Monday, May 26, 2014
Woof
I got a chance to play along with Child's Play this month! Life has been so busy lately, that I haven't had a chance to play along with challenges for months. I happen to be visiting my friend and have some extra scrap time, and these photos that I took of my friend's dog were PERFECT for this prompt, Scooby Do.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Portland Japanese Garden
The colors this week, at CSI, are just so striking! Love the blacks and greys, with the pop of that elegant burgundy. I thought they would be the perfect fit for my recent trip to the Japanese Garden in Portland.
I took my friend, from Phoenix, there. It's one of the two places she asked to go to, and I was happy to oblige. I love it there! It is just so gorgeous.
I was really inspired by the journal prompt that took me to a site about writing maps. Not sure what the kits are all about, but the idea of creating a map of the gardens, then placing photos of various places, on the map, instantly sprung forth. I sketched out the map, went over it in pen, painted the paths with a grey color, and I used some cool Asian stamps in the deep burgundy to make a very distressed, old look around the edges. I dug out my die cut machine and cut some Kanji out and sprinkled about the page, and added a die cut bridge, where the bridge really is. It turned out pretty cool.
Evidence used: map, architectural, and metal
Testimony is little captions by each photo, all inspired by the Writing Maps site.
I took my friend, from Phoenix, there. It's one of the two places she asked to go to, and I was happy to oblige. I love it there! It is just so gorgeous.
I was really inspired by the journal prompt that took me to a site about writing maps. Not sure what the kits are all about, but the idea of creating a map of the gardens, then placing photos of various places, on the map, instantly sprung forth. I sketched out the map, went over it in pen, painted the paths with a grey color, and I used some cool Asian stamps in the deep burgundy to make a very distressed, old look around the edges. I dug out my die cut machine and cut some Kanji out and sprinkled about the page, and added a die cut bridge, where the bridge really is. It turned out pretty cool.
Evidence used: map, architectural, and metal
Testimony is little captions by each photo, all inspired by the Writing Maps site.
The case file
Friday, May 2, 2014
Zen
When I saw this month's inspiration at Scrapstuffz Inspired By, I instantly thought of gardens and spring. Lots of flowers and butterflies. But then I went to the Portland Japanese Garden and my thoughts turned to stones. The Zen garden was the perfect place to highlight stone!
The day was gloriously sunny and the mix of the well placed stone, the raked gravel, and shadows cast by the overhead trees was so interesting, that I grabbed my camera and began to shoot the contrasts and design. I knew I wanted use these photos for my layout. I knew the colors weren't going to work, simplicity is best, but I did think I would add dragonflies and butterflies, from my Japanese die cut cartridge.
I applied some black paint, to watercolor paper, with a brayer, then took my comb tool and mimicked the lines of raked gravel. I pulled a simple green piece of patterned paper and arranged my photos. My cartridge has a bunch of Kanji letters, and one for Zen, so I used this as my title piece, with a little stamped translation underneath. I added a coin to the title tag, and began to think about dragonflies and such. Then it hit me, the piece was done, other than a little simple journaling (I wrote a haiku. It just seemed fitting). A layout on a Zen garden should, in fact, be utterly simple, with no extra bits, that just don't support the story, so I was done.
The inspiration photo
Let's see what you come up with!
The day was gloriously sunny and the mix of the well placed stone, the raked gravel, and shadows cast by the overhead trees was so interesting, that I grabbed my camera and began to shoot the contrasts and design. I knew I wanted use these photos for my layout. I knew the colors weren't going to work, simplicity is best, but I did think I would add dragonflies and butterflies, from my Japanese die cut cartridge.
I applied some black paint, to watercolor paper, with a brayer, then took my comb tool and mimicked the lines of raked gravel. I pulled a simple green piece of patterned paper and arranged my photos. My cartridge has a bunch of Kanji letters, and one for Zen, so I used this as my title piece, with a little stamped translation underneath. I added a coin to the title tag, and began to think about dragonflies and such. Then it hit me, the piece was done, other than a little simple journaling (I wrote a haiku. It just seemed fitting). A layout on a Zen garden should, in fact, be utterly simple, with no extra bits, that just don't support the story, so I was done.
The inspiration photo
Let's see what you come up with!