YOU AND ME

HI! Its the weekend once again. This week went by so quickly, I keep wondering where all my time went! Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to get much done this week. Been busy Christmas shopping!! However I do have one new page I'd love to share with you. 

While this layout is definitely still my style, it's also at the same time very different to what I normally create and I spent a lot of time going over and over this one. The photo I used is one of my son and I, taken in the ICU at King Edward Memorial Hospital. He was about 10 days old and had finally been allowed to come off all the machines.

There is a lot of Pink on this page, much more than I would normally use, however I created this page for me and what it was like becoming a mother so while its a baby boy in the photo, pink seemed appropriate. I couldn't help adding blue though. All pink and neutrals somehow did not seem right.

'You and Me'

No matter how hard I tried I could not make this page go flat to photo, not with blutac, tape, anything! I also decided to be fiddly and erase the background as I wanted the edging to be noticeable. Normally I crop through it and most you can still see except a few small pieces it cuts out, though because this page would not go flat I lost to much of the distressed edge and even a fair bit of the punching. The erasing is most definitely not my neatest work but I shake far to much to have a steady enough hand for that kind of thing!!

  

The background paper is Pink Paislee, The layers Bella Blvd and Echo Park. Embellishments are mostly Prima except a small piece of MME chipboard, Tim Holtz safety pin, Collections Elements Butterflies and my 2 craft pegs.

Some detailed shots: 

Another Prima title and cute gold glitter circles. Both were used on the last layout I shared with you but I can't seem to get enough of either. A bit of texture paste and watercolor, which I also used to highlight some of the embellishments. I love these little blue triangle I cut from a really small scrap of one one my favorite papers from 'The Good Life' collection by Fancy Pants.

Prima vine and flowers. I love this vine so much I almost wish I could use it on everything. I used to have a few of them... But this was my last one :-(.

I absolutely love this little knitted leaf of Prima's. It is so gorgeous and original. I'll admit I was unsure how to use it at first so it's been sitting in my 'desk' far too long and then I realized all I had to do was stick it on! 

 I kept this side of the page much cleaner than the other. I wanted the layout to balance and not overcrowd the photo. I used black Kindy Glitz on the pegs, and had planned to leave them that way, but I accidentally got my gold glitter all over them as they were drying. I had thought to get some new one out and start again but once it dried I fell in love and ended up swiping glitter over everything to help tie it all together.

So while I'm here I thought I would share a quick run down of the process I used to put this layout together. 

1. Start by scraping a thin layer of gesso over your background paper. You don't want it to effect the pattern but strengthen the paper for you watercolor paints.

Select a stencil and scrape texture over you page. Use any stencil you like. I used a few differnt ones from the same set to build a frame-like pattern on my layout.

2. Punch around the edge of your layout roughly, then use your watercolor paints to highlight the punched edges and the texture paste. Add extra water to some sections of the paper to allow the colors to drip down the page at will. Add another piece of paper to the back and tape in place. Distress the edges.

3. Select the paper you wish to use and tear or cut to size before taping to your page. Tear a piece of calico and glue in place and add a circle of twine on top.

4. Add your photo and begin to place your embellishments on the page. When your happy with their arrangement, stick them in place. Add some more twine to the top of your photo and place a button in the lower corner.

 5. Finish off the page by adding some triangles on foam tape, glitter circles and use watercolors to highlight some of your embellishments. Fiddle with it for a few minutes until your happy and your page is complete.

Well that's it from me today. I'll be back again soon with more to share got a few new pages that are almost finished and I can't wait to share them with you. Thankx for stopping by and I hope everybody has a fantastic weekend!!