This challenge has been one of my favourite this month. The Show Us Your Stuff, June challenge is very open ended, you can do anything you like. They are encouraging you to hand make elements for your layout. Yay, time to get messy!

For my layout, I decided to not waste time thinking about the layout format but put my time into making cute embellishments. I selected a scrap layout from one of my favourite scrappers to scrap lift. Aliza Deutsch’s layout really drew me in with her great use of white space and interesting embellishments. I liked how clean and modern it looked even though it had several embellishments. I know some believe that you should not use other peoples work and always create your own. But history shows us that every artist learns from another and shares their skills with others, this is especially prevalent in our technological world. I am not saying copy another’s work and claim it as your own, but using someone’s ideas as inspiration or to challenge yourself is a great way to get started and learn new skills. Some days you just want to get started and not agonise over how to get going, with thousands of photos to scrap you need a few shortcuts. Scraplifting is one way of saving some time. If you are publishing your work you must make sure that you do acknowledge the original artist, and if possible, link to the original source. Aliza’s layout can be found here. As you will see below, I did follow Aliza’s layered format but moved it diagonally on the page to fit with my photo/paper size. 

Once again I tried to meet my self-imposed goals by using old supplies and incorporating mixed media supplies. After layering my papers and backing my photo, I started creating some tag embellishments. I looked through my scrap pieces for some wood look paper which would tie in with the wooden elements within the photo. This photo was taken 28 years ago! My how things have changed, I nearly didn’t use this photo and almost covered up the cigarette, but then I decided that it shows how things were then. It has a place in history. Yes, those viewing it in the future and now will be shocked but it demonstrates what society thought was ok back then…smoking inside with a child. Twelve years earlier than this, I remember as a child being asked to roll my grandfather’s cigarettes. Coming from a European background this was considered ok. Thank goodness we have all become more educated.

The stamped images are an old 2008 set from Stampin Up! I used Ranger inks to add an aged, heritage look to the tags. No, that is not tobacco stains! I used my favourite colours, the beautiful ‘Butterscotch’ Ranger alcohol ink which I poured straight from the bottle onto the cardstock and let it seep and flow into interesting shapes. I also poured a little onto a sponge and rubbed it over the card surface, you need to work very quickly as it evaporates. I used two Ranger Archival ink pads, Russet and Sepia, which I applied around the edges of the cardstock with a sponge.  I topped off the layout with a modern font title using Pink Fresh’s puffy alphas from the A case of the Blahs collection. I really like the end result, a nice meld of old and new.