Park Visit & Article

The eclectic nature of Domino Magazine makes it one of my favorite home decor publications. They feature a lot of flamboyant, over-the-top rooms with bold hues and overly expensive furniture pieces. It's a magazine I choose not to take seriously, but it makes for great inspiration. It's a great resource for finding unique color combinations and design ideas. Every issue that reaches my mailbox is met by a pair of scissors. I tear out pages from each issue and hang them on my inspiration board in my studio. The page above was pinned to the board for only a few days. I took it down last Sunday and used it as a design guide for a new layout.

I took Ethan to one of the local parks last week to take some photos. It was our first visit to the "Highland" park area and we had such a good time. There were three or four ponds, gardens, trees, benches, and a gathering of geese preparing to fly South. The geese weren't real excited to see us, but we were thrilled to see them. Ethan ran towards them in full force and they scurried across one of the ponds in a desperate attempt to escape us. I can't say I blame them. Laugh. Ethan has an enthusiasm that often sends our cats running the opposite direction. He's an energetic  twenty-three month old and is curious about everything in the world. Even though we didn't get to see the geese up close, they were still wonderful to look at and Ethan loved climbing on the benches and rocks surrounding the area. While he was busy climbing, mom took out her camera and caught a few pictures. I used one of the pictures for this layout; a day at the park.

I made this flower using two circle shape labels, a single Prima flower, a sticker emblem, a button, a rhinestone, and then accented it with olive green velvet ribbon and two different style leaves (both K & Company). I used a Pop Dot between the top label and flower for added dimension.

These panels were inspired by the frames in the article. There are five parts to each panel (shown in order of configuration)-

1. Black Cardstock
2. Ivory Cardstock
3. Prima Vintage Transparency
4. Yellow Flower Pattern Paper (MME)
5. Turquoise Cardstock
6. Doodlebug Black Scallop Border


Here you can see that I've layered transparency on Ivory cardstock for each of the panels.

It's hard for me to create a layout now without including a butterfly of some sort. I love combining various materials and elements to create a one-of-a-kind butterfly. Here I've combined a Heidi Swapp transparent butterfly with a gold foil sticker butterfly. I attached the transparent butterfly to the layout using a Creative Imaginations brad and two petite Prima flowers. *Note: I painted the edges of the transparent butterfly using "Cream" acrylic paint and coated the back of the butterfly with "Glitter Mist" (brass). Glitter Mist can be used on transparency. Spray mist evenly (10" above surface) over surface of transparency and set aside to dry. 

Hanging out at Grandpa and Grandma's and watching "Papa" paint the exterior windows. He even got to climb the ladder with Papa. Talk about an exciting visit!

Sophie has been coming around the house after hanging solo for a few months. She's gotten so big and is sweet as always. It's great to see her and have her visit us again. We've missed her.