Good Times | Scrap the Girls June Challenge

Hi everyone! 

Today I am sharing my take on this month's challenge at Scrap the Girls, which has affectionately been named the "Nanas" challenge. It is all about mismatched patterns and colours that somehow create their own style.

Here is the inspiration picture...

I stared long and hard at this picture before deciding what I was going to chose as my inspiration starting point. Eventually, I decided to begin with a strong geometric print, which I found in the Paige Taylor Evans 'Whimsical' collection.

I also started with a white cardstock base and a photo of my daughter and her friends ready to head off to school camp (which I had printed in black and white so that I wasn't restricted by colour).

Because this challenge was all about mismatched patterns, I decided to use a strong vertical design to clash with the horizontal nature of the photo and subjects. I used strips of the geometric print paper which I contrasted using the small cross print and the solid yellow. (The yellow was a special nod to the clogs in the inspiration picture.)

I chose another pattern (a small star print) to mat my photo with; and I also added a small strip of the same paper that I punched with a heart edge punch along the left side of my design. To give my photo some separation from the busy background I popped some scrap cardboard underneath before sticking it down.

At this point I turned back to the inspiration picture and decided that the additional of some flowers would help break up the solid, graphic nature of my design. I chose a large floral design paper (again, from the Paige Evans 'Whimsical' collection) and fussy cut some of the flowers. I tucked them under the diagonally opposed corners of my photo to give the page some flow and draw the viewers eye through it.

To add a little text to my page, I added a few phrase stickers from the coordinating 'Whimsical' sticker sheet and a sweet little butterfly from the ephemera pack for some dimension.

At this point my layout looked a little too clean for my liking, so I pulled out my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils to add some extra detail. I used the pencils to add some scribbled colour around and under the edges of the fussy cut flowers along the right side of the page, then used a water brush to blend the colour out a little.

I finished off my layout with a few tiny ink splatters.

Thanks so much for stopping by today so I could share this with you. I hope you can play along with our challenge at Scrap the Girls this month. We have D-lish Scraps sponsoring for our Aussie winner, and as always Scrap Accent for our international entries. For all the challenge details, or to see what else the design team created for this one, head to the Scrap the Girls blog HERE
Until next time - happy scrapping! X