Mission Impossible: Flying Unicorn - Mission Accomplished

In August the Flying Unicorn Forums gets turned on its head as the members take the reins.  All challenges this month are member hosted, including the dreaded Mission Impossible challenge, back for its second year.

The CT's mission, whether or not we choose to accept it, is to create a layout from a fugly package lovingly (or is that maliciously?) compiled and sent to us by one of the members.  And unfortunately this package does not self-destruct in 5 seconds.

The lovely Linda Pekrul sent me this mess:

The rules:

- use at least 4X4 of each of the papers
- use both ribbons
- use at least 4 of the embellishments (but failure to use all of the embellies would result in ridicule)

But wait, they couldn't make it too easy...

- must use at least 3" of duct tape - color of my choice
- something from your bathroom
- cannot use any mediums, though paint and ink are permitted

AND they chose the pictures for us.  We could choose one of these three pictures:

 

Lucky us, we were allowed to color adjust or otherwise Photoshop the photo (can you feel the sarcasm).

After a lot of whinging and complaining, I turned in this:

All I can say is thank goodness for my black Gelato!!!

Lucky for me, the really busy blue paper covered with road signs (second from the right in the picture of the package contents) had a "nice(r)" B-side which I could use for my background, and the paper with the little monsters had colored blocks with squiggly black lines that looked like fingerprints.

The picture pretty much dictated which way this layout was going, so I opted for a Gothic, Edgar Allan Poe inspired layout.  The "Forever" glittered chipboard embellie was cut down to read "Never" and I added a handwritten more, then added a raven from the Tim Holtz Halloween Blueprint 2 stamp set, colored with black Gelato and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Marker.

Luckily I had gauze in my boys' bathroom, which I used to make a nest for the raven along with some of the beaded trim Linda sent me (is it just magpies who like shiny things, or do ravens, too?).

Much to my delight, both ribbons took Staz-On Ink.  You can see the (formerly) yellow ribbon below - added bonus, the flowers on the ribbon acted as a resist!

There were three canvas circles included in the set, one large and two small.  I stamped them with the skull and crossbones from the label of the Poison blueprint stamps from the Halloween Blueprint 2 and Mini Blueprints 5 and colored the skull and crossbones in with Picket Fence Distress Paint. I trimmed the corrugated cardboard X into crossbones which I painted and mounted behind the big circle.

And the duct tape?  My father-in-law happened to have a roll of olive green duct tape (when I asked Evan for duct tape I got a rant about why he doesn't own it and why I shouldn't buy any either, LOL - which boils down to it doesn't stick to what it is supposed to, sticks to what it shouldn't, and if you do ever get it to stick to anything in 6 months it crumbles off but leaves one heck of a residue).  I not only used it to mat my photo, but I also discovered that I could stamp on it using Distress Paint, and I then fussy cut it out to make a focal embellie.

 Glad that challenge is over for another year, and the members don't want to know what I have brewing for my revenge in my September challenge Muahahahaha!  But I do have to say, I am really happy with the way this turned out, and it did challenge me to think hard about how I was going to pull it off and what's life without a challenge.

If you'd like to check out the rest of the Creative Team's Mission Impossible challenges, you can do so HERE.