Skrap'n'Chat Blog Hop

Welcome to the Skrap 'n Chat Blog Hop!  I know Karen had some wonderful inspiration for you at her blog which started us off.  If you haven't been there yet, you must stop by.  http://sitscrapandrelax.wordpress.com

Skrap 'n Chat has become home to me since I joined it a couple years ago (maybe more now?).  Everyone is so friendly and welcoming that you fit in right away.  There are monthly challenges posted by the Design Team and a lot of inspiration to be found.  And the online crops can't be beat!  I always make sure to reserve a day during the weekend of a crop so I can scrap, scrap, scrap.  :D

Now, on to the specifics.  Welcome to Scrapping Therapy!  This is the second stop on our hop and I hope you find some inspiration here.  Our theme for this hop is all about masking.  I'm not a huge mister - I do it sometimes, but it's certainly not on every one of my layouts.  So, I haven't purchased any stencils or masks.  That meant that I had to make my own to do this hop so I had to get creative.  I decided to do an easy one.

Since I've seen sunbursts lately, that's what I opted to do.  I got out a piece of chipboard - I've saved all backs from stacks and any that come in paper packs - and made the burst how I wanted.  Then I numbered the pieces and cut them out.

I got out my Smooch spritzes and set to work.  I went slowly and got both pieces just right before spraying.  It all worked really well, except for the green.  I don't have any green Smooch - only Glimmer Mist - and I don't like how muted it is compared to the others.  Guess what's in my online shopping cart now?  :D

I decided that I needed a little something to the layout so I decided to add some baker's twine for some colour and texture.  I didn't want to cover up too much of the burst so I kept embellies to a minimum.  And here's the end result.

And I had so much fun with the first layout that I decided to try the mask again but using paint this time.  I have to say that this was a lot more time consuming and fiddly.  I had to make sure to press down hard on each ray of chipboard so the paint wouldn't seep underneath.  It was quite tricky.

But I love the vibrant colours of the burst and it is the perfect background for this photo of my kiddos at the fair - bright, fun, excited.

I found it challenging to work with the bursts because I didn't want to cover them up but at the same time the layouts needed something more to make them feel complete.  For this layout, I added a lot more embellishments.  It's definitely not my style but I think they all add to the "fun-ness" of the layout.

Thanks for stopping by and being part of our hop!  I hope that you come away being inspired to do some masking and break out the stencils.  I have a small prize for a lucky commenter.  If you want to be entered to win, leave a comment and I'll choose the winner on Thursday evening (April 11th).  There will also be a grand prize so make sure to go through all the blogs and then comment back at Karen's blog, the first stop.  Winners will be announced on Friday!  I see that there have been some troubles with comments.  I have comments set up for moderation.  So, if you leave a comment and it doesn't appear, no worries, it will once I approve it.  I just don't like Blogger's verification code - I personally always have to redo it at least once so I got annoyed and changed it on my blog.  :)

Your next stop is at Emily's blog:
http://scrappingsomememories.blogspot.ca/