Birthday Buddies

Hello Everyone!!
How are we all doing? It's been a while since my last post, but I am back with my first layout using the July/August quirky kit.

Here are the items I used:

From the Main Kit

• Maggie Holmes Carousel Belle 12x12 patterned paper
• Maggie Holmes Carousel Rose Park 12x12 patterned paper
• Maggie Holmes Carousel Dazzle 12x12 patterned paper
• Pretty Little Studio Beautiful Day Hello Word navy sticker sheet
• Prima Island Lagoon ink pad

From the Extras Store

• Maggie Holmes Carousel Sticker Sheet

From my own stash

• Black Cardstock
• Watercolour Paints

And here's how I created this layout.

  I started by using the full sheet of Carousel Rose Park paper as my background (the black and white side) I love how the pattern pointed to a focal point in the centre of the paper, so I knew that's where I wanted my photo to go. I backed my photo onto some black cardstock, about a quarter of an inch bigger than the photograph all the way around. 

  I then grabbed the Carousel Belle Paper and fussy cut some of the roses out which, to me, was screaming to be painted in watercolours to give the flowers a beautiful delicate feel. I knew I wanted to cluster the roses around my photograph and frame it. To paint the leaves of the flowers I used the Prima Island Lagoon ink pad  and dabbed it onto some old packaging, spritzed some water onto it and used it as a watercolour. 

  Once I'd done all the painting, I arranged my layout and decided what further embellishments I wanted to use. I used a little piece of black cardstock and a white jelly roll pen to write my title Birthday buddies. I then mounted this on a couple of the arrow sections I fussy cut from the Carousel Dazzle paper, added another one of the small rose flowers I'd watercoloured and a banner from the Carousel sticker sheet, which I had purchased from the extras store.

  The last little bit of embellishing in the top right hand corner of the photo, is another of the Carousel stickers which I used to jot down the date of the event, and placed one of the navy stickers from the Pretty Little Studio Beautiful Day word stickers which reads good times, onto another of the fussy cut arrows from the Dazzle paper...

I added a few watercolour paint splashes by flicking my paintbrush bristles and...Voila! Layout complete :)

  I'm really pleased with how this layout turned out and the colours I used gives it a Mexican feel which is what I was going for because of the Sombreros we are wearing whilst at Chiquitos, for my friends birthday meal. 

Until my next layout... Happy Scrappin!