Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Sarah Groen's May Post

 
Hi everyone!
Here in NZ he days are getting colder.
 My first page is an attempt to hang on to those long summer days for as long as
 possible - I am so not a winter person!!!
 
 
I took the photo in the late afternoon as two of my adult sons were teaching their little
 brother some soccer skills. The gentle sunlight and soft blue sky in the photo is just beautiful.
This page is crammed full of 2Crafty goodies:
  • 'summer days' title
  • mini bicycle
  • ATC tiny hearts and stars
  • chevron bits
  • Christmas tree set
  • circular panel
I heat embossed my title 'Summer Days' with white embossing powder then inked some
 of the letters for a distressed look. I painted the cute little 'bicycle' grey (with distress paint)
and adhered it near to my title. 




To get the 'random circle' look for the background I used the straw from a bottle of
aqua dylusions spray ink and drew the three overlapping circles free hand (using a circle
 template as a rough guide).

I then machine stitched over the circles. The 'Christmas tree' reminded me of the Norfolk
 Pines which line the school grounds where the boys are playing. I used a gelato pen to colour
the tree and layered it behind my photo. I cut away the branches that would have been
 hidden and adhered them in the opposite corner of my photo to balance out the foliage. 



A small section of 'circular panel' tucked away at the top of the photo added another layer
 and a little more detail (it also reminded me of soccer balls!). I often cut up larger elements
 and use them on differrent areas of my page or on different projects altogether.


I add 'chevron bits' to almost every page I do (not sure what I will do when they run out!!!) Here I used the negative bits and painted them brown to really make them 'pop' and draw attention to my photo.

Finally I used another current favourite item of mine the 'ATC tiny hearts and stars'  and
 sprinkled them like confetti (with a few sequines added in) up my page - a fun finishing touch.



The second page that I would like to share today also has a summery feel. The photos were
 taken at Sea World in Australia's Gold Coast. My daughter Sophie has always wanted to
'swim with the dolphins' so I arranged for her to have a 'dolphin encounter' during our
 Sea World visit. She had no idea that she was going to actually be in the water with the
dolphins and her reaction was priceless. She still says that it was 'the best surprise of her life!'.


The 2Crafty chipboard pieces that I have used on this page are:

  • the loopy word 'Dream' in my title
  • squiggly heart border
  • circles (waste from clock face frames)
  • seashells
The 'Squiggly Heart Border' is exquisite! I painted it with gold metallic rub-on paste and inked
it with black ink. This results is a 'metallic wire' effect - really cool! 



I used several left-over circles from my 'clock face frames' to frame my smaller photo.
I coloured them with gelatos to pick up the green colour of the water in my photos. I adhered
 the starfish and 2 shells from the 'seashell' collection to add extra decoration and because
they fitted in so well with my theme.


I completed my page with a mixed-font title incorporating the loopy word 'dream' which
 I painted black and outlined with a white gel pen.



My final page was based on the March sketch at Kreative Koncepts.
I was delighted that my page was chosen as one of the 'top 5' features for the month.




 

The 2Crafty chipboard on this page is:
  • Clock face frames
  • medium film strips
  • 'beautiful girls' title
  •  

I cut the larger of the 'clock face frames' in half and layered both halves in different part of
 the page along with the smaller frame - forming a visual triangle. I coloured the clocks
 using a red/brown gelato pen and sealed them with a coat of dimensional magic.

I also cut the 'film strip' lengthwise and used each strip to highlight the chevron element in the
 sketch (which I represented using texture paste and a chevron mask on my black cardstock background). I painted the 'film strips' with black distress paint


I gave the title, 'Beautiful Girls"', the same treatment and the title on the first layout
that I shared with you today - heat embossing and inking.


Well, that's all that I have to share with you for this month. Thanks for calling by to see my
work and don't forget to check back often as we have some exciting events happening this
 month that you definitely won't want to miss.

Bye for now, Sarah xx

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