Work Your Magic | Scrap the Girls January Challenge

Hi everyone,

I know my poor blog has been lacking content lately, I had a break away from my desk after my mum suddenly passed away and with my kids home on school holidays as well I hadn't been creating. I have just realised that I hadn't actually even shared this layout, which is my take on the January challenge for Scrap the Girls. This month's challenge is called "Dead Men Tell No Tales" and is an awesome inspiration image that looks like this...

And here is my take on it...

As you can see, my page has a completely different colour palette to the image, but I promise you the inspiration was there! Initially I was drawn to the mermaid's pose, which reminded me of my daughter in this photo. Only instead of a boat and water behind her, she had fire. I used the photo to dictate the colours for my layout, using a mix of Ranger Distress Oxides to create my "firey" watercolour background.

Next, I drew inspiration from the lace pattern on the mermaid's tail to use my Heart Mandala stencil from StencilGirl along with black acrylic paint to add the pattern behind where my photo was going to go. Then it was time to create some papery layers!

I used a floral print tissue paper (not sure of the brand, sorry - all I know is that I purchased it at a store in the US when I was there - it might have been Michaels?) I added a torn piece across my page where my photo was going, then replicated it with a smaller piece in the top right corner of my page. The reason I chose this paper was to draw in the floral theme from the inspiration picture.

Next, I cut some patterned paper to mat my photo, which I also layered with a small paper doily and some frayed gauze for texture. I then began building my embellishment clusters around my photo. I used a variety of Vicki Boutin stickers; some twisted coloured wire; and some glittered butterfly die cuts I found in my stash. I also added a Heidi Swapp acetate word along the bottom edge of my photo.

I then went back to the tissue paper in the right corner of my page and used some of the same elements again to create a smaller cluster. This cluster helped provide balance to my page, because it was quite "bottom heavy" at this point. I finished off with a little bit of stamping using my fave Doodle Dots stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps.

Thanks so much for stopping by today so I could share this with you. if you haven't already entered the challenge at Scrap the Girls, you have 4 day left to get your entries in to be in the running for the prizes. You can get all the details, as well as see what the rest of the design team created for this challenge HERE.

Until next time, happy scrapping! X