Watercolour Background

Hi everyone!

I'm playing on the Round Robin team at Swirlydoos again this month and decided to go out of my comfort zone, and create my own background for my layout.  It ended up being great fun!

I was inspired by both my team-mate that I was following, who had done a lot of splatter painting on her layout, as well as a new challenge blog that started this month called Creative Carte Blanche.  Their challenge this month was "to try something you've never done before."

Soooo, taking a big breath.... I began with a piece of chipboard, some molding paste, and a 12x12 Prima stencil.

I added a few areas of crackle paste, then painted all over with gesso.

I picked my papers, "Secret Letters" by 13 Arts and used coordinating watercolours to paint my background.  It looked very grungy and cool.

To finish the layout, I followed the "sketch" of my previous teammates.  We also had challenge requirements of doing things in "twos", using the colour red, and having a heart on the layout... so that determined how I added my flowers and embellishments. 

This bow is a die from Tattered Lace that I painted here and there with 13 Arts Pink Glitter Ayeeda Ink.

The heart is the Spellbinders "Lovin' Diamonds" die.

The pretty doily die is the "Eastern Star" by Cherry Lynn.

The butterfly was cut from the 13 Arts paper and embellished with bling from my stash.

Thank you to the group over at Creative Carte Blanche for their inspiration to try something new!  

I would encourage you to check them out!!

Thank you also to my team mates Hanne, Jan, and Cheryl at Swirlydoos... I was so lucky to get to follow them all and be inspired by their creations!!

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Linda

A Wonderful Moment

Hi everyone!

I'm hosting a challenge over at Swirlydoos this month.... it's all about love... SELF love!

All month I have been asking everyone to concentrate on things that make THEM happy... and for my challenge I am asking you to follow through on that and make anything you desire, a layout, a card, an altered item, a journal page, a canvas... if you can dream it.... it can be in this challenge.... it just needs to make you happy!

The layout I have done for my challenge definitely makes me happy, and has been inspired by several other challenges.  My son was married this summer to a very lovely young lady, and the photographer caught us in a happy moment....

which was perfect for the challenge over at the MoreThanWordsChallenge Blog where the inspiration was the word "Wonderful" and the creative challenge was to add "Sparkle".  I will show some close ups below where you can see the sparkle I added...so much fun because I'm a "sparkle" and "bling" loving girl!!

To get started on my layout, I used Blue Fern's February sketch.. and a couple pieces of beautiful Blue Fern chipboard to anchor everything.

I painted the Chelsea frame with Jacquard Lumiere Turquoise Dimensional Metallic Paint, and added bits of silver glitter paint here and there.

The second piece of chipboard is called Blooming Foliage - so pretty.  I painted it the same as the frame and you can see it peeking out from underneath this floral cluster above.

My colour scheme came from Cindy Brown's monthly challenge at Swirlydoos...

another thing that made me happy.... because I LOVE pink!!

I'm wondering if anyone recognizes the paper I used for this layout?  It is the beautiful Christmas line by Kaisercraft called Silver Bells.  It was in the December Swirlydoos kit "All that Glitters".  To change it into a piece I could use for a wedding layout, I stenciled and painted over the background.  The stencil I used was this one by Prima called "Floral Rose".

I used Raspberry Ayeeda paint for the background and watered it down here and there; then I went over the stenciled areas with a dry brush and gesso.

This paper line included a piece that was full of roses, so I did a lot of fussy cutting to layer the flowers here and there.  

You can see they are tucked underneath the frame above by the carriage, and below I created a corner cluster with them.

The white lacy leaves were made using a die from JustRite called Open Leaf Vines.

I hope you will join me over at Swirlydoos for my challenge.  There is still a week left to create something, and the lucky winner will receive a small RAK with some pretty pieces of the the new Prima line "Tales of You and Me" tucked in.

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Linda