Online Crop with Shimelle - Challenge 3

Last night I found the energy to scrap and managed to complete TWO more challenges from over at Shimelle's.  It has been an exhausting week but I have been aching to do this challenge ever since it was posted.  Challenge 3 was all about mixing styles.

I knew right away which style I admire and would like to try to incorporate in my own :-)  I just love Amy from Sparkling Gnome Studios.  If you are reading this Amy please don't be embarrassed by what I am about to say :-)  I find Amy's work to be unique and refreshing, where every page carries with it a little piece of her heart.  I know there are others out there who do pages that have similar elements, but in my opinion they often lack soul ... they are designed just for designs sake.  I am inspired when I read Amy's blog.  I have copied a few of her latest layouts so that you can get a feel for what I mean and if I have done it right, clicking on each photo will take you to the full post.

  

Do you see what I am talking about?????  Now I don't presume to say that I can copy or imitate Amy's style but there are elements that I can try to incorporate into my own layout for the challenge. (On a side note if you ever teach a class Amy and I am nearby - I will be there!  With bells on!!!!)  So I grabbed a few supplies that were laying around and got started.

Lets start with this and see how we go ...

I love the layering and the paints and sprays, but my favourite part has to be all the bits and bobs that end up on the page.  That is where I struggled to come up with ideas, but as I was working on my page I reached a point where I looked at it and liked what I saw ... so I stopped!  No sense adding more if I am happy with what it looks like even though it wasn't where I had intended to finish!  So there are bits of Amy and lots of me in the layout below and I love the way it turned out.  I would have loved 'more' but that is not to be.  In real life the page has a bit of sparkle as I sprayed some Mr Huey's 'Shine' in parts (I love that stuff!!!).  I also had a chance to play with my new Tim Holtz markers.  I used them to stamp the starfish onto the canvas and then softened it with some water.  They stamp beautifully! (P.S. the canvas tag was the back of a store tag on a pair of jeans!)

This has been my favourite challenge all the way down to the silly whimsical clouds!  I bought that paper with the intention of cutting out the clouds and I am glad I did :-)

Chipper

Pretty Paper Party - Day 1

Ohhhhhhhhhh ... Day one of the party!!!!!  Did you join in?  If not, why not do it now ... click on the link on the right and jump in at any time.  The best part is that this party can last as long as it takes to finish.  Great for busy people like me!  The fist step was to take a photo of some of your paper, or a sheet of your favourite paper.  After much thought I decided to show you a photo of the patterned paper that lives on my desk to encourage me to use it.  Bear in mind this is only a small portion of my paper stash (maybe I shouldn't have said that ...).  The plan is to rotate papers in and out of the paper holders from my main stash so that I have less to chose from and actually use it!

I loved todays prompt about using up your scraps, however I decided to do a layout using the same ideas but finally using papers from one of those cheap stacks we all bought long ago!  The colours are very nice on the papers but the style of them is just not me anymore.  However by cutting them up I really like them on the page.

VERY old Autumn Leaves Paperbilities stack

I love the stitching and the paper strips, however I do not like the beads.  The idea worked in my head but not on the page, but once I had committed myself I had to keep going.  I even found some old journalling blocks in the same colours (which were probably bought at the same time!) and so I used them too.

I will definitely be using this idea again.  I had so much fun stitching the strips on.  A very relaxing way to spend my day off.  I hope that I can sort of keep up for the rest of the week.  Waiting for my next prompt to come through.  They usually land in my inbox around now.

Chipper