Monday, February 17, 2014

Supreme Scrap Tournament Week 2

This weeks challenge is monochromatic, double page layout with at least one black and white photo that must span both pages. You may not have ANY black on the layout at all besides the black and white photos. Theme and embellishments of your choice. This one was a huge challenge for me!
A huge shout out to my girls (you know who you are) for all the quotes of inspiration on this one.
"Be it ever so Humble" caught my eye first because the homestead is just that, humble. 
I knew for this layout not putting pops of colour on the page was going to be hard for me. I was choosing between white and red when a scrap pal said "Imagine the texture with WHITE!" So I was sold. It was going to be all about the texture.

 
 
In the details:
 
I started out slicing each page in thirds so I could run it through my Cuttlebug with some Tim Holtz texture fades. The clocks were fitting for my vintage photos. I added some metal clock hands and everything got a good coat of white acrylic paint. I sat back and stared at it for a while at that point and wanted more texture so I pressed on some random spots of VersaMark ink and added grains of chunky white embossing powder.
 Oh, hand lettering. On the one hand I DETEST it...because it is hard and time consuming and nobody likes their own handwriting or attempts at copying a different font (which is what I did). BUT on the other hand...I like it because it is hard and time consuming and has my own handy work on it. LOL Silly, right? I always love the idea of hand lettering but when it comes to the finished product...well...I am less than impressed. Some day I hope to take a calligraphy class and work on this some more. It is something I have always been interested in and I do it often on my pages, to mixed reviews.
 Birch twigs for the flower stems, tiny miscellaneous flowers and pearls, soft gauge wire and cardboard for the fence. All painted white several times over.
 All embellishments were cut with Tim Holtz dies and embossed with white embossing powder. I went over the white embossing a few times to get that pebbly look.
 

For the birds I traced some tattoos off my computer screen (hey, you do what you have to do!) with a pen onto computer paper then I went over it with white liquid vinyl. After they dried I cut them out and adhered them with pop dots to give depth. I took this photo out in the sun to show the shadows on the birds. I adore them.
 
Being part of a challenge like this is just that, a challenge. It's about stretching your legs, spreading your wings, following someone else's rules while still being yourself. I honestly haven't put this much into a challenge in YEARS. The ladies on Team Canada are wonderful and I am so happy I jumped into this. I placed 5th out of 23 artists in my thread the first week! What?! I KNOW, right? It was exhilarating. Bring on the next round!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness, Kate, this is beautiful! The detail you put into it is incredible! I love, love, love it. :-) Can you teach me, please?
Lori