"Lovely" Layout (UDC #2) and Scrap Retreat!

     Hi!  It's been an eventful couple of weeks for me, not the least of which my son was ill, my mother-in-law has been in and out of the hospital since before Christmas, and then I was sick with the same thing my son had.  But in the midst of all of that, I am still in the running with the Swirlydoos Ultimate Design Challenge, and I am so happy for that!

     I have been attending a scrap retreat in my area (Scraptacular Getaways) and had three days and nights of scrapping bliss... it was in beautiful Napa Valley, California, and it really was a getaway for me.  No husband, no child, no pets, and no distractions!  I was tons of fun!

     I was pretty productive while I was there... Swirlydoos had issued their next challenge in their UDC contest, and I had made it to week #2 (only 4 more to go!).  The challenge for the week was to create a project with lots of layers, paper and otherwise.  So, that was the first project I tackled

 at the retreat.

 

 

This is my very beautiful niece, Jessika.  I wanted to do a layout that was reminiscent of

old Hollywood glam... I had this paper from Webster's Pages (Hollywood Vogue), and thought it was perfect... plus, one of the papers is in purple tones, which is Jessika's favorite color!

 

I started the layout by distressing my base paper, and all the layers I wanted to use...there are 4 base layers in all, each about a 1/2 inch smaller then the one below it.  Then, I distressed and matted each of the pictures I used.  Notice on the upper left picture, I used two different sized of the same picture layered over each other.  This helps to bring the photo "up" and make it more of a focus picture.  Then I tore some old bridal hat netting I found at a thrift store, placed it on my page, and mounted my pictures on top of it.

 

The netting adds a vintage Hollywood touch, huh? Lots of fun!

After the pics were mounted (here's a hint... I used one stripe of glue down the center of the mats and photos so I can tuck things under them when I am embellishing) I started tucking in bits and pieces of things I fussy cut from the papers.. when I had an arrangement I likes, I started gluing them down.

 

A gray rhinestone and pearl flourish sets it all off, and adds another touch of glam.

 

For the flowers, I used a feather and pearl piece I found in the mask making section at Michael's. I cut it in half, and mounted it toward the bottom left corner of the layout, and them placed my flowers over it.  The diamond border was fussy cut from one of the papers, mounted and then I used some rhinestone embellishments by Recollections (Michael's) for some more blingage.

 

Here's a closeup of the torn edges of the bottom layers.. after I had everything laid out and glued down, I went back around the whole layout tearing and crumpling up the edges of pieces until I was happy with it.

 

I was really happy with this layout, and apprantly the Swirlydoos design team was too, because I

was able to progress to week #3...

 

I made two other layouts at the retreat, and I will post those tomorrow!  Hope you enjoy this one!

 

 

                                     Shelley