In The Cat Cave

Over the past two days I was on a mission to finish the Scrapbooksteals Jade Series.  I thought I only had two layouts left to complete... but I forgot about this weeks sketch.  By some miracle I finished this sketch in one hour... and its a little wild... its also not as close to the sketch as most would be but it is 100% inspired by it.

Lately I have been using a lot of doodling and stamping on my layouts.  So, I made a point to stamp on this layout to play along with my local scrapbooking store's weekly challenge. You have  until Sunday coming to play along!

 Check out the sketch to the right:

It's important to see the my final layout to look like the sketch.

I started out wanting to do my "letters to Santa" layout - the pictures were sitting there along with the transparency.   Quickly I played around with different background colors to help the transparency pop.  I landed with Basic Grey Basics lined paper... which plays perfectly with my theme of "letters".  I thought I would write my journalling directly on the page using the lines, as well as note the date in the right hand corner as if I were writing a journal entry.  Next I looked again at the sketch and figured my transparency wasn't quite going to work as the "heart" shape.  I grabbed my pen and started drawing circles with my American Crafts precision pen.  I figured that if I messed up I would grab another sheet from the pack.  Loved it.  I then played around with the photos and turned the sketch.  Perfect.

Next I added two shades of Mister Hueys (Plum Thumb and Peppermint) specks. I grabbed some more grey patterned paper and a doily and some pop dots... I then envisioned the journalling but I wanted the journalling to pop.  So, I grabbed my gesso (as Ana-Marie Wolniak would..) and painted some white on the page... Nope. That didn't pop enough.  Since Plum Thumb was sitting on my desk, I dropped a couple drops and out came a pinky red.  I loosely applied that and set it with my heat tool.

Finally I grabbed my new Stampin Up Sent with Love stamp set (which I have used on two layouts in 24 hours) and stamped away along with some thickers. Cool, hey?

Next I have the week 5 mojo series - This is a two page layout, in which I decided to tackle Christmas morning.  I despise doing holidays but they mean so much to me because often its family I don't always get to see. However there's always too many pictures and just too much that I want to capture.  This layout has a hidden journal tag (see the heart flag) which explains the "goings-on". I changed up the sketch a little as I wanted my pictures to touch.  Instead of my pictures going up and down I used tags.

Lastly the week 6 mojo series - I adored the layout and adored the layering.  In fact, I decided to play along with the Scrap That Chat designer challenge to layer.  You can see that I have 5 or 6 layers and could have kept going.  Sometimes I just pile up a handful of scraps and lay them down on a piece of background paper... I then just start adhering by using pop dots and peeling back corners... (probably not recommended.. most people don't adher until its all over.. not me!  I commit!)

Supplies Used: Bell Blvd Baby Boy collections, October Afternoon Midway washi, Doodlebug Loopy Love  letters, AC precision pen, Shopevalicious.com v2 badge, Stampin Up sent with love stamp set, Freckled fawn wooden veneers, Stampin Up pool party ink, Studio Calico vellum shapes, Little Yellow Bicycle paper crafting kit, Carta Bella Traditions & Winter Fun stickers, MME enamel dos, Freckled Fawn washi, Bella Blvd washi and FancyPants Blissflul Blizzard stickers.
Cathy