon is Stampendous!, with orange flocking for his feathers. The balloon is coloured with a Spica marker and then coated with a layer of Glossy Accents. Sentiment is from Thinking of You Messages (CL140). Flowers and leaf are from All Occasion Messages (CL272), and the ground is from the A Muse Essential Ovals set.

25) Background is the Flourish Trio (H5261), sentiment and mini flourish are from All Occasion Messages (CL272). The hearts are made out of Fimo and the little heart punch in the bottom corner is a Fiskars punch.

Here is a picture of my little masterpiece's place of honour:

I get to see it every time I go into my craft room (on the right)... and it makes me smile :)

...Thanks for looking! Hope you're also inspired to make your own rainbow twinchie collage :)