chic tags ~ sunday sketch

Yesterday was Sunday Sketch over at Chic Tags and I was lucky enough to participate...

Sasha shared this fabulous sketch with us and many of us played along using all things Chic Tags. Here is what I came up with...

I took my layout to 12x12. This will be part of a double page layout with several other photos from my birthday week last month.

I only went with 9 circles creating this mat on my Sizzix Eclips and cutting it out on American Craft Heavy Card Stock. When I trimmed it down I left a little extra on the right as a margin for the photo.

Do you ever start a page, have an idea to start, but not sure where it is going to go? Well, that was this one. Obviously I had Sasha's sketch as the inspire point...but after that, I sort of struggled for a bit.

I knew I wanted to use the Happy Place Crisp Air pattern paper, but I also knew it was on the bright side for me, and I am always so afraid of yellow...so I decided to layer it under the circle mask I created.

So then I painted the card stock with a wash of Color Shine Teal and gesso. Sort of a go-to technique for me right now. And I really love how the words from the paper peek through the circles in the mat, also allowing the yellow to say hello without taking over the whole layout.

The circles made perfect little homes for simple embellishments that helped support the rest of this story. School House circle Icons fit perfectly inside layered with some Happy Place Phrases that I trimmed and edge painted. The "Highlights From This Week" is from the March Exclusive Kit (which sadly is sold out). Again, it was a little bright, but just a bit of gesso toned it down and gave it that soft spring hue I was hoping for.

The Having a Blast flair is from the March kit. Love This Life belongs to Happy Place Phrases. I folded the edges back to give it a banner look and layered it over my photo. Sigh...I just love that photo of me and that little SuperMan. To continue to add to the soft feel of this page, I clustered yellow flowers and sequins in one of the circles. These were found in my stash and I love what they add to the over all feel of this project.

Well for not knowing where this layout was going, I am pretty happy with it. Eager to tell the rest of the story with my other photos. Happy to have pushed through a project and just play and have fun. Happy for all these memories I am blessed to document and share with you today.

Till next time...