monday...

Happy Monday...NOT! I've been sick for the past 5 days now and I'm not feeling any better. I hope I get better soon! Well, sick or not, I did managed to work on a layout that I've been 'thinking' about for the past month.

I used the Creative Scrapper sketch (#127) linked below:


and here's what I came up with:


I'm also entering this layout in Swirlydoos Do it Yourself background contest as well as Wendy's Do it Yourself sb.com challenge and I must say, that this layout WAS a challenge!

So, the first thing I did was go online and order some Glimmer Mist. I bought 6!!!! Then, I made my own mask using my Pazzles and Prima's felt vines as my inspiration. I cut the template out of a transparency sheet and used Zig thick pen to make it sticky. I also cut a cricut flourish (using my Pazzles :)) to make another mask. I used 3 glimmer mists (Suede, Olive green, and Frost) as well as walnut ink for my background. I then water distressed this layer of paper and matted it with a brown cardstock and finally adhered it on a DCWV green cardstock. The original cardstock was white, as I'm sure you can see by the white 'vines' in the background. I stickled (Eucalyptus) the vines to add some bling to it. The smaller scalloped brown paper is actually the backing of a page stack that I've had for a while. I used my handmade masks and walnut ink to make this paper. I then went over the edges with Scribbles 3D paint (glittering crystal) for an embossed look. I stamped the butterflies (Martha Stewart) in the background with Perfect Medium (by Ranger) and then added perfect pearls to make them stand out.

Here's a picture of my finished background before I added the embellies:


and some close ups:


I edited the picture in Photoshop CS4 to give it a more soft and dreamy look using Lisa's tutorial. I can't believe how easy this was! The flowers are from the Fall flower section at Michaels that I bought a few weeks back when they were on sale. The leaves are a stamp and the butterflies were printed and stickled for a blingy look. The black flourish I did with 3D paint (Black) onto a transparency (not my usual way) just to try it out. I like how it came out but I'm not thrilled with the fact that you can see the transparency edges and it took a really long time to cut it up. I think that I like my way more but using a transparency can become useful for when the bling lands on layers of paper, as it is the case with this layout. The green netting in the bottom was a RAK that I received recently. For the title I used thickers that I received from sb.com on NSD.

Here are a few close ups of the layout:


Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I appreciate it!