2 pages, 2 very different themes!

Hi there ePers!  I hope you're all doing well!  Did everyone have a blast at the PaperHaus Blog Hop?!  What a fun hop that was!!!  Such talent!

Well, today I'm up, and I would like to share w/ you 2 very different scrapbook layouts!  One using NO mixed media, and one w/ a little bit, but just to add contrast to an otherwise boring page!  More about that later!

First up: A Secret Garden in Williamsburg!

I am trying to get through my envelopes of pictures from the latter half of 2012.  I came across the picture in the scrapbook page, along w/ some others, and decided that I wanted to use them in a page, and NOT scrap my kids!  I'm sure you're thinking, who does that?!  Well, I do!  I LOVE taking photographs of gardens, flowers, landscape ideas, beautiful urns, the American flag on a house, creeks, rivers, just nature in general!  I have to tell this one little story!  My town is very old, and was founded by the Allegheny River, in PA.  I love taking pictures of it!  One day, we were driving home and I noticed the fog that was settled over the river.  It looked rather eerie, so I went home and grabbed my camera, and drove back down to the river and took pictures!  I was talking to my mom later that evening, who lives about 10 minutes away in the country, and she said that she went down to the river and took pictures too!  Haha!  I obviously get my photographic skills from my mother!  :D

Ok, seriously, I talk way too much!  On to the project!
Sad news: The Secret Garden paper pad is no longer with us.  New and exciting Graphic45 paper is now in the store!  You can check it all out here!  Even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE Fall, I can't loosen my grip on SUMMER!  So, one more page from our vacation last summer!

As I was saying above, I was taking pictures of everything when we were in Williamsburg, and several landscape pictures found their way onto my camera!  I decided to use just one picture.

To create this page, I used a piece of chocolate 12" x 12" cardstock, and some SU! 12" x 12" and some other paper that I had in my stash.  I just needed to build layers.  The purple panels behind the picture are Secret Garden paper, as well as the leaves on the tree and below the fence and in the corners of the pictures.  I cut out a couple ATC size frames from the Secret Garden pad, along w/ the top journaling frame.  I cut two lavender frames and cut them w/ stamp edge scissors.  I distressed ALL the edges, and inked them w/ Walnut Stain Distress Ink (Ranger).

I placed burlap behind the pictures for some garden contrast.  The tree base is just a piece of chocolate cardstock that I scored and inked the edges.  To make it rounded, I folded the edges under and with the help of the end of a paint brush, I was able to make the middle of the tree stand up.  I wanted to mimic the tree in the picture.

W/ my cricut, I cut each leaf.  I inked the edges in Mowed Lawn Distress Ink (Ranger).  I fussy cut the lavender and planted it among the bottom leaves.

The fence is actually a Tim Holtz Rosette Die that is fairly old.  W/ my exacto knife, I cut away the middle portions of the fence to make it look like a picket fence.  To distress it, I first used my score tool and just made marks on each fence post.  Then, I inked in an upward motion and downward motion only, with Weathered Wood Distress Ink (Ranger).  I followed up w/ Walnut Stain to match the rest of the page.

I fussy cut the birds on the branch with the key hanging down.  I felt like that corner needed something, and after flipping through the pad several times, I decided that it would be the perfect touch!  I add a few leaves to the end of the branch and that completed it!

Here's the top of the page. The page looks one-dimensional, but I popped up several leaves, the birds on the branch and key, and the fence.

This is the bottom of the page.

And a close up of the fence and the lavender.

Ok, let's switch gears and head into FALL!
This page came together fairly quickly!  Again, I used Graphic45, but reached for the Steampunk Spells pad instead!  I really wanted to go steampunk, as I've never delved into that genre before!  This is a good start!

Sorry for the bad flash!  But, I wanted to show the page in the best light first.  The next few pictures are without my flash. Of course, these were all taken at night in my kitchen w/ bad lighting!  SORRY!!!!!

Ok, so mixed media.  What did I do?  Well, a few things!  I took the Giraffe stencil (TCW) and applied Black Gesso w/ a palette knife for a very thin layer.  I wanted to create a cracked glass background.  Once it was dry, I sprayed it with Squeezed Orange Dylusions Spray.  Obviously, w/ the background being black, the orange didn't show up.  Or did it???!!!  Once it was dry, the gesso took on a more metallic look!  COOL!  I flipped through my stencils and came upon the Spinning Top stencil (TCW) and I spied my bottle of white Crackle Paint (Picket Fence, Ranger).  I painted a few places w/ the stencil, and as it was drying, I noticed that the orange that I sprayed was coming through!  LOVE IT!  

Another cool thing I did was take my Patterned Leaves stencil (TCW) and placed it on a piece of white tissue paper.  I sprayed through the full leaf stencil in several places to create 3 leaves with Black Marble Dylusions Spray.  I cut them out and scrunched them up. I added some silver glitter which I just rubbed onto the leaves.

So, the steampunk!  Well, for the steampunk look, I added gears (Tim Holtz from my stash) in different places.  For the pumpkin stems, I cut out an ow and a black cat from the paper pad.  At the top of the page, I cut out two scrolls, one of which allowed me to journal a bit!

Products: The Secret Garden of Williamsburg:
Paper: Secret Garden 6" x 6" (Graphic45)
Ink: Mowed Lawn, Weathered Wood, Walnut Stain (Ranger)

Products: Halloween 2012
Paper: Steampunk Spells 8" x 8" (Graphic45)
Ink: Black Marble, Squeezed Orange Dylusions Sprays, Rusty Hinge Distress Ink (sponged around the pumpkins)
Accessories: Black Gesso, Giraffe Stencil, Spinning Top Stencil, Falling Leaves Stencil, Palette Knife


And that's it crafty folks!  I hope that you have been inspired!  Have a lovely day!
Erin