Donna Salzar Aug II

The below post went live on the Donna Salazar blog today.

Do you ever find yourself starting out with a specific idea in mind, only to realise half way through the project, that it just doesn't work - but you somehow have put too much work into it to discard it?

Yeah, that happened to me this week, when I had this idea in my head to create my own background by using the fabulous Sprightly Sprockets dies as a stencil and sprayed over the White Coloured Rose paper with a generous helping of various Smooch Spritzes.

**click on any of the pictures to enlarge their view (which incidentally also sharpens the image} **

The end result looked really cool - exactly how I imagined it.

The next step was to enhance the outlines with a black pen.

Never be too exact - I find it looks much better when you draw across some lines in a loose and random fashion.

I think the background looked great as it was but I wanted a few more splashes of contrasting colour on there and added some sprocket cuts in pink from the One Sheet Wonderful , which I also outlined with a black pen.

Now this was done I struggled to turn this background into a layout. I shuffled pictures and embellishments around, but nothing worked. The background turned out to be too overpowering to allow any picture to become the focal point, so what was this girl to do?

First, I took another sheet of paper - of a completely different colour base, the Vintage Gears from the Antiquities line.

I then added a little Smooch Spritz  in wood stain and my new favourite stamp All My Love.
I adore how subtle it can look, almost as if it was already part of the paper.

All of a sudden, it clicked and I knew how I could incorporate my previously stencilled background: by cutting the shapes individually and use them as embellishments to guide the viewer through the layout and towards the photograph!

To "soften" the brightness of the pink/blue combo, I added some layered flowers created from the Crafty Chronicle and inspired by the amazing flower tutorials of my DT Teamie Natasha.

I wanted to carry the theme of the sprockets throughout the layout and used the biggest of the dies as a template to embroider its outline onto the paper.

So, you wanna know how the layout ended up?
TOTALLY different from how I intended it to look - let me remind you of how it started out:

And this is how it turned out:

Products used

• Papers: Donna Salazar for GCD Studios - One Sheet Wonderful - Spring in Bloom ,  Crafty Chronicle, Vintage Gears, Butterfly Harmony, White Coloured Rose
• Mists: Donna Salazar for Clearsnap - Smooch Spritz in Wood Stain, Caramel Latte, Tea Party, Green Olive, Sea Breeze
• Inks: Clearsnap Cat's Eye Chalk - Chestnut Roan, Dark Brown
• Stamp: Donna Salazar - All My Love (DS-0681)
• Dies: Donna Salazar for Spellbinders - Sprightly Sprockets
• Corrugated cardboard: Donna Salazar for Zutter - 7 x 7 board
• Tools: Zutter - Rivets in Antique Brass, Rivet Hole Punch & Mat, Rivet Setter & Hammer, Pound-it-All

Other products: 
Stickers: Jillybean,Pens
Pens: Uniball Signo in white & black, Zig Millenium pens in black
Embroidery floss, pearls, punchinella

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