Pixels & Paper Challenge Blog ~ February

I'm absolutely stoked to enter this layout into the Pixels & Paper Challenge Blog for February!  The inspiration photo had me stumped at first - I knew I would have to go way outside of my comfort zone in order to create something worthy of submitting.  Here is the inspiration photo:

Hmmm, potentially something French, or with letters, or the beautiful blue-green hue with the pinks and the gold of the Eiffel Tower...   SNAP!

I have created a double layout (yes, a double!) that incorporates some gold, pink, blue-green and a French Theme - photos from my time in the French Quarter (or Vieux Carre) in New Orleans!

 With my Gypsy, I created two separate 12x12 layouts, and using the Gypsy Font, I wrote "Vieux Carre" on one page and "French Quarter" on the other.  With my Cricut, I cut these both out of Kraft cardstock, using that as my base for the layout.  I then cut the words out again in Stampin' Up! Gold Foil Cardstock.  I have then inlaid the gold words into the Kraft background using the inlaid diecut technique I learned from Therese at lostinpaper - very effective!

Since my Cricut was out and warming up for me, I decided to make an interesting feature on my background.  I'm loving texture paste at the moment, and this was going to work beautifully!  I used one of my (many) photos of the amazing iron work to be found in the French Quarter, and from that photo I was able to trace an image using my SCAL program, and then cut it out with the Cricut.  After much weeding, I had a lovely, intricate and authentic piece of the French Quarter to use on my layout.

Using this as a stencil on one of my background pages, I covered it with texture paste (tinted with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' to make it dark grey, and then with AC ZING! Embossing Powder in 'Pewter' added for additional oomph!).  I then carefully removed the stencil and allowed it to dry.  Therefore, I had a negative space and a positive space to use on each page of my double layout.  Here is the cropped version of the photo and a quick in-progress shot of my layout as the texture paste was drying:

Using a brayer, I coloured a piece of white cardstock with Stampin' Up! 'Blushing Bride' and 'Soft Sky' inks - these two colours represented the two different colours from the inspiration photo.  From this piece of cardstock, I was able to then cut different pieces in different shapes to use for matting of my photos.  I have also used some similarly-coloured Core'dinations cardstock and embossing folders(sanding off the top layer to reveal the core) to create different effects for my photo mats

I've then made some small ribbon roses and placed them in clusters, as well as some small bows from the same ribbons.  I've then added some Kaisercraft brads.

The top left and bottom right across the pages (above and below the inlaid gold text) seemed a bit blank to me, so I splotched in some white texture paste, and when it was dry, I've run my sponges over each, adding Stampin' Up!'s 'Soft Sky' to the top left and 'Blushing Bride' to the bottom right.

My final piece was to create a tag with "NO, LA" [New Orleans, Louisiana], and then make a small Fleur-de-Lis, which is the logo for the city and the New Orleans Saints NFL team.

This layout has definitely taken up way more time than I would usually spend (texture paste drying time, notwithstanding, LOL!).  There were so many different things that I wanted to make sure were representing my memories of that wonderful place.

Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers!
Deb.xx