Sunday, September 29, 2013

At the Ocean

I am apologizing again for my lack of communication. Have been having problems with my eyes. I am on the mend now and even though my vision is less than normal, I have been making scrapbook pages. Coloring has been out of the question and that pretty much eliminates my interest in cards. Thought I would post this latest page and see if anyone is still out there. I have also been pretty absent from my Yahoo groups.
Normally I would have chosen a color scheme to go with the photos. But you know even people who like bright colors tend to wear the same colors most of the time. So this time, I thought I would chose colors I don't work with - mainly gray. I don't have much gray in my stash but some. It is a color I don't care much for but it does work nicely for accents. I have had that dark aqua/turquoise paper for a long time and stripes is also something I don't usually choose. The back of that one has little hexagons which would normally be more to my liking, but this page is all about challenge. Then next I chose Ripe Persimmons which is a Tim Holtz distress color that I adore. There is a light aqua similar in color to the striped paper but lighter. I took my orange paper and layered a "wedding" gray paper on top. One of my goals here was also to use a lot of products! I want new and have lots of old in my stash!! At this point in my process, I was at a standstill. I had orange paper backing my photos (not stuck yet) and decided on a title - Half Moon Bay  a day at the ocean. So I put the words a day at the ocean at the bottom of the orange paper. I did stick those down. When I changed my mind about the orientation of the  photos, I had them vertical, I cut the part with the words off. I change my mind a lot in the process and don't usually stick my photos down until I am really sure how I want them to be. I do use repositionable tape but sometimes it doesn't come back up so well. I had these lovely balsa wood shapes that I thought would be so neat for Half moon bay. Colored them with ripe persimmon and dried them with a heat tool, but knowing they are distress ink, dipped them in a clear, glittery embossing powder and heated them just to be sure the ink wouldn't come back off. Then I glued the silvery letters down and covered them with glossy accents to be sure they would stay on the wood. That banner was one of an entire sheet of banners. I fussy cut the one I wanted to use. I have been doing this in advance of all my scrapbooking - take a day to choose the papers and put them in a 12 x 12 container or folder. Then I go through my stickers and cut out the ones I might use or put that sheet in my stash for this project. I use a lot of little baggies sometimes. I find embellishments - brads, metal pieces, enamel dots. gems, that go and bag them. I cut things to use as embellishments if I have a die I want to use or two. I pick out inks that I might want to use and also stamps. Sometimes I put ribbon or twine in my folder (I use a plastic one that has a thread tie thing. So you have the idea - nothing is planned but even the photos go in that folder. It is a very fun process for me as I get to go through my stash of stuff and it reminds me of all I have. Then when I have time or inclination, I can just work on putting things together. If I don't feel the page, I will usually stop, cover it up (my cat licks photos!) and come back to it. If I am really frustrated. I put it all away in the folder and on my bookshelf for another time. All of it. When I get inspired, I can go like the wind and finish a page super fast because I don't need to look for anything. When I finish, I make myself put all the supplies I didn't use away before I do another thing. So my room stays neat except while I am making something. If I bought some new kinds of embellishments, you can be sure I am trying to use them. For your reference, this page took me 4 times in my workroom. One to put supplies together, two to lay out the photos, and one more to put it together. Usually I only spend a couple of hours at a time in there but it did take me several hours to put the supplies together as it is still a bit difficult to see even colors. Sure missed your comments so we'll see how many of you are still looking. Hugs to you all, Barb F

3 comments:

Ellis said...

Hi Barb!
Fantastic layout you have made! Good to hear that you are on the mend too!
Hugs, Elenor

Snoopy said...

Love this layout, Barb! So sorry to hear all the trouble you've been going through with your eyes. Please take good care of yourself, hon.

(((HUGS))),
Snoopy :D

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Debbie in LA said...

Love the layout, and your explanation of your creative process is inspiring. Sorry about your vision problems.