What goes on retreat stays on retreat - except for Arty Creations

What an absolutely amazing time. I cannot recommend catching up with like - minded souls to create and enjoy each others company whilst learning a new thing or two along the way. It is my first week home from the Scrapbooking retreat that I attended last weekend and I still have not unpacked .... but the memories and the creative energy is still buzzing around in my mind. 

I got to create a few Scrapbooking layouts whilst on retreat and I also ventured into Traveller's Notebooks with the help of a great friend Mandy Miles... her Traveller's Notebooks are awesome & so inspiring -- and a great way to capture the memories and journal those important bits too... with all that said, I have decided to share a layout from retreat titled 'this photo'. I had created it to share as part of the challenges from last weekends retreats & loved it so much I gathered enough pics to share here... I hope you enjoy and can grab some inspiration from it.

I created the layout on white cardstock. I used Distress oxide -twisted citron ink on a messy mat with a squirt of water and laid my cardstock on that to pick up the pigment. I then had to work out placement of the photo and used the Dina Wakley All Girls stamps with black ink. I have also chosen a busy background stamp to add a little more interest to the page. 

I drew three lines across the page with a pencil and cut some embroidery floss to fit across the page in a lime green. I then threaded up a needle and proceeded to sew the green thread down with red thread in random places along each line. It is a lot easier to pierce the holes of where you will be sewing before attempting the process. I used the splatter stamp to also add a border around the outer edge of the page using a Distress Ink - stormy sky. 

 Before adding the photo I added some layers of offcuts from the Heidi Swapp & Pink Paislee ranges.

Here you can see how I have tied knots in the green thread, this was to add a little more interest before sewing them to the page. 

...with the help of my scrappy friends (Mandy) I have added an ALLs pencil border around the photo.

I then added some sticker quotes from the Tim Holtz idealogoy clippings stickers range. 

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and finally the title was added using American crafts epoxy thickers  and a few little black bling embellishments.

 

 I hope you have a fantastic weekend all sorted for yourself and if not use this for a little inspiration to kick start you .... I hope to do a little recovery sleep & get unpacked and create again ... enjoy your weekend.

tracey

 xx