Secret Place Mojo 400

Hi friends!  It's a very special Monday today... my 400th Mojo Monday challenge.  Wow! 400 sketches!  What can I say? (Apparently a lot, since this post goes on forever.  {grin})

Way back before Mojo Monday, I remember playing along with the weekly sketch challenges at Splitcoaststampers and suddenly really wanting to have my own sketch challenge, but not really knowing how to go about it.  It was a tiny little dream, which my inner voice immediately shot down with a resounding, "but nobody would play along".  But I kept coming back to it, over and over and started posting a few sketches here and there.  Then a few more.  And then I started Verve and I was so busy that I wasn't finding time to post as often as I would like, so I decided to start a weekly sketch challenge.  And who cares whether people wanted to play or not?  I wanted to play and wanted the accountability to post at least once a week and I loved the idea of maybe a handful or so of people being inspired by something I designed.  So on September 3, 2007 I posted the first Mojo Monday sketch.  To my delight 25 fabulous cards were entered.  This was way back before linkies.  People left their links in comments or emails and I spent quite a bit of time saving and uploading each card each week to flickR and creating a slideshow for everyone to view.  It was such a fun time and made me smile each time I saw a card using my sketches. Here's the Mojo Monday #1 album.

So, for this week's sketch I decided it would be fun for us to play with my first EVER sketch.  This one was posted back in March of 2007, before I even had an inkling to start Verve.  It's still a favorite of mine and was based on this card I made for a local scrapbooking store DT call, but was too chicken to actually submit.  From small beginnings, big dreams grow into brighter realities.  So, my message for today is if you have a little dream, foster it.  Filter out the inner doubts and the not-so -quiet inklings about what others may or may not do or think about your dream, and take the first step.  You'll be so glad you did!  And who knows, 8 years from now you might be writing up a post about way back when. {grin}

In keeping with that theme, I made a card with a favorite quote.  "Within your heart keep one still, secret place where dreams may go." - Louise Driscoll.  I got some new Dylusions ink sprays over Memorial Day weekend and couldn't wait to give them a try.

The background was made by using matte medium to adhere a piece of Tim Holtz tissue paper to a piece of cream cardstock.  Once it was dry, I sprayed it with dirty martini and calypso teal inks and water, dabbing off when needed, then respraying and dripping until I got the colors I wanted.  As the background was so bright and I wanted to stamp my sentiment there, I then spritzed the whole thing with white linen spray (which is semi-opaque) to mute the colors just a bit.  I cut the circle out of the bottom corner with a spellbinders die, then embossed the quote sentiment from Blue Skies  (sorry this set sold out over the weekend!) in white. It didn't stand out as much as I hoped, so I used a micron black pen to outline the letters and give it a bit more weight.

Next I used fresh sunshine ink on a piece of barely banana cardstock to layer behind the tissue paper panel.  I stamped the butterfly from Blue Skies in archival ink, then again on a piece of cardstock.  I colored this one with the same colors of ink using a waterbrush, then added some black and white gel pen accents, fussy cut and popped up on the barely banana portion.  I finished off with some doodling around the circle cut out, a thin black mat and a white card base.

In keeping with the good old days, in addition to our usual first week of the month Verve sponsored prizes, I'm making this sketch a contest!  And I'm offering a spot on the Mojo Monday design team for two participants in this week's sketch challenge!  So if you've been watching the lovely and talented Mojo Makers working their magic week after week and been dreaming you could join the team, this is your chance! 

How to apply:

1. Play along with the Mojo 400 sketch and link up before 8pm Mountain on 6/7/15

2. Comment on the Mojo Monday 400 challenge post saying you're interested in being considered for the DT

3. Add the little "I want to be a Mojo Monday designer" graphic above to your blog post

I'll select my two top entries and announce them with our regular winners on June 10!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and for all your support over the years joining in with my mojo sketches.  It's such an honor to have you play along!

Mojo Monday 400 Sketch

Enabler's List
Stamps: Blue Skies (Verve Stamps)
Paper: cream, white, basic black, Melange tissue paper (Tim Holtz)
Ink: dirty martini, calypso teal, fresh sunshine and white linen Dylusions ink spray (Ranger), walnut stain, black soot Distress ink (Ranger), white gel pen, micron pen
Accessories: classic circles nestabilities (Spellbinders), matte medium (Liquitex), paper distresser