Inspired by Pinterest – {Bliss}

When I saw this on Pinterest, I knew I HAD to use it in a scrapbook layout.  Almost immediately I thought of all the “happy” pics I collected from my son’s first year photos.  In Adobe Bridge, I organized his to-be-scrappbooked photos by theme, and one of the themes is called “happy”, and I have another one called “grumpy”.  Organizing photos this way makes scrapbooking efficient.  Whenever I see a product or inspiration I like, I can browse my Bridge to find the best set of photos for it.  Some other day I’ll take a screenshot of the Bridge and share with you.  I haven’t heard of anyone else organizing their photos that way, so it might be interesting to some of you.

Here’s the blueprint.  I tried doing it digitally, since I didn’t have ink in vibrant colors, and I had no pencils with unused erasers.  I did it in Photoshop with a brush, and within 2 minutes I’ve got a beautiful background.  But I didn’t have a large format printer.  I printed the background onto  a vellum sheet, and it made the whites cardstock look gray and gloomy, so that was a no go.  When I get transparencies, I’ll try it again.  I think it’ll look gorgeous on transparencies.

Giving up on the digital route, I looked up and down for pencil erasers in decent condition.  I found 4-5 pencils and mechanical pencils with erasers, but there were only 2 of them that were even enough for this task.  So I grabbed a baby wipe to clean the erasers between inking.  It looks simple but it took me 3 tries!  As mentioned before, I only had 3-4 chalk fluid inks at home in earthy tone colors.  So my first two attempts didn’t look cheerful at all.  I made a trip to Michael’s for a pad of happy colors that was on sale.  But I guess the ink pads had been sitting in the store for too long, and they were almost completely dry.  The expired ink pads & my used pencil eraser produced imperfect circles as below.  I seriously debated if I should get more ink and try again, but (wisely) decided against it.

Here’s the finished layout. I wanted to convey the feeling of bliss, teeming with happiness bubbles that pushed us floating on top of the clouds.

I’ve been waiting for a chance to use My Mind’s Eye Lost and Found Two embellishments.  This embellishment read “We have so much fun together, you and me, the two of us.”  Since there are 3 in my family, the last 2 sentences don’t apply.  I contemplated using it anyway, since none of the photos had my husband’s full face.  But I didn’t want him to feel left out.  So I layered another embellishment over the bottom half.  Now it reads, “we have so much fun together, cherished.”

My Mind’s Eye uses glitters so well.   I don’t normally like glitters, but MME is one exception. However, their glitters flake off.  So I applied a thin layer of Diamond Glaze over the glitters to trap them.  Now that I have diamond glaze, I will get more glittery stuff!

Dear Lizzy’s clouds vellum sheet is gorgeous.  I liked it when I saw it online, but was able to resist buying.  I have plain vellum sheets and I can print whatever I want, I thought.  But I saw it at a local scrapbook store in person, and oh boy, it was breathtakingly beautiful and I HAD to bring it home. I also grabbed her puffy alpha, thinking it’s white, but it turned out to be smoke, which is a little gray.  So the title doesn’t stand out as much.  I added an asterisk and a bling to draw more attention to the title.

I cut the vellum into strips and curled some for dimension.  Websters designer buttons were sprinkled around as another type of happiness bubbles. They are so beautiful, and I love that they are clear, so you can still see the photos underneath them.

Two things I would’ve improved if I had re-did this layout.  Re-stamp the background with new pencils and good inks.  And I would’ve cut the photos without white borders, and space them slightly apart (just like in my plan) so the background can show through more.  But there are more pictures to be scrapped, so I’m leaving it at is.

Supplies at Scrapbook.com:

Bazzill white cardstock, orange peel

MME Layered Stickers

Websters Sparkles

Diamond Glaze