Workshop Secrets Number 1

Hi all,

I must apologise for being missing in action a lot over the last couple of weeks. I just have so much on at the moment! Kids seem to need extra running around during the school hols, we have had a run of things on - mostly great fun but very time consuming! - plus I have a long list of scrapping deadlines to meet. All good problems to have though!

So, going back a bit now, I had my first Workshop Secrets article published in Scrapbooking Memories at the start of the year. This layout was inspired by me wanting to record my typical day. In the end I chose to record the last day before I turned 50. I then ended up with so many photos that I had to be clever to think how to present them well without the layout being too cluttered.

While I was pondering this I came down with a lurgy. A pretty sure sign I got a bit run down with all the running around for my big 50th birthday bash! Anyway, this left me too sick to work but, not surprisingly, not so sick that I couldn't scrap! I found some old Bella chipboard shapes and just started fiddling. I sprayed, stamped, inked, painted, embossed and stained the chipboard shapes then decorated them with everything from liquid pearls to ribbon. I had a lot of fun!

Here's the end result:

Even though my typical day isn't too exciting, I think I'll look back on this in the future and it will trigger lots of good memories for me.

Here are some close-ups:

I liked including things that I do a lot of, for example driving along our beautiful country roads or walking around our local lake.

The Manor House Creations flowers worked beautifully in this. They helped to soften the grid pattern and provided a bit of a soft touch to the factual page. I loved the way the chipboard worked behind them. I painted it white then put drops of liquid pearls on the ends. I think this is a Scrapmatts chippie. That beautiful background paper is The Scrapcake paper which I lightly gessoed over.

In this section I've used paint, Stickles, paper, chipboard, twine, ink, stamps and embossing powder. Whatever works!

I love the paint splats on the chippie on the left. I made them by quickly squeezing an almost empty tube of paint over the surface. Keep important things clear though - it can spray further than you want it to!

I hope you enjoyed this layout and my other Workshop Secrets articles. It was a bit hectic getting those first few articles together as I had very little time but they should hopefully be swinging along nicely now. I have loads more ideas about what I should write about but if there's anything in particular you'd like to suggest by all means let me know.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather