Do you remember the latest Advantageous kit from last week? I finally got around to using it the last couple of days since having escaped the school campus and created a "somewhat of a surprise" layout about my cute aging critter, Casper. I had posted this photo of him around the same time as the kit and fell in love with it. It ultimately became the inspiration for the kit layout.
I refer to the layout as being a sort of surprise because it's slightly edgy and artsy, which isn't typically my style. I even bothered to leave my seat so that I could pull a couple bottles of mist from my mist stash (I have a seriously neglected collection of mists tucked away in a box because I honestly don't know what to do with'em!). I put on my brave hat and threw on some purple splatter. At first, I wasn't entirely happy with it, but then I adjusted to it's imperfectness. Now that the layouts done and finished, I'm loving the splatter once and for all!
This gives a general idea of how the misting turned out. Instead of actually spraying the mist from the bottle, I took the cap off the bottle and directly applied the mist via the end of the sprayer {plastic-y tube}. It allowed me improved control of the application process. After the mist dried, I took advantage of the new clear gel medium I shared with you in the last post, and applied it on top each of the dots. To help it dry faster (supposedly it takes four hours to dry if you simply let it sit there all by it's lonesome), I waved my heat gun above it at around 7" for ten minutes. It worked like a charm! And it dries completely clear too!
This is fore-surely my favorite detail from the project - it's a homemade window box created from a Cosmo Cricket journaling card, Sassafras pattern paper, a Heather Bailey chipboard piece, vintage ribbon, a Hambly embroidery hoop and a Dear Lizzy journaling note & rub-on. Yes, it took the whole kitten caboodle and then some to make the window, but it's super "sweet" and a great attention grabber.
Tucked behind the window is what I often term as "the unexpected" or the "black sheep" of a project, the one embellishment that doesn't match with anything else. The bird is a major mismatch, but he oddly still fits in. These kinds of details are not at all untypical of my layouts and I'm grateful for them as they bring life to an otherwise predictable design.
I stamped each of the doilies onto white cardstock using vivid purple ink and then hand trimmed them ever-so-carefully from the cardstock before adhering them to my layout with either wet adhesive or pop-dots.
The dark purple rings are really easy to construct {if you're curious about them} - the key is to first punch a small circle from the cardstock {toss the actual circle} and then follow it up with with a larger size circle punch (1/4" larger).
Of the largest circle of the bunch, I used a Fiskars circle cutter and trimmed a two inch circle from the cardstock. I then closely trimmed around it with a scissors. The key here is to maintain a steady hand while cutting!! If you investigate the large ring closely, you'll see it's not perfect - but that's ok 'cause this layout constitutes "imperfection".
Lately, I've noticed quite a few folks opting to journal on hand-sketched journaling lines. To avoid my usual crooked line creation habits, I maintained the presence of a ruler in drawing the lines. No way would I attempt to freely sketch a series of random lines without a ruler!! Credit to those who do though! Mine would resemble the lines noted on a seismometer during an earthquake and that's not necessarily a good thing :)
There are a couple of misc. details in addition to the major ones, including these tiny alpha stickers from My Mind's Eye. You may be wondering who "Chrissy" is..maybe not, but if you are, I'll confess to you one lil' secret about me. There are still family members in my life who call me "Chrissy" on a daily basis and being that I didn't have a whole lot of room to use my full name here, I went with "Chrissy" instead. Please, don't refer to me as Chrissy anytime soon!! Just saying...
The adorable you is from a 12" x 12" word strip sticker sheet by Creative Cafe/Creative Imaginations. I greatly miss this popular basic's collection!! Does anyone know if it's still around?
This should give you a general idea of the overall dimension and varying layers and embellishment displays that came together to create this lovely layout. Also, the butterfly is a real treat to feast upon - it's KI Memories {Butterfly Stickers} in combination with both a dark and light hue of yellow/gold.
There's much to be shared today, but I'm going to hold off on the rest 'til either tomorrow or Thursday. My schedule is shaping up for the Summer and Crate is in the midst of prepping for the next upcoming CHA event, which means July is going to be filled to the brim with excitement! I'm also squeezing in lots of crafting, including a major overhaul of a cupcake holder, which I'll show you on Thursday! In the mean time, have a childhood nickname you feel up to confessing here? I'd love to hear about it...believe it or not, my second childhood nickname was "bird" because I was a majorly picky eater....which I still am, though rarely do people refer to me as "bird" anymore. Laugh. Thank goodness.
