Current Mood / Pinkfresh Studio

Hey there, friends!  I have a new layout to share for Pinkfresh Studio.  I started out wanting to make a circle themed page, but my plans changed and I wound up making a soft summer pool page.  I used the Keeping it Real collection to showcase these cute photos of my daughter.

I decided to create a "sky" background.  I did some stencil work on the smooth thick white cardstock.  First I coated it with clear gesso.  I created the clouds using the Cloud Builder stencil.  It looks complicated, but it's really easy!  You just smudge some ink over the edge of it and it instantly creates a line of clouds.  I used the Ink Cubes to do that with an ink blending tool.  I created the yellow sun using the Layered Sunburst Stencil.  It contains three stencils, but I just used one.  Once that was done, I used  a bit of water on a brush to blend some of the color, giving it that "left out in the rain" look.  I used the same color inks to add some color below the photos.  I just scraped the actual ink pad across the paper and used water to blend it.

 

I used some of the floral die cuts to embellish around the photos, and I layered a few patterned papers behind them.  I love using blue on pool layout backgrounds because it looks like water, and these colors matched the photos perfectly.

I used some of the puffy alpha word stickers for the title.  I changed the color of them a bit by smudging some white gesso over them and then a few of the pink ink pads.  Worked great!  I also added "happy" in a few places.  I used the Heather Lowercase Dies to create them on white cardstock.  I machine stitched through it using blue thread and then created a small cluster of flowers below it.

I love these pretty spring colors.  I used some of the Essentials Jewels & Crystals to add a few spots of sparkle & shine.  They make excellent center pieces for flowers, too!

I added two more "happy" pieces at the top along with a few clouds that I fussy cut from white cardstock.  I used the Cloud Builder stencil and inks again and then cut a few out.  I wanted the top of the layout to be a little more dimensional, so these did the trick.  I machine stitched through them and added some of the Jewels.

I love all this wonderful dimension!  Here you can see the difference in the smooth background cardstock and the textured cardstock I used for the clouds.  A little texture makes a big difference :)

Here are some more close-ups of all the details :)

I hope this inspires you in some way today.  It was a lot of fun to make, and even though I had a different idea when I first started, I love how it evolved into this design.  Sometimes you just have to go with what you're feeling at the time.

Here's my process video:

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great day!