Guest Designer - Stefania Salmi

Say hello and welcome back to our Guest Designer for the 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' challenge. Stefania (Stefi) Salmi of Scrappallino blog was the Design Team's Top Pick for the 'Letter Perfect' challenge.

Hello everyone, my name is Stefania, I'm 58 years old (well...will be...next month) and I live in Ferrara, Italy.

I enjoy walking or riding with my bicicle, but what I love the most is dipping my hands in every kind of colour, texture pastes, having fun with stencils, stamps, patterned papers and old family pictures. I love everything Tim Holtz and also Dyan Reaveley' style, I don't know exactly how to mix and match these two different styles, but I do know that I love them both to bits!

I am so honoured and excited to have been asked once again to be Guest Designer here on the Frilly and Funkie Blog...Thank you so much!!!

When I saw the Challenge's theme, suddendly a family photo from 1958 came to my mind. At the train station of Bologna, while waiting to board, my Aunt Elia is pictured with my sister in her arms, to her side stands my handsome Grandfather and Aunt Tea, sitting on a suitcase...I wasn't born yet.

As always, our family photographer was my Mum...and she passed her passion for photography on to me, we often spent beautiful moments together while looking at cherished old pictures. I knew the stories behind every single photo, because every time I kept asking her questions about the who's, the where's, the years...Completely mesmerized by her tales...how much I miss all this!

From that picture at the Station, and all those memories, this small and simple LO 8”x8” came to be.

As a base I have used a sheet from Tim Holtz's Collage Mini Paper Stash, covered with a thin layer of Gesso.

Stamped the train image (Paris to London CMS160 Stamp) with a slow drying Black Ink, covered with Clear Embossing Powder and heat set. I have coloured the stamp with Distress Markers and later fussy cut all around in order to insert the picture.

With the Blending Tool I have added colour to the sides of the paper with Distress Oxide Valnut Stain and then spritzed with water to achieve all those beautiful stains.

With Metallic Gold Embossing Paste and a stencil I have created some sort of frame for the picture, once dry I added on the textured parts few touches of White Gold Metallique Wax, just to soften the brightness a bit.

I die cut few Tags from Tim Holtz's Classic Kraft Stock (perfect to be embossed and distressed) and added some tickets embellishments. I stamped few stains on the tickets and aged them with Distress Vintage Photo.

I couldn't resist to add few touches of Baked Textures: Patina Oxide and Vintage Beeswax on the edges.

Before calling a project done, expecially with a LO, I always take a picture to see how it looks...I think it helps a lot to see the overall effect! I often take off or add embellishments, stamping etc..In this case I was bothered by the empty area on the right side of the picture, so I decided to add a bit more of texture with Metallic Gold Embossing Paste.

It's a very simple LO, but I do hope you enjoyed the process. For more photos of my project, pop over to my blog.

Stefi

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Stefi's layout is fabulous, perfect for the theme and so very personal, which makes it extra special. 

After you have checked the details on her blog, we hope you will get the traveling bug and share a creation for our 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' challenge, which can be found HERE. You have lots of time as it is open through 11:55 pm on Tuesday, July 31st.

On the meantime, check back on Saturday for another fabulous Saturday Showcase from one of our Design Team members and then next Wednesdaywhen the gals from the Funkie side of the team will be here to bring you their inspiration for the challenge.