Wednesday 25 November 2009

Lyra {She's cute}

I just finished this layout. I had to photograph it in artificial light {I've found the best spot where I can disable the flash} but it's still dicey at best & blurry despite leaning on the top of a dining room chair ;-D Sorry...had to do it in order to enter this in the Twisted Sketches current challenge due in right now LOL! I leave everything to the last minute, not because I am disorganised, but because I can pack more into my life that way. For someone who used to hate "being told what to do" {ie:- online challenges} I'm starting to really enjoy them! At last I have got to grips with sketches & can now use them guilt-free {I used to feel like it was "cheating"}.

At Twisted Sketches there is always something interesting thrown into the mix, beyond the sketch. This time the word was "distress" so I turned the inking up a notch & sanded the edges of the photographs as opposed to printing them with the crisp white borders that I am preferring at the moment. For some strange reason I really battled with my paper choice. I find this THE most time consuming part of my scrapbooking. I always want it to be PERFECT. This was about my 4th choice & doesn't actually "match" but I really felt like a citrusy/zesty colour pallette tonight, and eventually thought, well why not these papers LOL?!

I got to use my yellow chipboard Thickers again - TYPO is currently my favourite font. When I first saw these Thickers in the Cocoa Daisy kit I did wonder what Ali was thinking {it was their September "Ali" kit}. I eat my thoughts! I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE them!!! The green spotty "underlinings" are the remnants of parts of letters {cut up} from my hectically lime green "umbrella" Thickers.

The red alphas are Pink Paislee & the turquoise are Doodlebug. I tied them in with the top title by bracketing them with yellow typo thickers brackets. The yellow flower I have cut in half to accent each part of the title {see the other half above the top title "Lyra"} is part of the same set of October Afternoon diecuts that also features the 2 cherry embellishments, the bee & the flower flourish, all featured on this layout. I inked the flower in red, the cream cardstock in pink & the printed paper in turquoise. Inking the edges of your different paper/embellishment elements helps to visually tie your layout together.

The orange backing cardstock is actually the reverse of American Crafts - Blue Skies - Wouldn't it be Nice? printed paper - a travesty perhaps but it was just the shade I was looking for! Same with the cream "cardstock" - it is actually the reverse of American Crafts - Blue Skies - Zip A Dee Doo Dah printed paper. It is THE perfect cream for Lyra's skintone. I tried to use bazzill from my stash, but like choosing facial foundation/base, I just couldn't get the perfect match until I saw this! The printed paper is Basic Grey Lemonade "Honey Bee" & a print that I really love. I bought the mesh at Waste Centre but the only colour available was black, so I painted it white, using regular acrylic paint. Love the dimensional touch it adds...

Yup - the photo wasn't exactly parallel with the mesh but don't worry! I've just lifted & straightened it ;-D

I inked the edges of the paper with lime green so all in all I've used 4 different ink colours on this layout - Lime, Red, Turquoise & pink...ooops...5 actually...inked the BEE in orange...forgot a close-up shot of him - you'll have to scroll back up! I used a black fineliner to add some dots behind the bee as a quirky touch {his flight plan} & journaled the date by hand - see below.

It was a quick layout - 1.5 hours - quick by my standards anyway - how long do you normally spend on a page?



8 comments:

Jessy Christopher said...

It's a beautiful layout. I love the colors and the patterned papers you chose are awesome :) Thanks for playing along at Twisted Sketches :)

Lynette Jacobs said...

I love the colours of this one Helen. I admire everyone that photograph their layouts and gets it so perfectly...I would be lost without my scanner.

topkatnz said...

Now here I was thinking you were not keen on sketches!LOL - you are so right, she IS cute!

Vanessa said...

Oh what a cute page! Lovin' your take on the sketch!

Pearl said...

adorable pics you've used in this layout ! Great take on the sketch too !

Andrea said...

good luck on the challenge....again LOVE the orange!

Ella Swan said...

Hmmm...well I thought no-one liked it 'cos I only got 2 comments yesterday LOL! Heidi u'r right - I didn't like sketches - but I'm warming to them!!! {a woman's prerogative to change her mind ;-D) I forgot to say in the post that she is my neice & was an IVF baby & a long time coming so is a very special person in our family!

Desire Fourie said...

Beautiful layout and I agree, Lyra is stealing zillions of hearts with her cuteness.
Hugs
Desire