February Kit Club and Creative Scrapbooker Sketchy Challenge

Hello, hello! I am having an amazing time playing with my February 2019 Scrapbook kit. Much of the kit is inspired by the Pinkfresh Studio, Indigo Hills 2 collection and there is not a pattern paper or embellishment in the kit that doesn't bring me joy. Wow, I love the purples, blues and floral.

I have completed a few layouts now and they are all very feminine and soft, easy to achieve with this gorgeous collection. So I wondered if I should show the versatility of this kit by moving away from the soft feminine look and instead work on a project that is perhaps a little more masculine. To really show you how much one kit can accomplish for all the different photos and stories you have waiting to document.

For this project, I am starting with the Creative Scrapbooker Magazine, Sketchy Challenge for February. I love using sketches for inspiration. They give you enough detail to spark an idea for a page design but also give you so much room to really make the layout your own.

With a more masculine look in mind, I reached for the Pinkfresh Studio, Indigo Hills 2 - Valley pattern paper in the kit. One side of this paper is a gorgeous deep blue botanical pattern and the other is a cool grid with some paint brush stroke features. I focused my attention on the grid side of the paper.

I had 2 photos in mind to scrapbook. One of me and one of my sister sitting on the side of the headland in Scotland last summer waiting for the tide to go out so we could continue on our hiking route to the next town along the beach. But because I only had 2 photos, I needed to figure out what to do with the 2 other 'blocks' on the sketch. Hello cut file! For the 2 \blocks' on the right in the sketch, I instead cut out the below saying from the Cut Shoppe,

I kept this layout simple by focusing on only a few of the colours in the kit. The black/white of the grid and the muted orange colour embellishments which is a colour also featured on the grid paper. I also used black cardstock from my stash to really make the cut words pop!

As I was working on embellishing the layout though I noticed that the gold on the wood veneers were a bit too gold for this layout. They stood out too much in contrast to the rest of the muted orange of the stickers and cardstock phrases I was using. Recalling a tip Missy Whidden had mentioned on one of her YouTube videos and I am happy to pass on here to you all .. "too bright? just add gesso!"

I simply took some Liquitex - Basics Acrylic Gesso in white on the end of my finger and rubbed it over the wooden veneers I wanted to use on the page. You can see here the difference pretty clearly on the original bright veneer and the one that is now more muted thanks to the Gesso. The colour is still fabulous and you can see the gold - it is just toned down. This muted look worked so much better for the design I wanted for this layout.

I finished off the layout by cutting down the black cardstock on the left hand side beside my photos sort of messy like and adhering a strip of that same grid pattern paper behind to give a bit of balance to the big cut file words on the right. I would have loved to stitch along that edge but  (sigh) I do not have a sewing machine - so journal pen stitching it is. What is journal stitching? Where you use your journalling pen (white, black or whatever color) and make a line of little lines so it sort of looks like it was sewn. A bit of a cheat but it is keeping the sewing machine FOMO at bay!

I finally added some staples because I add those to nearly everything and then finally a little splatter here and there of the Heidi Swapp, Color Shine - Bronzer.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy crafting!