Today Always / Hip Kit Club

Happy Monday, friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend :)  I'm here to share my newest layout for the Hip Kit Club using the 2017 May Hip Kits.  I was recently inspired by a layout created by Paige Evans where she used black cardstock as a background and added lots of small bright colored squares to it.  As soon as I saw this black and white grid paper in the Main Kit (and Paper Kit), I knew I wanted to use it as my background.  I fussy cut lots of beautiful bright flowers from one of the Shimelle papers and tucked them around the photo in a diagonal fashion.

To jazz up the background area, I used lots of white gesso first.  I love using my fingers to smudge it so it has a soft hazy edge.  Next, I used some of the Prima Watercolor Confections from the Color Kit and some gelatos from my stash. I also watered down some white acrylic paint and used my brush to splatter it.  And I finished off with some Gold Color Shine.

These flowers were too pretty to leave on a whole sheet, so I cut them out :)  I added in a few of the Crate Paper chipboard plus signs around the page for added pops of black and some dimension.  I decided to type my journaling on my computer since my background was so dark.  I felt that a black pen would just blend in too much. This way, they white strips show really well.

I fussy cut "Always" from one of the Pinkfresh Studio papers and used that as my main title.  I added in "today," which is an exclusive wood veneer.  The Shimelle die cut pack had coordinating flower die cuts, so I used them to create a third cluster over to the right side.  I popped up the smaller yellow flower with some foam and added some tangled thread under it.  That row of hearts is a Pinkfresh Puffy Sticker, and the shiny button is from Dear Lizzy.

I love all this dimension!  I added in another wood veneer piece above the photo and some Crate Paper buttons as well.  That cute little heart is a Dear Lizzy Puffy Sticker.

I love layering things on top of my photo when there's room to do it.  I had some open space to the right, and the slant of the A fits perfectly right beside the slant of her arm.  I didn't even plan that...it just worked out like that!  Love when that happens :)

I love how these colors turned out on the dark background.  The white gesso helped tremendously with this.  I used my fingers to smudge the gelatos after adding the watercolor.

Here's one more close-up of the flower cluster at the bottom.

I really love how this turned out!  I probably never would've thought to combine the dark background with the bright flowers if it hadn't been for Paige's layout and this awesome kit.  Kimberly does such a fantastic job of pairing things up, and I really love all the mixing and matching.

I have a process video here for you :)

Thank you so much for stopping by!  Have a fabulous week, friends :)