I have been fairly quiet on the blog front for the past month or so. I kind of just needed a break. You know? I'm still happily crafting away, just not really blogging or even reading anyone else's blogs. I have been active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram since that is so quick and easy and I can do it from my phone. You can follow me there if you would like to see my works in progress and various other things that take my fancy! :)
So on to today's share. I was invited to participate in the Scrapping Outback October challenge as a guest designer - how exciting hey!?! I spent AGES mulling over the glorious chipboard in their shop, and unloaded and reloaded my shopping cart several times. I finally decided to use the words 'daydreamer' (less the 'er') and 'everyday'. Originally I was going to scrap a photo of The Boy taken as he gazed out the window of a train, but I just couldn't get it to work with the colour scheme... So I went with another self portrait layout.
I had a ball creating this layout, which started out as a WHITE sheet of paper!
It was spritzed with 4 different blue mists (glimmer mist, smooch spritz and diluted Stampin' Up! ink) and some purple mist (diluted ink again). I then used gesso and a stencil to add brickwork in key places and just kept spritzing and inking until I was happy with the dreamy look of the paper.
I then separated the ply of normal household tissue, spritzed with water, scrunched it and then laid it on the page to create texture. I used gesso and a thick paint brush around the edges to make it stick down onto the page, and "splotched" it with a tissue.
To make sure I had matching flowers, I dyed white Kaisercraft flowers (coconut bloom) in some left over diluted ink - I just used the cap off an aerosol bottle. Only do this once though, I tried doing it twice for a better colour and all I ended up doing was having them fall apart! (Not a drama though, since I just reassembled the flowers and glued them back together).
And then it was just a matter of working out photo matts and flower clusters!
TIP: keep your phone or camera handy. When you have an arrangement that you like, take a photo of it before changing it or moving it. Same goes for layout placement.
TIP: I glue my flower arrangements down onto scraps of card (or die-cut circles work well too) and that way I can move them around my page really easily until I'm happy. It means I can poke in more bits and pieces as well (like those flourishes - they were a last minute addition! just be sure to trim any visible backing card away before you stick it down!
TIP: Don't be afraid to dye or spritz flowers to match your layout. JUST DO IT!!! If you aren't happy with the colour, just keep working with it. Or put it in your flower box for another project. It's just paper!
TIP: Don't be afraid to try new techniques and see what happens. I keep a stack of spare paper for The Boy to draw on, and I tried all of these techniques on that first to see what would happen, whether I needed more colour etc. I also recommend putting a faint pencil mark on the layout where your photo will be placed.
The following products used in this layout are available from Scrapping Outback:
Chipboard: "daydreamer" and "everyday"
Flowers: Kaisercraft Coconut blooms (dyed with ink), glimmer mists
Cardstock: pansy, white
Thanks for visiting! Have a great day!
OMM xox
