Let's get sketchy challenge

I've discovered another great challenge blog recently, called Let's get sketchy. They post awesome sketches every week, and you have the entire month to complete the projects! When I saw this beautiful sketch by Jenessa Franco, I just could not resist the butterflies, so I decided to do something with it immediately.

I found a very old photo of myself on holiday in Spain, that I wanted to use. As I started going through my stash to put together all the supplies I wanted to use, I found this gorgeous "bubble" design by Studio Calico. The idea for the butterflies quickly changed in favour of the bubbles...

Because of the fun colour combination in the bubbles, I opted for a title with each letter coloured differently. After painting each of the letters, I added Glossy Accents to them.

To continue with the circular embellishment theme, the small viewfinders from Echo Park were just perfect.

The main patterned panel on the layout is cardstock that was inked using a range of different inks and mists. I actually created the other side for another project, did not like it much and decided to throw it away once it was dry. As I put it in the bin, the back side of the paper caught my eye. It had picked up the left over ink from my craft mat when I sprayed and inked the other side. I loved it. Saved from the bin... To add a touch of glamour, I stitched around this cardstock with golden metallic thread.

A little red banner with journaling along the top edge thereof, and a few ink drops completed the layout.

A day to remember

I am trying to catch up with a few projects I've recently created. This layout was for the Pics 'n Tales January class challenge. Ezme and I challenged the girls to create a Christmas layout without using any red or green...

 

My colour scheme was cream and charcoal, with a splash of colour here and there. I used a picture of my son in a school play, when he was about 4 years old. The edges of the cream background paper were distressed, whereafter I added yellow and a touch of blue Distress Ink to the background. To add a bit more interest, I also used texture paste with a very fine stencil, as well as stamping on the background.

Lots of little goodies from my stash found its way onto this layout. Since the colour scheme was so very "untraditional", I decided to go with that idea for the rest of the embellishments as well. Once I had the photo matted on the yellow patterned paper with the corners stitched, sitting on top of the stencilled pattern, I thought it looked quite "natural" - in a wheat sheaf kinda way. So that led to the yellow flowers and leaves being included.

And you know how it goes from there: the picture of the deer added to the theme, sentiments cut out from patterned paper, and a heart for my sweetest boy just "jumped" onto the page. I liked the addition of the clock face. It reminds me of the the passage of time from when he was in this school play. But it is also a reminder to a day about 2000 years ago.

I completed the layout with a few of my current favourite - resin flowers. I can't seem to resist these little beauties at the moment. They are gorgeous, and I used them in different colours on this layout.

 

What started out as a fun challenge that needed some thinking about untraditional colours, turned into a personal moment documented in a way that has meaning to us as a family. Mission accomplished!

 

TFL!



I'm back!!

It feels like I've been away from this blog forever... I have no excuse, because "life happens" to all of us! So without going into any details of my absence, let's rather look at something more interesting.

I am currently in a "stencil phase". Anyone else crazy about the beautiful stencils that are currently available? I've recently played with a beautiful one created by Heidi Swapp, to create stars with texture paste as part of the background of a layout. I've also used it with paint, distress ink and archival ink, and simply love the different results you get just by changing up the medium which you use. In this layout, I've used the texture paint straight from the bottle, but you can colour it by simply adding ink or paint to it before applying it through your stencil.

I used another of Heidi's stencils with Mister Huey's mists to add a chevron pattern to a small section of the background. By combining more than one colour, one can achieve quite an interesting look.

This is what the layout looks like:

This photo was taken sooo many years ago! I thought that the pretty, dainty little resin roses from Prima and the cute bicycle from Basic Grey was a gorgeous contrast to the very scary T-Rex in the photograph. It also picks up on the young, playful feel of the photograph. The bright colours of the title and chevron accentuates the letters on the alphabet patterned paper on the right of the layout, while the black rub-ons creates an accent colour on the layout.

Thank for stopping by! Be sure to do so again!