Learning lessons with a Pink Fresh Studios Challenge - 2019

Hey guys, thanks for following my blog posts about being a Newbie in the Scrapbooking World.  I just want to say, when I'm writing these blogs, it is more of a lesson on what not to do or how I managed to do or what I have learned to do, so far.  I will always try to give the exact products of what I used in case you want to try any of the layouts I blog about.  

I also write these blogs 1)hoping they will help you guys in this big community of scrapbooking; 2)challenge you guys to go out of your comfort zone; 3)let you know what is going on out in the scrapbooking community, like, challenges, sales, new products and techniques; and 4)to let you know this is a hobby that is meant to bring enjoyment.  If you find yourself getting all stressed out over it because you make mistakes, we all do.  The best of the best do.  So remember to keep this fun and enjoyable!  You can find other tips and posts on my FB page.

So yesterday I was going through IG and found that Pink Fresh Studios was having a January challenge.   It is their "2018 challenge in review", so you get to pick any of their challenges from last year and go for it!  So I went through the challenges and found this one.  It's a simple layout, but I liked that it was on an all white background.  I tend to stay away from a lot of white space (yeap, apparently that is a term in the scrapbooking world).  This layout also let you choose any shape you wanted (if you aren't into stars), which for this layout I was not.

So I picked a photo of my sister and I in 1986 (yes, I said 1986)!  We were so young (but old enough to drink).  It was New Years Eve and we decided to dress in black and gold sparkle (I didn't have my jacket on in this photo but TRUST me, it was black and gold, it sparkled and it had big shoulders to match the big hair).  If you were from the 80's you will get the big shoulder and big hair reference.

I started to pull all of my stash together and liked what I came up with and got started!

I picked an off white colored card stock and used some clear Gesso on it before starting since I was using some acrylic paint (black - and really cheap from Target).  When it comes to acrylic paints you don't have to spend a lot of money.  I used my heat gun to help the drying process because I'm a bit impatient.  Once it was dried I sprayed the Perfect Pearls Mists from Ranger on it (and right here comes lesson 1, LET YOUR MISTS DRY COMPLETELY.  Mists are mostly water and if you don't let it dry COMPLETELY any other medium that you use that is water based, say like the acrylic paint I was using, it will run!

Apparently, I didn't let it dry enough and when I did the splatters of black acrylic paint (again, water based) it ran instead of blotching or splattering as the pro's say it.  It was pretty bad.  I thought I was going to have to trash the card stock but I took my heat gun, dried it and turned it around so my photo would cover that part. (and that was lesson #2) if you can cover a mistake with a photo or sticker, do it! No one can tell and you will save some time and money, and a bit of frustration.  It happens to the best of scrapers!

After I re-did my Mist and splatters and the paper was dried I started with laying my gold boarder.  I don't remember where I got it it was part of my stash from my "borders" drawer and not in the packaging any longer.  I really liked the waves in it and it was gold and shiny so I used it.

I also found these circle chip board that have the same hues as my layout.  I used the Becky Higgins Project Life Kit, I believe it's called Midnight Edition Core Set.  After gluing those on top of my wavy border sticker, I placed some tissue paper with cold flakes in it behind my backed photo and glued it down (covering up my first mistake).

I have this amazing gold foil paper, in 8 1/2 x 11".  It's pretty thin and delicate so using it is a challenge some times.  I used this paper for 1 of the photo backing and also to cut out a 3" heart from my Cricut machine (I have the dinosaur of Cricut machines but it works and it was free from a friend who used it once so I'm good with that).  Cutting with that foil paper was a bit of a challenge.  The Cricut machine cut it fine but getting off of the mat was not fun.  I cut 2 of them and ended up throwing the other out because it just ripped and tore off of the mat.  Yes, I have had to trash a couple of my projects when using it. 

I glued the heart down along with the additional tiny hearts (made from my heart punch).  I backed my photo with the additional piece of gold foil paper and Pink Paislee's  TURN THE PAGE collection.  I also backed the photo with some tissue paper with flakes of gold in it that I had left over from a Christmas gift (lesson #3, don't throw away stuff you think you might use...think tissue paper for backing of photos, a Starbucks sleeve you can cut and make a sticker out of, ribbon...you get the idea).  I always say waste not want not and hey, this is a pretty expensive hobby!

My title I did out of the gold foil paper as well and ran it through my X-ryon stickers machine...AND here comes lesson number 4, make sure you have ALL of the alphas BEFORE you go sticking them on a layout.   I managed to leave out the "R" in Sparkle the first go around...2 words....PROOF READ! 🤦🏻‍♀️

So, this black and gold theme came together pretty well with what I had in my stash.  Unfortunately for me, I wasn't able to use any of my awesome stuff from PinkFresh Studios was the backing of my photo so that basically disqualified me from the challenge.  I do love their stuff and have quite a bit of it from my Christmas Sale buys but nothing that matched this layout other than that backing.  But I had a great time making it and I think it turned out pretty good.  I will list all of the stuff I used below just in case you saw something you liked.

Thanks for following my blog and learning all of this amazing and fun scrapbooking techniques and layouts!

Items Used:

1. 8 1/2 x 11" gold foil paper - Michaels.com (it goes on sale for $2.50 a pack so if you can... wait for it go be on sale)
2. chipboard stickers - Maggie Holmes - CRAFT PAPER COLLECTION
3. Perfect Pearls Mist - SUNFLOWER SPARKLE - by Ranger
4. Acrylic Paints - Target.com
5. Pink Paislee - TURN THE PAGE - collection
6. Clear Gesso - Amazon.com (a little goes a looooooong way)
7. Off white card stock - Michaels.com

Thanks again for joining me on this blog, hope to see you guys on IG and FB!

Happy Scraping🤗