Rainbow Hugs

Hello All!

For today's post, I have a scrapbook page which was originally inspired by the Altenew Sketch Challenge #15 (sketch image featured below), but I will also be entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. The Monday challenge is called 'Make Your Own Background' and considering that I stenciled this gorgeous 3D background in rainbow colours, I think it makes the cut. The Wednesday challenge is 'Anything Goes'...need I say more? I think not 😉.

Okay, so you will have to excuse my lack of specifics (particularly with the chosen ink colours) because I made this piece when this challenge started but haven't had a chance to blog it until now. Its just hard to find time in between getting my 4 year old to school and taking care of my 2 year old and teething 4 month old. I know, you must be thinking 'ahhh'😲 and you're right. But now that school is out I get more sleep and just that little bit of extra time to blog my crafts. So let's get to it.

The idea of this scrapbook page centers around those buds in the upper half of the page and their transformation as they reach the center/bottom of the page. They start of as small flower buds with no colour and in the center of the page, they bloom into colour. And as you reach the bottom of the page you get the colours only. I thought it was a nice metaphorical transformation that flowers go through, just as our kids do as they grow and us adults, as we create a new generation of human beings. Too much??😕… maybe but I thought I'd explain my thought process here😀. 

For this scrapbook page I chose to feature a picture of myself and my husband with my first born on her first plane ride as a baby. Oh the days of just having one kid 😐!! Anyways, I chose to keep this rainbow theme going using the Altenew 3D Step Builder stencil. I bought it a while ago and never had a chance to use it. Btw I love the 3D stencils by Altenew -they're definitely a must have and they're very useful for masculine cards! 

I basically split my page into 6 equal sections and used two shades of each colour, varying the pressure to get a faded effect from top to bottom. Then to make sure the colour change was gradual I went back and somewhat blended between the two adjoining colours. As for the ink colours, I can't remember which exact inks I used but I can tell you the ink sets they come from (since Altenew sells their colours in sets, ideal for layering). The greens were from the Altenew Spring Bouquet set, yellows from Pocket Full of Sunshine, oranges from Warm and Cozy, reds from Red Sunset, pinks from Spring Bouquet and purples from Enchanted Garden. 

I then proceeded to use these same colours with the Altenew Climbing Clematis stamp set to stamp out some flowers. I do not have the coordinating dies so I just fussy cut these and the little bud elements in the upper white area of the page (also from the Climbing Clematis set). The buds were stamped using the greys from the Gentleman's Gray set. 

I then added my photo and added the flowers, some with foam adhesive squares and some directly to the paper with Tombow Mono liquid adhesive, to the page. I die cut the hugs sentiment using the Concord & 9th hug card die. This die is supposed to be used on a gatefold card that opens in the center but instead of using it for this, I just cut off the extra pieces not needed to get strictly the 'hugs' sentiment. I adhered this and added some lines in white using the Sakura Jelly Roll pen. 

I finished this one off with some grey iridescent gems and pearl dots, which I picked up from Michaels. It's hard to see here but I also added some Limoncello Nuvo Jewel Drops in the center of the flowers.

And there you have it! I hope inspired someone in some way or form with this! Let's see how long it takes for me to get up  my next post ..hehe😛!