#89 Inspired by tone-on-tone

I got the idea for this layout early on in the week after revisiting the page with the paper waves from last week. I wanted a lot of orange on orange.

although my vision didn't become a reality, I do like the tones of orange on this page and all the small elements that add dimension to the orange. 

The black and white pictures (you know I can't resist a photobooth) made it an easy addition to the busy background which was my starting point. I added a little of the teal glitter tape to add another color to the layout. Orange and grey just seemed too sad for this happy page. 

 

the addition of that grey paper was a given once I chose a theme for this page. The graffiti-like messages on this gorgeous paper really reinforce my story - my hidden and visible journaling have the same feel. I love it when things like that fall into place.

I added some foam dots to a lot of the embellishments to create that separation of layers and the distressed edges also helped with this.

I hope you find a way to be inspired by this. I feel this is also a good way to use up stash of a certain color because you can add a lot of elements of that color into the layers. Can't wait to see what you all come up with.

xo,
Pamage

#80 inspired by vellum

I am easily inspired by vellum. I love the stuff. I was one of those folks who was using it when it was "tacky" and out of trend. I was ecstatic once products started popping up using vellum though I haven't bought that many beyond the ones that came with the Studio Calico kits when I still had a subscription. 

I like to use it just plain.

But Lisa's challenge had me thinking outside the box a little and I wanted to find new ways to use it. So I had the perfect excuse to try this technique {here} and make my own vellum embellishments with a little ink and clear embossing powder.

And these are the results -

 although the raised stamped impression is subtle, I love how pretty these images turned out. I had never clear embossed over colored ink. What a genius concept!

 I also created double layers by adding my embossed vellum image over a punched plain vellum circle which I stamped with the phrase 'oh snap'. and a sticker and butterfly finished off my mini-clusters.

another fun fact about this layout is that my "patterned paper" is actually the shopping bag from west elm. I couldn't resist the x's and o's pattern on craft. too darn cute. 

I hope you dug into your stash for some vellum and put it to good use on a page. 

xo,

Pamage

#75 inspired by the use of envelopes

I use envelopes from time to time on pages, but usually I use them to hide my journaling. I have never made them the focal point of my page, so this challenge had my wheels turning. I also wanted to do the layering on the samples some justice so I knew I had my work cut out for me.

I knew just the envelope for this. My December Daily kit from Kelly Purkey came with a large (6.5x6.5 I think) vellum with glitter envelope.

For my design I went with funky triangles which is a trend I have been spotting. I used a bunch of bright scraps with a few added craft papers. I stuffed my envelope to overflowing with memorabilia and threw in a bunch of confetti for good measure. 

Then, of course, came the layering of the front of the envelope. I wanted to do something dimensional and full of textures but in the end I just used a few die cuts in the right colors and scattered a few buttons and called it good. Overall I like how it turned out.

there wasn't enough room for a title or more photos so I made it a double spread. You can see additional images of the two pages together by visiting the gallery. Really curious to see how you used envelopes this week. Please remember to link us up in the gallery.

xo,

Pamage

#39 inspired by clusters

Well, Pam certainly gave me a surprise this week when she offered up the prompt to be inspired by {my} clusters! How flattering was that?!? And from what I've been seeing on the Flickr board {here}, I have to say that you all rock! Those are some wonderful clusters and if any of you try to tell me that you "can't" get the hang of clusters, well, I just can't believe it any more! :-)

But the thing is that it's all about practice and I'm sure you know that I've been practicing it on almost every layout I've created over the last two years since I first took the Nic Howard BPS class, Dimensional Details. If anyone reading this is on the fence about the remake of this class which is now being offered over at BPC as part of this year's "4 experts" series (July/Aug/Sep), then I just can't recommend it highly enough. Nic has an excellent way of building up the layers and showing you how she ends up with the results she does with the distressing, layering and clustering. An awesome class, and an awesome teacher.  Come along and join in the fun!

But back to the challenge in hand.

I felt a bit of an obligation to come up with something spectacular. Something a bit over the top maybe.

But the days went by and today I realised that I have to get my act together and make my layout. So I stopped worrying so much, used the LOAD Sketchy Sunday prompt and my May Counterfeit kit, Whisper and just pottered around making my layout. I stopped thinking about the sketch and the challenge and ended up with something I love.

I ended up with a main cluster and then a mini, off the page one in the opposite corner. I was inspired by Pam's layout to include all the butterflies. Actually, I video'd myself making up the cluster with my iPhone and I'm wondering how that turned out! I'm not sure and it was the first time I've ever done it so I'm going to check that out and if it's half decent, I'll let you see it! I think I need to get the position of the camera better but it's a start.

As you can see, my main cluster isn't so big but it has many different items tucked in there - some of which you can't see. Sometimes that disturbs but mostly I try and not worry about that too much.

Pam has put her post up already so I'll be back in the morning with another prompt for the week to come.

In the meantime, come on over to Flickr and share your creations with us. We love to see how you interpret our ideas whether it's the latest or the first one we posted. Everyone is welcome and we are so grateful that you join in on what we have to offer!

#39 Inspired by Lisa-like clusters

This week flew by. 

But here we are again with another post... this time on time! ;)

I usually have embellishments of some sort on the page. I sometimes "cluster" them, but they are mostly mini clusters on one of the edges to accent some additional journaling. 

However, I seldom go all out and cluster an area of the page the way Lisa seems to so easily accomplish.

This made this challenge, well, challenging for me! But I set out to not disappoint. The first thing I needed to find were special pictures to pretty up. One of the hangups I have with clusters is that I feel they take up too much time and I am a speedy scrapper. But when the pictures are meaningful you want to take the extra time to make it extra pretty. At least that's how I see it.

So I finally decided to scrap these two photos -

A little background story - My grandma and I were talking about fashion from her time and she started pulling out pictures of her in dresses from years ago. I recognized the dress pictured above from one of my favorite photos of my mom. While I was living in Puerto Rico my great-aunt gave me the picture on the bottom of my mom in her teens - and having lost my mom to cancer in 1991 I treasure any photo I can find of her. I knew it was the same dress. My grandma insisted it was her dress and that maybe my mom had borrowed it for a party, but after showing her my picture, which she had never seen before she changed her story. The girls on the bottom pictures are clearly dressed to go to the same party. Anyway, now I have two photos of two generations of my family wearing the same dress and not a single story to go along with them... 

But i love the pictures so much I couldn't help but scrap them. 

What I love is that I still stayed true to my colors and elements. It feels like my style, yet it definitely stands out in my collection of pages as a special page.

How did you do with your clusters this week? If you made a cluster, big or small, we'd love to see it in the gallery tagged as WM#39.

Until next time.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge # 39 week of May 14, 2012

Hello friends,

If you are like me - you follow this blog as much for the free and fun inspiration as the chance to see what gorgeousness Lisa will come up with.

I have been smitten and in awe of Lisa's style since I first discovered it during Feb LOAD 2011 and have been a fan ever since.

If you follow her work, you know she is the queen of pink and the master of clusters. 

Do you recognize this?

They are just a few examples of Lisa doing what she does best. I challenge us all this week to create a cluster of some kind. I will define the rules as any collection of more than three embellishments on an area of the page. 

And watch this space, as I am sure Lisa will surely blow us away again this week with her creativity.

xo,

Pamage

#10 Inspired by Fall

Lisa's challenge was to be inspired by fall... except right up until this year I wasn't really crazy about fall. So I decided to take her prompt seriously and ponder on the things I do like about fall and came up with this layout.

I just made a list of all the things I love, of course an off-numbered list. I also challenged myself beyond the theme to  honor Lisa - and include a "cluster" or my version of one. I was inspired by the look of leaves collecting almost everywhere around here.

I hand-cut some leaves from fabric scraps and felt. Then I added a few buttons and presto.

But you know me, I need my white space. I chose this Amy Tangerine paper for the background because it reminded me of fall, but every time I use a patterned paper background I feel overwhelmed. So I misted some white to try and recover some of the balance. The final result, with the leaves peeking through actually worked out quite well.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you guys can find ways to be inspired by fall.

xo,
Pamage