Scrapping Outback ~ May White with a Twist

I was straight out of the gates when the inspiration for Scrapping Outback ~ May White With A Twist Challenge was revealed... 

Being a Western Bulldogs supporter, I was sure this would be an easy challenge for me to enter ~ I mean, all of our colours are right there (including the lush green to represent the footy grounds)...

...and then May got frightfully busy, with Mother's Day cards to make for our school stall, a Ladies' Pamper Evening to help organise, and just life in general!!

In the small hiatus between the Mother's Day Stall and the Ladies' Pamper Evening, I found a couple of photos of my son with Isabella, the eldest daughter of my bestie Sandra.  (San and I met through the Mother's Club that was formed when our eldest children were born).  These photos were taken when they were both 6, at a Little Athletics event.  John's club had a blue and white strip, and Izi's had red and black.  It seemed like a perfect fit for this challenge.

I grabbed a piece of white double-thick, smooth Bazzill cardstock to build up a background.  I tinted some Whipped Spackle with blue Gelato and stencilled it through the grungy textured part of  TCW's Mini Butterfly Collage stencil, attempting to create a sun-ray effect from the bottom right of the page.  I also mixed that same blue Gelato with some water and flicked spatters across the page.

I then used some Twinkling H2Os (Garnet and Ruby Red) to flick more spatters across the page to create the 'red' element...

...However, both of my children commented at different times that the red spatters made it look like blood.  I didn't want to hear that!  So as a result, the layout has sat for the past couple of weeks, waiting for me to get back to it.

Well, today I decided to get back to it and make it work.  I have matted the photos up on some blue cardstock.  With the larger photo, I then layered two pieces of chipboard lattice that had been heat embossed with white.  This was then layered further onto a larger piece of red cardstock, all on an angle to create interest.  The cardstock had all been distressed around the edges too.

I tore little strips lengthways from the corners of the white cardstock base to reveal some red Bazzill cardstock underneath, just to give a different look to the page (and hopefully make the red spatters look less like blood, and more like part of the design ~ LOL).

I had picked up some Cosmo Cricket 'Tiny Text' stickers from the Paper Arts Tarts Expo recently.  I added the "FRIENDSHIP" sticker to the bottom right corner of the page.

The final touch before journalling was to create my title.  I used some masking tape to create my own washi tape.  I coloured two strips up with white Gelato, and then painted the Gelato with a small amount of water to set it.  I then sealed the white to the masking tape using Ranger Glue & Sealer.  Once it was dry, I stamped "Great Mates" using the Kaisercraft 'Typewriter Font' stamps.

Overall, I'm happy with how the layout turned out, although with hindsight, I might have stencilled using red, and then only spattered with blue.  Oh well, live and learn!

Deb.xx