Sunday, June 30, 2013

Halloween 2012

For my birthday every year, I treat myself to a day off from work (my day job).
It's a "Me Day!"

This year it was extra special because I treated myself not only to a day off from work but a complete guilt-free day in my craft room. Well, at least until 5pm when I had to pick-up my son from daycare. 

My focus for the day was to create a 2 page layout of my son's first Halloween using this kit that I purchased at Scrap en Masse.





The kit is perfect. It has pictures of little monsters, it has colours that go well with his Halloween costume and it has a very boy feel to it, but if you think about it, what Halloween paper doesn't?

I really stepped out of my comfort zone on this one. I enjoy creating subtle layouts. Whereas this one is very busy. There is a lot of things going on within these pages.

To protect the privacy of my family and friends - all identities in the photos will be blurred. 

I realized two things while scrapping these memories. You use a lot more supplies in scrapbook pages than you do in cards (see the list of supplies below) and each item that you add to the page needs a little extra TLC to make them stand on their own. A picture is just a picture until you frame it; a piece of paper is just a piece of paper until you stamp it, distress it, pop it up; a die cut is just a die cut until you ink it, or draw in some details. Without the extra attention to each element, the paper, embellishments and photos just seem to melt together into one big layout puddle.



The fence started out as plain yellow cardstock suitably shaped using the Sizzix Fence Die. When I placed it on the background paper, the fence disappeared, swallowed up by all those monsters. I stamped the fence with Magenta - Crackle Background and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo ink. Still it was missing something. The stamping helped but the fence was being swept away by the loudness of the background paper. I inked/distressed the left side of each piece of wood with the same Vintage Photo ink and that appeared to do the trick.

Other elements that were getting lost were the sign and my son's picture. The picture was a simple solution. I gave it a much bigger black mat. For the sign, I chose to outline the iron hanger with a silver pen and distressed the sign with Tim Holtz Forest Moss ink.

To protect the privacy of my family and friends - all identities in the photos will be blurred.

I am definitely going to take a different approach on my next scrapbook layout, giving each element a little extra attention. 

I am presenting this layout in PJ Challenge "Our very first motivator" on June 30th. Their September motivator is to use new techniques in our projects. I can't wait to push my comfort level again.

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions"
                             - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Supplies from my inventory:
  • Tim Holtz distress inks
    • Dusty Concord
    • Vintage Photo
    • Rusty Hinge
    • Forest Moss
  • Scotch Advance tape glider
  • Cricut Expression
  • Cricut Cartridge - Paper Doll Dress Up - Costume-s
  • Scrap pieces of cardstock
  • Tombow glue
  • Fiskars paper trimmer
  • Recollections - spiced market cardstock
  • Sizzix Die - fence
  • Magenta rubber stamp
  • Copic B91
  • Tim Holtz - Hanging Sign die
  • Creative Memories
    • fine tip marker
    • precious elements pen
  • Glossy Accent
  • Zapdots
  • ContainYa Crafts - Scrap'n Easel

Purchased:
  • The scrapbook kit



1 comment:

  1. Fantastic layout! I love the costume and all the little bits peeking out through the fence. Nice work.

    ReplyDelete

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