Happiness Wall Hanging: March Scraptastic Kit

I am not a big fan of stickers. Thicker stickers that are more chipboard like are OK, but still, I always feel hindered almost. Once in a great while I will use a Jolees and then there are letters that are stickers and don't bother me...

So, when I spotted the March challenge at Scrapbookers Anonymous I thought oh fun, for someone else!!!

I spotted some really cool pages made by the DT and I felt my resolve soften just a wee bit.

And then I got looking at my March Kit from Scraptastic and combined with an urge to create this arch-way with this quote...I decided to give it a whirl. I knew I didn't want any photos so I was going to have to rely pretty heavily on items that were cut on my cutter, the quote itself (thanks Helen), and my newest kit from  Scraptastic since I really don't have a bunch of stickers.

Also linking this up to A Diamond in the Stuff:  Time to Shine Party because I love her blog. Check out her store with those rolled paper wall hangings and her adorable little desk!

The nice part about a kit though is typically things match pretty well. And, there was this really neat popped up Mind's Eye sticker with a sun and a rose that I wanted to use very badly. Do you have that same problem? You get hung up on one item and next thing you know....an entire page or project gets designed around it?

I also wanted to put a nice dent in my kit and also use some recycled items.

I did take some process photos since this is a pretty big project.

I started with this arch purchased locally. I believe basket makers use these as handles. I then took some of the kraft paper in the kit and embossed it with a wood embossing plate.

I really wanted the look of wood behind things.

Now this frame is 14 inches wide, so I figured strips would make it look like wood slats. I also had to plan accordingly with my paper "hills" since standard paper is smaller.

Here is a photo of my "white wood" so I had a nice base to start with.

As you can see, I sprayed quite a bit of the whole thing white. I also attached a larger sized piece of paper on the back with hot glue. The spray also served to hide my hot glue "calk" I used to finish the edge where the paper attached to the frame.

And just a quick shot of some misting. I combined the mist that came with my kit with some glimmermist and then a VERY THICK coat of modge podge and glitter. Like a 1/3 of the bottle and drying time was around 48 hours!!! Seriously though, I absolutely love how it turned out!

Yes, the mist is all over my work surface. It does wipe right off though, no worries.

Here is a close up of the wood and also the quote from George Holbrook Jackson. 

The big brown letters came with my kit, but I filled in a few of the other letters with ones I had already to get a nice artistic look. 

My little house made me very happy too. I purchased the cutting file from Silhouette and the house itself was a card, so very easy to turn into this with the nice double sided paper from my kit.

The little green flourish at the top of my house was a gift from Helen  as was the rose by the H in Happiness and made me happy!

Can you see where I have tucked in some cardboard all modge podged down? And my flowers were found all the way down in PA in a small little craft store. Of course the tree has various button stickers on it. The grass was inspired by some gauze I spotted made by Helen on this page.

I am really pleased on how this turned out. I haven't made something like this lately. Most of the items used were from my Scraptastic kit as well, so I really felt like I show cased the paper and also made a big dent in my new purchase.

And the moral of the story? Don't judge a sticker challenge by it's stickiness! (I think I counted 11 stickers used here!)