In an Octopus' Garden

I've been working on getting back into a regular scrapping routine since having returned to work recently.  It's not been easy - especially the work; but we won't get into that.  But I do have another new LO to share with you today; this time returning to my Barcelona holiday photos.

In an Octopus' Garden

I am totally in love with these CP retro slide frames.  Not only do they look great and are a great eye-catching feature on a page but I love just how quick and easy they can make a page come together.  I also especially like that these chipboards have a smooth texture, unlike many of the matte/pixelated chipboards used by many companies.

I started by blotting some blue and green spray mists onto my cardstock base, then sprinkled on more blue, green and some white mist and stamped some 'bubble' shapes around the page.  There was a dicey moment when my acrylic block somehow flew out of my hand and landed stamp-side down in the upper right-hand corner but I just rolled with it.

For the title, I reached into my basket of current supplies and just grabbed the first thing that called out to me - Amy Tan's vellum sticker alphas from Yes, Please.  I decided to mix things up and use the orange letters, since there were pops of orange in several of the photos and I liked the idea of using a complimentary colour palette.  I knew I also wanted to use this cute wave border strip so layered it up in the title along with the circular letter stickers and I really like the effect.

I took my time fussing cutting this little octopus from FP's Down by the Shore.  Got to use a new SC cork embellishment and added another pop of orange and some enamel dots.

I've had these adorable fish buttons for a while now, just waiting for the perfect project and when I saw the little fish paper in Down by the Shore, it inspired me to use them here (even though I didn't use that paper on the LO in the end).  A few white enamel dots add some textured air bubbles to each fish.

And I was so thrilled when I discovered that yes, I did have bright orange enamel dots and sprinkled a few in the topmost cluster, along with a piece of flair from a package I hadn't yet broken into.

To finish everything off, I decided to back the page up with some distressed orange watercolour paper, do a little machine sewing around two of the corners and really distress the inner border for some depth and interest.  I also think the distressed edge gives a little impression of an old 'message in a bottle' feeling.

L'Aquarium Barcelona

Happy Midsummer!

Here in Sweden we have been celebrating Midsummer today, although the weather's been a bit off and on and the wind has picked up and chilled down so instead of dancing like frogs around a Midsummer pole, I've been scrapbooking instead (don't get me wrong, though, that Små Gröderna is my favourite of the songs - seriously).

So I decided to break out my new Fancy Pants Down by the Shore collection and pulled out the only photo I currently have of my Easter trip to Barcelona with a friend.

L'Aquarium Barcelona

This photo is actually a 6x8 and it fit perfectly in size and theme with this cute, chubby little whale and swirls.  I wanted to add more depth and dimension to the background paper so I hand stitched over some of the swirls and used blue, green and white mist splatters, then added rhinestones and enamel dots.  To balance the page, I hand painted swirls in the upper right corner, too.  Here is a close-up shot:

I cut one of the border strips and decided to scallop punch it but I didn't want to punch too deeply into the paper, causing it to become really narrow so I came up with this solution:

As you can see, the foam adhesive squares on each side of the punch allows for less paper to be trimmed off during the punching process, while still ensuring a straight punching line.  I'm sure this isn't anything especially new but I thought it was a clever, if simple solution to share.  Once I had my border punched, I decided to cut part of it off and layer the two pieces over each other, which is a bit difficult to see in the photo but it gives a nice dimensional touch to the page.  I also used the narrow off-cut strips, which look like waves, along the top of the photo and patterned paper - I really love when I can use up even those tiniest of scraps.

For the embellishment clusters, I've layered each with my new red stars washi tape and some of the SC Sundrifter imperfect circle wood veneers and a red enamel dot and then a selection of tabs, labels and die cuts.  I also tacked on some of the left-over embroidery floss in waves and loops and used some OA circle letter stickers in an uneven row to mimic bubbles for the title.

And I know you'll never believe it but after I finished prettying up the whale and swirls, I had the worst luck with accidents on this layout.  I accidentally dropped the border stripe with removable tape runner dots onto the photo and to my horror, the dots didn't come off!  This photo, which was printed at the aquarium, has a different finish to it compared to most photos and everything seemed to stick to it.  I managed to scrap (carefully) most of the tape dots off and I doubt anyone will ever notice but I was so cross with myself!  Later something else sticky (no idea what) got on the photo again, but not as badly as the first time and I got that off with more success.  Finally, I managed to smudge the date stamp on the tab by the title and it bugged me so badly that I ended up ripping it off and replacing it with another from my stash (which had been inked in dark brown ink so I had to cut down the edges first so it wouldn't clash).  Sometimes I should just stop while I'm ahead.

To wrap up, I'll share with you one last photo of a little something I currently have in the works: