It's All About White - a Let's Scrap NSD challenge

And while that pot of white gesso was handy .... why not have a hand at a White layout challenge at the same time.  So here is my LO for this challenge:

So out came the gesso to glue some white serviettes to white cardstock and also to glue the florest white mesh to the page for some texture.  I wanted to add a touch of soft pink to the layout, so used a little misting of watered down pink ink here and there and a touch of bits and pieces of pink feathers to finish off the background.  I focussed the detail to the right bottom of the page to leave plenty of white space on the layout.  I used a soft dreamy photo of my great niece and framed it with some lace.  I clustered some white and pink roses at the bottom and added a small cluster of white flowers with white ribbon at the top of the photo.  I really struggle with white space on a layout, but am so happy with how this page came out!  It is perfect and just what I wanted to achieve..... a soft dreamy layout with just enough detail and lots of white space.

Some photos of the details will come soon.

Aaah, having a bash at Mixed Media - NSD challenge

I have gotten myself that all important bottle of Gesso - and of my oh my .... the Gesso bug has bitten!!  Just love using it.  So when I saw a Mixed Media Challenge come up at the Let's Scrap site for National Scrapbooking Month, I just couldn't resist not getting down and getting messy!!

So out came the Gesso, Modge Podge, inky sprays and Ranger Distress Ink pad and lots of scrap paper and even a little lace.  I used the reconstructed page method to create a unique background for my LO.... with lots of modge podge on a sheet of cardstock and lots of layers of my scrap paper with some lace for texture.  When all that modge podge had dried, I spread some gesso all over the page to give it a white wash effect.  Just loved the effect of all that layering, modge podging and white wash!!

I built up my LO on this mixed media reconstructed background using a little misting in places, destress ink on the edges and still a little more gesso on the burlap and edges of the brown cardstock.  My title was made using my newly acquired Silhouette Cameo machine and I added a some embellishments to finish it off.

The photo is a recently taken selfie of hubby and myself taken on a day trip to a local lighthouse.  I titled the LO "Capture Life" because it was just a wonderful day out for us... just a good day enjoying the time with friends and having some fun in the sun.

Will put up some pictures shortly of the detail on the LO.

Playing with Black & Grey and a bit of Gesso

I have so looked forward to scrapping with black and the May challenge over at Black with 2 was just what I needed to get out some black cardstock and get into the black zone.  And just for fun I decided to have play with Gesso to jazz up the black background.  So here is my take on the challenge.  It is always a challenge to get the colours come out correctly on a photogragh, but the brads are actually a soft grey colour and 3 left hand side buttons are shades of grey.

The May Challenge mood board was to use black with soft grey and dark slate grey with an inspiration image of splatter.  The other requirement was to use the sketch provide and the word "life" in your journalling.

So just to describe the detail I used on my page entitled "colour your life", I decided to go for a bright photo of a closeup shot of a brilliant pink geranium bud from my garden.  I first splattered Gesso with toothbrush over the black card to give the background some interesting splatter detail and by chance found the cut-out of 2 flourishes I did for another layout gave a really wonderful effect over some soft grey patterned paper.  I stamped up a doiley and flowers using Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress Ink, combined these with some ric-rac and buttons for the embellishments.

I really love the finished page!  The overall effect of the pink flower gives the layout a wonderful pop effect.
Just a few closeups of the detail: