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/
