Summer Solitude

This is my entry for The Dusty Attic and Maja Design  mood board challenges for January 2015

My husband's grandfather

For the Dusty Attic challenge, I took inspiration from the word "Solitude" in choosing the photo and title of my layout and the orange and blue colours in the mood board.

For the Maja Design challenge I took inspiration from the neutral base colours and the words "patterns", "creative" and "mixed media".

I combined papers from several different MajaDesign paper collections (Ska vi ta en fika, Vintage Autumn Basics, Vintage Summer Basics and Walking in the Forest).

I used these papers as the background and outer mat.

Ska vi ta en Fika - Kaffetaren den basta ar

Vintage Summer - Minnen

I took a cue from the Maja mood board to be "creative" and use "patterns" by making my own flowers using these papers with punches and die cuts.

Walking in the Forest - Knitted Sweater

Vintage Autumn - XV

The orange flowers were made with various sizes of daisy punches, the blue ones with Heartfelt Creations Vintage Floret dies and small 5-petal flower punches.  I edged each flower with a darker colour of waterproof marker, misted them with water, scrunched them gently and let them dry before layering them, pushing in the center with  a ball stylus tool to curl them inward.

I used these papers for the mat around the photo and the die cut leaves.

Vintage Summer - 1905

Ska vi ta en fika - Havrerutor bs

Taking another cue from the words "mixed media" I used molding paste with a stencil and misted the background of the layout with subtle colours of Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst sprays in Clam Bake Beige, Cape Cod Coral and Sea Grass Green with a hint of Flat Fabio Spray South Shore Sand.

DecoArt stencil - Dandelion

I had a lot of fun using a bunch of different Dusty Attic chipboard pieces on this layout.  The floral stems, grass clusters and dragonflies went perfectly with the lush vegetation in the photo.

These are The Dusty Attic sets I used:

Mini Grass Clusters #2

Grass Clusters #2

Mini Dragonflies

Lavender

Reeds #2

Wildflower #3

Sweet Pea Frame set

I painted the grass clusters, reeds, wildflower and dragonfly pieces and added some distress stickles to the dragonfly wings.  I glued Flower Soft onto the Lavender chipboard piece but I didn't like the colour so I painted over it with blue paint and then lightly dabbed on white to highlight the texture. For the Sweet Pea Frame I applied a Distress Crackle paint then used several different colours of watercolour pencils (without adding water) to highlight the cracks.

The branches mixed in with the flowers under the photo were made with molds and polymer clay, then painted.

Best Flexible Molds - Wild Flights

Lisa Pavelka border mold -Au Natural

Thanks so much for taking a look.

Sisters

This is my entry for the January 2015 Scrap Around the World challenge.

My mother (left) with three of her sisters in the 1940's

Well, I've finally taken the plunge and entered my first challenge at Scrap Around the World.  Click here to go to the challenge.  I was inspired by the vintage theme and particularly the pink roses and patina on the keys.

Scrap Around the World - January 2015 Mood Board

On the background paper (from the Kaisercraft Be-You-tiful line),  I did a bit of stencilling with gesso, some stamping and splattering with paint.  This was the first time I've really tried to do a heavy splattering with paint and I'm not sure I approached the technique wisely.  I think I ended up with more paint splattered on the table, my clothes and my face than on the paper, lol.

Inkadinkado Stamping Gear Deluxe Set

Inkadinkado stamp set - Meadow Flowers

Crafter's Workshop stencil - North Star

These are some of the dies and punches I used:

Cheery Lynn die - Horizon Rectangle

My Favorite Things die - Mini Delicate Doilies

Spellbinders die - Romantic Rectangles 2

EK Success Punch - Abstract Flower

Cheery Lynn die - Daphne Doily

Lifestyle Crafts die - Nesting Doily Circles

 On the chipboard fence I applied crackle paint.  The chipboard leaves were coated with thick gesso and then inked (with a lot of heavy layers of different colours until I ended up with a colour I liked). I then dabbed them lightly with white paint using my finger to highlight some of the texture and applied brown marker around the edges.

Dusty Attic chipboard - Mini Picket Fence

Creative Embellishments chipboard - Flourish 10

I tried to mimic the patina on the keys from the moodboard on some mini metal keys and metal brads that I layered using a foam glue dot.  I dabbed on Vintaj Patina paints in marble, rust and verdigris.

I bought the old brooch on eBay several years ago and finally found a use for it.  I pulled off the top flower to use separately.

Thanks for taking a look.