Uniquely Creative Feb. Challenge

Hello everyone,

I finally found some time to scrap, my new job is taking up more time than I like and there is so much marking when you start off a new school year. I needed a break and decided to crack open the Uniquely Creative February kit which arrived on Wednesday. It is a glorious kit, so much colour and interesting mixed media. A tropical/summer kit based around the Kaiser Craft ‘Paradise Found’ collection. I am loving the papers, all that greenery, yummy teals and beautiful, bright hibiscus flowers. The problem is I don’t have any tropical photos, no tropical island holidays for us yet! Though, it did give me the opportunity to remind hubby about how he mentioned he’d like to go to Fiji, the perfect reason to holiday…to use up scrapbook paper.

Because I was struggling for photos, I decided to work with some summer holiday beach photos. I had just finished using the December Uniquely Creative kit, an ocean-themed kit, which I had managed to make 8 layouts with (adding in extra cardstock) and still have scraps left for another couple of layouts.

I had a gorgeous photo leftover of my daughter sun baking on one of our favourite holiday beaches. We have amazing beaches and coastline in Australia. It is from a holiday we went on about ten years ago, this beach has pure, fine, white sand that squeaks when you walk across it. I thought it would be the perfect photo to use with the Uniquely Creative February kit and Sketch Challenge, as it has hibiscus flowers on the beach towel.

I started off making the background, using the ‘Ocean Air’ paper, I added some blue watercolour paint smooshes and splatters.

Then, I selected the ‘Salt Water’ paper to cut out the large circle in the sketch layout. I didn’t want to lose the shells on the edges of the circle, so I cut around them and kept them attached.

The lovely hibiscus die (add-on to the kit), worked beautifully to create a halo effect around the edge of the circle. I was thinking about the sun and sunbeams, as I glued them into place. I cut them from the white cardstock painted with the yellow and orange watercolour supplied in the kit.

I used some hessian border and patterned paper to make the vertical stripes in the sketch.

Next, I mounted the photo on white cardstock and rough up the edges. Then, I added a layer underneath of the ……. paper. You can easily tear this paper into the shape you need by adding a line of water to soften the fibres of the paper. It creates a lovely torn, tatty edge.

Finally, I added a range of embellishments from the kit around the edges of the circle and photo. I fussy cut a few extra shells from the leftover ‘Salt Water’ paper and attached them with foam tape. I added some of the sisal fibre threads for a little more textural interest. I used white cardstock paint with blue watercolour paint and the supplied ‘paradise’ die to create the title.