This Matters – Scrapbook Page

Hi hi!

I’ve been really brave this week. No, I haven’t had my Covid jab or been to the dentist, I just got my art supplies out! I’ve been wanting to experiment with mixed media a lot more recently so I rolled out my art-cart and got ready to make a lot of mess! This is where I ended up with one of the layouts.

My intention was to use Dylusions paints to match with the colours on the black floral piece from Pebbles Girl Squad – I’ve got loads of scraps of this to use up! I used a dry brushing technique and although I love how they turned out, they were just too bold for my liking – I like bright colours but I was not brave enough (yet) to work with those backgrounds. I put them to one side and got my Distress Inks out instead.

I taped down my Bazzil Marshmallow cardstock to help it stay flat and then swatched my different inks on an off cut of the same cardstock to make sure the colours stayed as I planned. Then I swiped the inks on acetate and used a water brush to mix and apply them to the cardstock in a patchwork fashion. When it was dry I added a subtle script stencil with texture paste because I really wanted the colours to sing.

I knew I was using the black floral so added the black border (I have loads of them saved from previous die cuts) to frame the design. And also because I had to trim the cardstock where I’d lost the top layer pulling the tape off too quickly… I never learn…

I layered my photo onto several patterned papers including the orangey colour that I matches with the paint to pull out the red in the photo.

Once I’d built up my central area I started to add the flowers to the sort of upside down shelf. These were all bits left over from die-cuts that hadn’t cut through properly and I love the way they pop against the coloured background without having to back fill them! I created my 3 clusters using a face die cut next to the journalling, the bike in the bottom right and the little Bramble Fox lock in the top left. My girl had her birthday suddenly cancelled last year due to the lockdown so it was the perfect embellishment for this layout about her friend cycling past to drop off a card and present.

Finally I added a few gems to my clusters the Bramble Fox “This matters” title. I love how it turned out and I’m really glad that I embraced getting messy. Definitely something I want to do more of. How about you?

Stay safe and keep smiling x