Although I took the month of May off from scrapbooking, I did forget about one project I dedicated myself to. Of course, the deadline for my part of the project came up right dead in the middle of this month. So, I had no choice but to go through my scrappy stuff and create something. (I know this probably sounds terrible to people that love to create. How could I feel like I have "no choice" but to go through my scrappy stuff? Read this post and hopefully it'll explain).
This double-page layout was created for a Chinese Whispers challenge over at Club CK. (If you are unaware how Chinese Whispers works, it is similar to the game "Telephone" that one plays when they are little. You start with a sketch, it gets sent to one person, who creates a layout and sends only the layout to the next person, who creates a layout based on the previous person's layout, then sends it to someone else, and so on until you get to the end). For this challenge, I was the last person.
It wasn't too hard to decide what to create for this project. I knew I wanted to create a collage of my life. A reminder that I am oh-so-lucky to have so many amazing things in my life. A reminder that I do now have an immediate family that doesn't consist of my now extended family. My husband. My fur kids. I also wanted it to feature things that do makes me happy. So I asked myself: what makes me happy? I do know that taking a million photos makes me happy. I may be an amateur photographer at best, but I am still a photographer. I also love to create. Despite feeling pressured and losing my mojo, when I am "in the zone," I create beautiful things. So both of these needed to be featured in my layout.
I went through my stash and grabbed all sorts of goodies to help tell the story of my life. Lots of tags, little tidbits, and expressions and quotes that helped describe my feelings towards everything in my life. I also grabbed mists and paints. I wanted this layout to be messy like my life sometimes is.
And then, I just began layering. I layered and layered and layered. And moved things here and there and then back here and then back there. Before I adhered anything down, I went back and spray misted with gold, then red, then white (see product list below). Then I relayered everything back on. There was a bit of coordination and planning at first, but after, when I started adhering everything, I kind of just "went with it" and it was nice. No perfection. No worrying about things being straight like I often do. Just "put it down and hope it looks nice."
And here it is. The final. (Bare with me as I post all of the products used below. It's kind of daunting because of how much I used, but I tried my hardest to make it organized in case you see something you like). I must say that I am beyond ecstatic with how this layout turned out. I am oh-so-in-love with this layout and fully intend to frame it to hang in my craft room. I was a little worried with all of the different little layers floating around the pages, but I think the brackets really help keep it in one place as one layout and one story. Here is the product list: (Note: Since I tried to repeat alot throughout the layout so it didn't appear to overwhelming and with too many colors, I'm listing the products used by brand name).
- Crate Paper (Storyteller collection): background patterned paper, border strips (red diamonds, green dotted, black striped, blue diamonds), "everyday moments" chipboard die cut;
- Crate Paper (other, collection unknown): journaling tags;
- My Mind's Eye, Studio Calico, and Theresa Collins: photo matte patterned paper;
- American Crafts: cloud journaling sticker, heart and green border strips, alphabet stickers (Thickers);
- K&Company: "Fabulous" journaling tag;
- Authentique: pink-and-gray journaling tag, "create" die cut, "being together" sentiment, alphabet stickers ("FOCUS" and "BE ME");
- Elle's Studio: "you make me so very happy" die cut;
- The Plaid Barn: yellow flowered washi tape and camera stamp;
- Polaroid: vintage mini frames (picked these babies up from the thrift store!);
- Ranger: spray mists;
- Martha Stewart Crafts: bunny punch;
- Unity Stamps: journaling lines stamp;
- Simple Stories: "you are my sunshine," "so sweet together," and "daydream" word stickers;
- ScrapWorks: vinyl brackets
xoxo,
Kelster Jean
