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Ok, so here’s a silly thing: I like sketches, but I’ve hardly ever done a layout based one. It’s a bit like when I’m cooking; I LOVE inspiring recipes but I hardly ever use them when cooking. I just wing it. But I felt like trying it out some more, and found this sketch challenge on a new Swedish sketch blog, lillblommanskissar.se. Fun! Perfect timing, too! The rules were quite lenient, I could twist and turn the sketch and add or withdraw element, as long as it shows that the layout is based on the sketch.
As I dug through my box of printed photos (I have a stash of photos I love, just waiting for the right moment) this photo of my friends Sara and Cecilia jumped out at me. It was a wonderful summer, many years ago, when the three of us spent a week together at Sara’s summer cabin. It was the three of us, hanging out in the sun, going to the beach, cooking good food, drinking some wine, having a little summer vacation together. You know that feeling when summer is so intense and perfect that you can just close your eyes and smell it and feel it on your skin? That was what it was like. This is my friends on the steps to the main house, having ice cream:
On the same steps we also had some perfectly chilled Russian champagne and smoked shrimps. It leads up to a small nook of the house that is called a “Punch Veranda” in Swedish, which could be translated as a Punch Porch, or a Toddy Porch (ha, I love that!). Anyways, it was a very happy time, and I just live the photo with it’s sharp sunshine, the old steps, the bare feet, the roses growing wild.
I wanted the layout to feel fun and carefree, like that week, so I played around with some paper tape, colour wash and some watercolour splatter.
Here are some details:
Thank you for coming by and reading my blog *s*. Hope you had a great weekend. Tomorrow is MONDAY! Onwards and upwards, my friends!
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This layout is all about me embarking on a deeper journey into the art of photography. I’ve had a camera pretty much since I was 6 or 7 years old, took photography in high school, and got my analogue SLR in my early twenties. The step to digital was a big one, and I sort of fell out of the habit. I had the camera for many years without really using it to it’s full potential, but then something changed in my life, and now I’m feeling more inspired and creative than I’ve ever have. All I want to do now id to photograph everything. EVERYTHING. All the time. And get better.
The best thing about this layout, for me, is that it was such a surprise. I remembered the sketch challenge a bit last minute and pulled a photo from my stack of prints, and this self portrait is what I grabbed. The stripy paper is a leftover scrap from one of my old favourite papers, that I’ve sort of kept safe for a rainy day (yeah… I know…). The journalling is done on a page from an old book, after I wiped some gesso on it. I used another page, torn into tiny squares, for the title. The dotted ribbon I love, and I think it was one the first ones I ever bought. Awesome to finally get to use it!
The composition of this layout is inspired from this sketch at the Swedish webzine Allt om Scrap, and is a part of their summer competition. Great fun!
I mentioned a colour challenge the other day, and it had me thinking for a while. Then I got to thinking about how the structure on the card stock felt a bit like an old travel bag I used to have, so I made a tiny version of it. Found a great vellum paper in turquoise with a postcard theme that I thought went well with the bag:
Pysselmyran’s Blog issued a challenge this week that feels like a lot of fun, since it seems so out of the box for me when it comes to colour. They want you to create something in the the colours turquoise, orange and green. Huh? I can’t for the life of me think of anything to make these colours go together in a good way. But I will try… Meanwhile I tried to find some inspiration via flickr, to see how the colours would go together:
1. monkey family address label & mommy cards in green, 2. ruler card, 3. Deep green, 4. green GIRASOLE, 5. pretty clips/photo holders, 6. orange polka dot shoe, 7. plethora, 8. Orange Package, 9. orange, 10. Blue Posies Blossom Card (Open), 11. Robot, 12. Fortune Teller, 13. turquoise and green holiday snowflake gift tags, 14. Keeping it Straight Jotter, 15. Life is Better with Friends – Handmade Card, 16. 2010 Letterpress Calendar Poster (detail)
All these pics are found in the Paper Crafting Group on Flickr
Mosaic made here.
The Swedish webzine “Allt om Scrap” publishes an inspiration issue every Sunday, and last Sunday they posted some layouts from a challenge they did. I didn’t have time to do it last weekend, but I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, so I took some time yesterday to do it, since it really did feel like a challenge. Listen to this:
- May only contain patterned papers. Must use acrylic paints and 4 different stamps. Have to have one type of overlay and at least 3 tags. And finally, it must have sewing machine stitches.
- Can not include flowers, ribbons or lace. No corrugated cardboard allowed, and may not contain anything white!
Well… Only patterned papers and nothing white? Hello? I haven’t really done a traditional, full-size scrapbook layout before, so why not start with something difficult? Go big, that sort of thing. I got the perfect idea and I wanted Tricks in it, so this is what happened:
Yes, we like our dots ;) I really had bite my tongue plenty of times, not to reach for plain one-coloured papers, keeping the white details out, not using any string. In the end I’m pleased with the result, I wouldn’t have thought of this idea if it hadn’t been for the specifications in this challenge. Thank you, Tricks, for doing the photo shoot with me! You look really beautiful in that dotty dress!
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Molly’s Scrapbooking is a Swedish web shop that sells nice little scrapbooking kits, and they’ve just had a great challenge with the theme “Weekend in Paris”. One of the challenges (#6) was to scraplift a card, and that suited me the best (see the original card by Cath here). As the season is getting nearer I decided to go with a christmas card. I made a resolution not to buy any new christmas papers this year, since I had some many left from last year, but I didn’t feel like any of them suited my layout. So i made the background pattern from scratch with embossed snow flakes and distress inks. Here is the result:
http://mollysscrapbooking.blogspot.com/2010/10/nr-6-scraplift-kort.html
www.scraplagret.se, a great Swedish web shop, has a fun challenge every month. The October challenge was to create a layout, a card, something altered or whatever seemed fun, in a christmas theme, but in non-traditional christmas colours. The deal was to use pink, turquoise or/and purple. Now, what I really like about challenges, especially ones like these, is that it makes you think outside your own tiny, little box. Would I have made a christmas card in turquoise if not for this challenge? Probably not. I would probably have stuck to gren, red and gold. So there you go, challenges are fun. I will have to do more!
And this is the card! Keep your fingers crossed:
Time to get into that christmas spirit, peeps! 70 days left to find those pressies to your loved ones! Woo!
I realise I have checked the blog 4 times today already, and it isn’t even noon. Jen came over on Tuesday, the challenge went great. She took some seriously awesome pics of our attempts at making flowers. Or rather, to be more exact, pics of her success and my fumblings in he dark. I have a few pics also, I will try to post some when I get home, if I am not too tired.
Jen, please get well and post some pics! I am sending you get well vibes all the time, have they reached you?
Well Tricks, since you laid down the gauntlet this afternoon (obviously an incredible gauntlet, covered with pretty paper scraps and crystals and stickles and also in a nice brow from Adirondack maybe) my brain has had a work out.
Behind everything I say, on the side all the time, I have this constant progress in my brain: what will I try, what will I do, how will I manage this challenge?
It’s so ON, dear friend! Love!
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