On Reflection

This layout was purely for fun and having had the restrictions of challenges for the last two layouts I did it was great fun to do anything I wanted.  Having said that the shake it up challenge did inspire me to use the tags.

 The journalling (which I haven't added to the large tag) tells a bitter sweet story and I wanted my embellishments to reflect this.  I covered the back of some sparkly heart stickers with flock so that the sparkle was there only if you really looked for it.

 I wanted to use circles to represent things going round and round and not getting anywhere. The buttons I threaded with some natural raffia and one I coloured with paint so that like the hearts the sparkle and shine was almost hidden but still there.

Shake it Up Challenge

 Here is my interpretation of the  Shake it Up Challenge from Scrap 365 Magazine.

At first I didn't realise that the colours were part of the challenge and then when I did was sure that I had no suitable photos.  However when I looked I was really pleased to find these in my waiting to be scrapped box.  It got even better when I realised that the programme would make a great background.  I decided that this wouldn't count as one of my pattered papers.

For my small tags I used some of my old paint charts.  I stamped them with a random design and embossed with gold.

For my main patterned papers I used one which had word blocks all over it.  I then cut out small squares from a yellow letter sheet and placed them under the corners of the words so that just the edges showed and the letters themselves were hidden.

I left a gap so that this small section showed through showing where we were.

For my fourth tag I used a tag which had contained my cat's collar as a template.  I covered the card with my third patterned paper.  I then inked the edges and embossed them with gold and used this for my journalling.

I painted the back of this tag and I also used a thin line of white acrylic around the edge of my photos instead of matting them.

Sketch Challenge

I did this layout for Scrap 365 magazine sketch challenge

For this layout I inked two pieces of card to go with these photos of my Mum in her garden.

Using ink and a stencil I coloured a semi circle.  I outlined the leaves and stalks and coloured the flowers in using water colour pencils.  I then cut out flowers from patterned paper folded the leaves up slightly and stuck them on the coloured flowers.  I stuck clusters of small beads in their centres to finish them off.

On one of my inked cards I stamped a flower and then decoupaged it with layers stamped onto plain card and coloured with my pro markers.

For my tags I coloured a scrap of slightly textured paper with stain or pastels and then fixed with a brad securing the wool with the brads as I fixed them.

I cut my butterfly from patterned paper, wrapped embroidery silk around the centre and then threaded two small beads onto one strand of silk to form the antenna.