As soon as I saw the July Challenge Board for Scrap the Girls I had a very distinct idea about the page I wanted to create & the photo I would use. However when I put the two together, in the early planning stages, they didn't seem to quite go. I mean I could have gone with it anyway - I do see lots of amazing layouts that don't necessarily have colour matched pics & backgrounds - but I quickly realised that a photo, from the album of portraits I'm currently working on, would go beautifully. So that's what I ended up using.
This photo of my eldest daughter Lyssa holding her youngest sister & sibling is very special to me. It has always reminded me of a black & white photo of my father holding my brother. There are not many photos of us as children so when you throw in the presence of my Father, this picture is rare....
I started my page by laying down clear Gesso on my chosen shade of bazzill card stock. When that was dry I applied Nuvo Mousse in Black Ash using a Ranger Harlequin stencil. When the black had dried I selected areas to add some more stencilling using transparent texture paste; to create both texture & resist without adding more colour.
The next step was to add white Dylusion spray. I have a feeling I'm not using the right medium for this dribbling/spattering technique but we work with what he have so I dried & reapplied until I was happy with the results. Then I added Dylusion spray in Pillar Box Red using the same technique.
While all that was drying I cut cardboard scraps to the right size to fit behind my photo in order the lift it off the page. I have a pad of Day of the Dead paper I picked up from Spotlight last year & I selected a cute pattern in a similar black ash colour that has happy little skulls all over it. It's a faint pattern so as not to overpower the photo or any other elements of the layout.
At this stage I prepared a couple of elements that I didn't end up using; a couple of homemade skull embellishments cut from paper from the same pack, a playing card...etc
I let the layout sit for a couple of days while I wrestled mentally with how the layout currently looked & the end vision I had for it. It looked fine as it was in a minimalist way but I wanted to take it to the 'next level' without ruining it, to complete it the way I had planned.
Next came the art stones. As soon as I applied the gel medium where I needed it I remembered I had wanted to stamp on the background first...😬
...so...art stones...
The items I had picked out for a title were not going to work either although I realise now I forgot to check my stack of thickers... 😕
Anyways; Prima flowers, feathers, pearls, vellum embellishments from Cocoa Vanilla Studio's More than Words collection, puffy stickers from the Zella Teal collection & finally a dusting of pearl shimmer powder over the whole layout & voila!
I have to say I love this mood board so much that I will use it again focusing on a slightly different colour scheme & the original photo this board first brought to mind.
