01 October 2015

Pixels and Paper ~ Joining the team!

timeless

I am so proud, and beyond ecstatic, to announce that I have been asked to join the Pixels and Paper Challenge Blog Design Team!  Thank you so much Jane for the invitation, and thank you also to the other wonderful members of this talented DT for their warm welcome!

Our inspiration for this month is this marvellous photo of Big Ben!
My paternal grandmother was English, and so I wanted to use photos of her for this layout.  I selected a lovely photo of Grandma and Grandad taken in 1943, as well as a copy of Grandma's Identity Card.  As she was born outside of Australia, she was considered an 'alien'.  During the War Years, 'aliens' were required to carry their Identity Cards with them when in public.  Here is my layout for this month:
Starting with a piece of black cardstock, I wanted to try to recreate the angle of the photo of Big Ben.  Using Stampendous "Spoonful of Gold Dust" (a yummy embossing product I picked up at the recent Paperific Expo in Melbourne), I put scatterings of it on my cardstock and heated it from underneath with my heat gun.  I love the flaky bits! I then mixed up some Whipped Spackle with some "Gold Champagne" Gelato and stencilled that through one of this season's Stampin' Up! stencils, again on an angle to replicate the photo.

As I set this aside to dry, I started on my clock.  The chipboard clock is the 3" Clock Face by Imaginarium Designs.  I coated it with Encore Gold ink pad, and then clear embossed over the top of it.  I then heat embossed the hands with black.  I cut a circle out using SU! Circle Dies, and then ran it through my SU! "Decorative Dots" embossing folder to replicate the texture on Big Ben's clock face.  [You may also notice that my clock is set to the same time as on Big Ben in the photo.  I'm quirky like that!]
When I printed out my photos, I was concerned that they looked "too new".  So, instead of the distressing technique of scratching up the surface, I decided to apply a layer of Distress Crackle Paint "Rock Candy".  I've tried this on photos before and the effect is marvellous!  I love the egg-shell crackle effect and the uneven texture.

To create the layout, I started by cutting out a Spellbinders rectangle frame from black cardstock to put behind the Identity Card.  This was then matted onto a piece of Creative Memories Storybox paper that had been further coloured with "Tea Dye" Distress Ink.  The black frame also had some dark gold metallic lustre rub applied to it to bring out the embossing.

I put a gold piece of Spellbinders Precious Metals into an SU! embossing folder to give it some texture.  This was then used to border the photo of Grandma and Grandad.  I have added some torn up and distressed paper strips as additional layers to break up the colours a bit.

I have journalled the story behind the Identity Card onto a Fundamentals gold tag, and this had been adhered with a Kaisercraft brad that has a clockface on it.  (This brad has also been heat embossed with some Tinby Designs Metallic Melts.)  There is a small resin square with a clockface on it from Scrappers Garden that found it's way onto the page as well.

For a final touch, I have added the word "timeless" as my title, from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology "Big Chat" set, and put the saying "no beauty shines brighter than that of a good heart" from the "Small Talk" set.  My Grandma (who became known as Grandma Frankston) had the best heart of anyone I've ever known.

I hope you like my first layout as a member of this marvellous team!  Thanks for visiting and I look forward to everyone else's creations!!

Deb.xx

1 comment:

  1. So excited for you, what wonderful news Deb! Great memory of your Grandma, to use in this layout, perfect for this inspiration!

    ReplyDelete

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