Back In the Saddle

Hey my Scrappy Friends!! If you were wondering where I have been lately, I've been on Vacation! Well my mom had come to visit us on the Island and so I played tour guide. Visiting and seeing the sights, smells and sounds of Hawaii!
I love starting a vacation, it's always so nice to take a break from the normal grind of daily life and do fun things. But I have to admit after a while I am itching to get back to my desk and steal some time to scrap. By the time you sit down at your desk though, you are just to tired for the daily activities to put together a decent page. 
Getting back into the groove has been hard for me. So what do you do when you feel like your loosing your mojo? I watched tons of Process Videos, and eventually I kicked myself in the butt and got back to my desk, because you know I really am happier when I can sit back, flip through whole pieces of 12x12 papers and figure out how I'm going to give it it's voice among 3 or 4 other papers. Thankfully another scrapping and I do challenges together almost just for this purpose, to push each other and to keep us motivated to keep our love for our craft alive. 
If you are new to this blog, or my YouTube challenge, I'll refresh your memory. In January my friend Alicia Tilman, (Alicia JinHee on Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiI0sh1z7NRCej6h9bsja-A)  started doing Youtube challenges with each other. The series is called Scrappy Play Date with Alicia and Hannah. We use various forms of inspiration and create a layout, art journal or something crafty. Usually it's a layout but sometimes we just need to do something different to change it up. We have used mood boards, sketches, pictures or quotes from Pinterest. I love how we both interpret the pieces differently and make them fit our style and come up with something fun! 
This last week we decided to use multiple photos on our layouts. Both of us are known to just use one maybe two photos on a 12x12 layout. And while there is nothing wrong with that sometimes it's nice to change it up, or something it just makes more sense to have multiple photos from an outing or event we are documenting. 
Doing multiple photos isn't an easy thing, there is a lot to think about. Like how mach empty space do you want, how big do you want the photos, is layering possible or do you need to rethink what layering should mean on the layout, I could go on but I think you catch my drift. For me I am used to having lots of empty space to play, so I figured I should go with a patterned paper with some pattern on it. I figured I would have to rethink how I would the way I would have to layer. I picked my photos, which were from a beach day we had from when My Mom was here, and I had quite a few I thought should make the cut. I had 6 in total, so I printed them out in 3x4 sizes some vertical and some horizontal interest, if I really needed to add extra!! 
I decided that this would be a good chance to use my brand new Clique Kit since it had lots of full papers, all the embellishments matched and it would give me more space to focus on placement of the actual layout and less thought into what works together. Thats the nice part of using a kit anyway. But I also loved the papers from this kit, they used PinkFresh Studios Up in The Clouds Collection for their kit, and this is liken of my all time favorite kits!! No lie! It is just so spring like and fun, with tons of gold!!
I decided to place the horizontal photos on the bottom half and stagger the vertical photos on the top half. I felt like this gave me enough empty space to see the fun background paper and to embellish later. 
 I loved the Fun 3x4 watercolor card in the kit, so I cut it down and used it to help separate the top from the bottom. 
I then decided to use one of their papers, Patterned Circles, as the inspiration for top half since I wasn't comfortable using lots of layers behind the photos like I usually do on layouts. I used my circle punch and cut out some of the fun patterns from the circles and I also added some stamps from past PinkFresh Studios embellishment kits that I had. They were the perfect size for these small circle. I lined the circles in rows on the top half. I liked the way bits and pieces from the circles and patterns stick out but because they are small it's not too much. 
In one of my PinkFresh Studios Embellishments we received gold chipboard pieces. They matched perfect with all the gold in the 3x4 card and embellishment pack from the collection so I wanted to use these. The only thing I wanted to tone down the gold a little, and I also am digging all the paint dipped chipboard pieces American
Crafts is putting out lately. I figured I could do this same thing with these chipboard pieces. I picked out multiple different spring colors from my acrylic paint and painted most of my chipboard pieces in half. I love the way they turned out too!
In the April Clique Kit there was also some Websters Pages Vellum that worked perfect along with some blue heart Vellum from Pretty Little Studios in my stash. I layered these behind the bottom photos. Since there is only two photos on the bottom, it helped add a little something more down on the bottom of the page.  I added a flair from the Clique Kit that matched the paper, which added a nice touch. I used some acetate pieces, puffy stickers, hearts and the chipboard pieces I altered in groups around the photos. I pretty much made sure each photo had a little grouping of embellishing near it, bringing your eye to that photo. 
Finally I finished my title. In the embellishment pack, there was a big ampersand with gold on it, and I know I wanted to use this next to the fun card I cut up to fit better. I used the alpha stickers to spell out sand and the title read Fun & Sand. Perfect. I finished up with enamel dots, from freckled fawn and Dear Lizzy. I also used a black pen to write the date and outline around the outside of the layout to keep your eye focused in the layout and not all the colors flowing off the paper. I
I really love how it turned out. I was surprised at how it really did just come right together. I was sure when I started I would have to toss a couple of photos aside form another layout. But persistence  paid off and I ended up with a great layout and fun photos documenting my kids enjoying the beach!! 
You can find some of the products I used from the websites for  Clique Kits Store, http://www.cliquekits.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html and from the website for the embellishment kits of PinkFresh Studios, http://www.pinkfreshstudio.com.  Also here is the link for for YouTube Process Video for this layout, https://youtu.be/5tLxPcvh_-8?list=PLStgm2kXSUE4TIr7G6dPDMS0ecMrl07LZ
Hope you have an Inspired Week!! 
Aloha, 
Hannah