Monday, October 19, 2015

Stuck?! Sketches challenge from Oct 15, 2015

Hey there,

I'm back with a new layout that I made for the Stuck?! Sketches challenge from Oct 15, 2015! I always like Laura's sketches, they are so inspiring and you can go in so many directions with them.

Here's her sketch for this challenge:


I love to use stars on my layouts so I went with this sketch pretty closely. I remembered that I had a really nice star cut file from Ashley Horton (owner of The Cut Shoppe) which she designed for the Hip Kit Club and is actually a free cut file for registered members. You only need to register, no purchase necessary! Once you do, you sign in and you will have an extra tab with downloads. So simple! 

I've cut out the big star from textured white card stock plus another one from white heavy card stock and glued the two together so it's more firm - since I knew I wanted to raise this top layer, I didn't want it to be too wobbly.

Then I took another white heavy card stock and traced the star on it so I knew approximately where I need to put my buttons. I have so many buttons! Many many years ago I was collecting them...I'm always so happy when I finally find use for something that I've had for like 10 years, then I don't feel guilty anymore that it was just money thrown out the window!

I glued down the buttons and filled up the empty spaces with enamel dots. Then I've prepared my top layer. First I stitched around the star with gold thread. Next I used a piece of tulle and Distress ink to create some interest in the background. I used Distress ink spray to paint circles in 3 places. The only thing from this sketch that I left out completely is the tag and piece of paper because once I looked at my star filled up with buttons I realized I don't want to cover it at all...Then I layered different papers under the photos and glued all down. Added some wood veneer and cork stars - also embossed some of the stars, now that I finally have a heat tool, I wanna emboss everything! To finish off the page I've added some strips of paper from the very first collection I've ever bought, Grand Bazaar from Kelly Purkey for Basic Grey. I still think it's the most unique collection I've ever seen, so full of bold colors, just happy and gorgeous. So you can imagine when I found the whole collection for €18 on the Craftsy site I had to order it...I really had to. Even if it means I have to pay €26 for delivery (okay okay, I've ordered 2 more collections too, just so the delivery cost is not higher than the actual purchase hehe), plus maybe for customs. Oh well, we live once, right?!

Finally I've put a double layer of 2mm 3D stickers in many spots on my bottom layer, so it holds up the top layer, same level as the buttons in the middle.

Here is my finished layout and some close ups. Hope you like! Unfortunately the pictures are dark; the paper is actually bright white, not this yellowish. I will have to invest in a pop-up photo studio with lamps if I want to have enough light for taking good photos...

Thanks for stopping by!