Dream Valley - Anything Goes

It's time for a new Dream Valley challenge and this fortnight, our challenge theme is 'Anything Goes', so there are no holds barred, you have creative carte blanche! Our challenge is being sponsored by the fabulous Dilly Beans Stamps offering a fabulous prize to our lucky winner.

The DT have been given some really cute stamps by our sponsor to use for this challenge and the one I've used is called Kiki Mermaid. Do pop over to the Dilly Beans shop, as Megan has some seriously cool, cute, sassy, funky stamps in her shop.

I've made a gift tag for my DT project today. I really wanted to use some cute nautical themed dies I bought from Joanna Sheen recently, a ships wheel and the nautica set which included the seastar, seahorse and little anchor. So I had a bit of fun, throwing quite a number of dies on this make. I'm usually a more CAS kinda girl, but today, I threw all I could at this tag to see what would stick! I even tore a wet wipe (which I use to clean the ink off my stamps) as I didn't have any muslin to hand and added that behind the shells. They're real shells, from a little beach, just down the road from our house. I added a pearl bead from a broken bracelet, which I thought looked really cute in the lil' scallop shell. Not quite an oyster shell, but I thought it looked sweet.

I had some buttons sitting on my desk when I was creating this tag and it just struck me when I was putting the ribbons through the eyelet, that one of the Prima buttons would look quite good on this tag. What butterflies and crowns have to do with my nautical theme I have no idea really, but it was a whim, so just go with me here. I did sponge a bit of tea dye over it to make the colour of the button blend better.

I had a gorgeous sentiment I wanted to use and had intended to put on the front, but by the time I'd added all my frou frou bits, there was no room! Then I realised I only had one page of the fabulous Maja Design paper I'd used on the front, so I couldn't make the reverse match the front. I found another fabulous Maja Design paper from the same 'Life by the Sea' pad, which toned in nicely. I cut a square writing panel with my lil' Inker's stitched square die and added another wee seastar to finish the page. I edged all the pieces with tea dye as I did on the front. I distressed the edge of the designer paper, just as I did on the front as well. I like the way the hessian ribbon showed through on the reverse. I think it looks quite cool.

Here's a slightly closer look at the sentiment. I picked this up in the grey rubber bargain bins at Alley Pally when I was living in London. I did so love rummaging through all that grey rubber and finding amazing, uplifting, laugh out loud funny, quirky and heartwarming sentiments. It was always a fabulous deal and I did take my fair share, over the years that I went to the Ally Pally Craft Fair. I miss that so much now we're back in New Zealand. I'm looking forward to exploring our NZ version of the Ally Pally Craft Fair next year.

So that's it from me. Pop over to the Dream Valley Challenge and check out what the rest of that madly talented bunch have been up to. You're sure to be inspired. No excuse not to join in our challenge this fortnight either with an 'Anything Goes' theme. I'll catch you again really soon with some more crafty adventures. Hugs, Wends x

Challenge Entries:
Brown Sugar: #120 ~ Anything Goes
MilkCoffee Challenge: Hand Coloured Image
Crafty Little Fairies: November ~ Not A Square
Scribble & Scrap Challenge: #31 ~ Anything Goes
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: We're Seeing Stars
Creative Inspirations: #289 ~ Anything Goes with Optional Sketch

613 Avenue Create: #98 ~ Anything Goes with Option of 'Hello' Sentiment
Sentimental Sundays: #233 ~ Brads, Buttons and/or Bows (Button and Bow)