Brave / A Flair For Buttons + a My Scraps Sketch!

Hey, friends!  Today I'm sharing a layout I created based on Sketch #102 over on the My Scraps Sketch Blog.  Ashley Horton is the featured sketch designer this month, and I was very inspired to create my own background and "patterned paper" for this.  I also created this for the A Flair For Buttons Design Team.  It was up on the blog there last week.

Here's the sketch...isn't it awesome?!

First of all, my photo is what I call a "hard to scrap" picture.  Lots of colors and a busy design.  I didn't have any patterned papers that jumped out at me to use for this, and I honestly didn't want to spend hours going through every single piece of paper I own....haha.  So I decided to work with white cardstock and inks, paints and gelatos.  I covered some cardstock in gesso and then made a big mess of blue, pink and purple.  I used gelatos, some watercolor, some stencils and some spray inks.  Once it dried, I used a few different sized circle punches and made my circles.  I followed the sketch and placed them down and then stitched through them with silver thread.

I wanted something to back my photo with that wouldn't take away from it or add to the busy factor, so I used a piece of white tissue paper and a small bit of patterned paper from Echo Park Capture Life.  It's black and white striped and it subtle.  I added some touches of pink washi tape and lots of tangled thread.

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Those wood hearts have foil on them....super fun and easy to do.  Michaels carries this on the aisle with all the inks and stencils....and it's actually on clearance.  You just coat the paper or whatever in the foil glue, wait for it to dry and then stick it the foil sheet.  When you peel it off, it's covered in foil!  Super cool and shiny!  I am so in love with the Bokeh Flair....the whole set is just beautiful.  The soft color of this one matched perfectly.

Here's a close up of the mixed media work...very abstract and messy.  I tried to match the colors in the photo, and I love the silver touches.

Here you can see the thin tissue paper layers.  I also added some vellum circles and one of the Sunburst Flair Buttons.....again, the perfect color.  I love tucking them under things so they peek out.

I used some Heidi Swapp chipboard alphas combined with some alpha stamps and a Cameo cut.  The title is a lyric from one of Sara Bareilles' songs :)

Here are the flair sets I used:

Sunburst Brights

Heart Bokeh

I hope this gives you some ideas on what you can do when you have a hard to scrap photo...try and create something that makes the photo stand out.  Sometimes patterned papers can drown a photo out, so this is a great way to make it shine!

You can check out the A Flair For Buttons shop HERE.  SOOOOO many awesome buttons to choose from!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!