Scrap Matrix Blog: Break the rules .. with Alz

Morning peeps!

Are we 'aall' totally in love with this month's Aall and Create challenge? I certainly am. This is what I created for my first project ..

Break the rules

Aall and Create .. oh how I love thee

I had no idea where I was headed with this page. Can you tell? I hope not! Lol. I was just so, so tired but at the same time, so, so inspired to get creating. So, 90% of this layout comes to you from the comfort of my sofa where I curled up and tuned out the voices of domestic chores calling my name.

I knew I wanted to experiment with 13@rts Rainbow Color duo powders on watercolour paper. You can find a selection of watercolour paper pads in store here. I use a variety of different watercolour papers when I'm creating, depending on what I'm doing. For this project I've used a hot pressed, extra smooth paper because I knew I was going to do a lot of stamping and that I wanted as crisp an image as possible. But I could have used any of the cold pressed papers in store and achieved pretty much the same effect. I'm just a tad pedantic sometimes, probably because I 'found' scrapbooking via rubber stamping and card making. Anyways, what's the difference between hot and cold pressed watercolour paper? There's quite a few differences but for the purposes of this layout, I was only interested in the surface finish and hot pressed watercolour paper is smoother than cold pressed. Having said that, I've cut down large sheets of cold pressed watercolour paper to 12x12 for making watercolour backgrounds and the difference in stamping quality is barely discernible. Like I said, I can be a tad pedantic at times.

So, first things first, I mixed three colours of the 13@rts Rainbow Color duo powders (Lilac, Navy and Indigo Violet) with water in a palette. The ratio of water to powder is completely up to you but if you want a darker, more intense colour use more powder. Conversely, the lighter your preferred colour, the more water and less powder you'd add to your mix.

I literally used a paint brush to splatter the paint onto my background.

I was especially interested to see how these duo colours would dry. I'm in love ..

Anyways I had what I thought was a totally rad idea .. I used a Fudeball pen to outline some of the smaller spots and then enhance them with a 'blob' of Glossy Accents. Big mistake. Huge. Lol.

I really didn't like the end result. I figured it couldn't get any worse so I'd try covering up my 'blobs' with more 'blobs', this time with an irRestistible Pico Embellisher in white. Surely my 'blobs' couldn't look any worse??

If I had the patience and energy I might just have started over but it kind of felt like an okay save. If I were to play with this technique again I think I'd just use the Glossy Accents to highlight some of the spots. Or leave the spots alone.

Whilst all this dried I stamped a gazillion circles from Aall and Create stamp set #3 and half a dozen or so birds from Aall and Create stamp set #6 onto watercolour paper and then planted my derriere on the sofa for some painting (again, with the 13@rts Rainbow Color duo powders in Lilac, Navy and Indigo Violet) and cutting out. PS: At this stage I'm growing more tired by the minute and thinking of changing my personal blog name to "The Lazy Scrapper" lol!

Once this was done, the finish line was within sight. I stitched my watercolour background to a piece of dark indigo cardstock from my stash. Fortunately for me I like messy stitching because I'm not sure I could stitch a straight line to save myself. Although, I can when I'm sewing on fabric so I wonder what that's about?? I then applied some black texture paste across my page in three spots with an Aall and Create stencil (#4). I used a ripped piece of the heart patterned Dina Wakley Media Collage Paper and a length of white Embossed Paper Lace (French Lace) to mat my photo and then went to town playing with the placement of my 'gazillion' circles and the birds.

To create some depth and interest I mounted some of my circles with different sizes foam tape.

I was too tired to try and get my niece's copious amount of journaling onto the page, figured she could add it to the back later on, and so moved on to hunt for a title that seemed apt. I found the perfect title in a pack of Dina Wakley Media Collage Words which I stapled to my layout with a Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. The final touches were adding two of my stamped birds and generous splashes of irResistible Spray in Wedding Dress which I ought to have shaken thoroughly to actually get white splats!

And that's that! A fairly funky page from the sofa of The Lazy Scrapper lol!!!

I hope you'll join us in playing along with this month's Scrap Matrix Aall and Create challenge. You have until midnight on the 31st to get a photo of your project up on the Scrap Matrix Shares Facebook page. Please don't forget to let us know which products from Scrap Matrix you've used .. I need some inspiration peeps!!

Now I'm going to crawl back to my sofa to chill and indulge in my favourite pastime .. browsing the Scrap Matrix online store and shopping or, if hubby is floating around, adding things to my wish list. Wink wink!! ;)

Cheers .. Alz :)