YAY! It’s time for a new Blog Hops with Heart Blog Hop! If you started at the beginning of the hop you would have come from Amie Kiger’s Blog, but if you’re starting here you can still make your way around the entire hop by clicking the link at the bottom of my post. This month we have a color scheme hop. Red, white and anything but blue…and I cheated! HA! There’s a tiny bit of blue on my project, but the girls in the hop promised not to kick me out!

Red is not a color I gravitate towards when scrapbooking, so I thought this month’s theme would be a bit challenging. I tend to only use this color during the Christmas season and even then the color is not my favorite.  BUT blue is a color I love and tend to use various shades of blue on a majority of my projects. So, as I was thinking about what to scrapbook, I immediately thought of our Disney photos since Christmas just didn’t seem like an option since it is summer right now! (I have to be in the Christmas spirit to scrapbook Christmas photos. Are you the same way or do you scrapbook your Christmas photos year round?)

I printed a couple 2.5″ x 3.5″ photos from our 2010 Disney trip using my Canon Selphy Printer. I then went into my Simple Stories Say Cheese stash! I haven’t purchased the newest Say Cheese III, but I still have quite a bit of the Say Cheese I & Say Cheese II.

I started with the Say Cheese Believe Patterned Paper for my background. I then added a layer of white gesso to the center to prime the patterned paper for the mixed media. Next I added a splash of color to the background using the packaging technique with a combination of Shimmerz Paints No Yoking Coloringz, Mandarin Mai Tai Coloringz, and a Mango Gelato to help add shading.

I started working on embellishing after the mixed media was dry. This is where the cheating happened! HA! I backed two of the Say Cheese II Chipboard Frames with my photos. These frames have just a tiny, tiiiiny bit of blue. I had originally grabbed the red frames in the set, but it was just too much red because of the red in my photos.

I finished my title using the chipboard word ‘Memories’ from the (discontinued) Queen & Company Magic Collection. I tucked a couple stickers from the 12×12 Say Cheese Cardstock Sticker Sheet and (discontinued) Simple Stories 24/Seven Collection above the right photo. I used a yellow ampersand flair button, a couple chipboard Mickey hands, and a few yellow chipboard stars from my stash. I also grabbed a yellow heart metal clip from my stash, but couldn’t quite find a way to use entire clip. I really only wanted to use the rimmed heart, so trimmed off the metal clip portion using my Tim Holtz Mini Snips! Those shearers are amazing and will cut through almost anything!! Using my CTMH Mini Stapler, I added a couple ephemera pieces from the retired CTMH Magical Collection under the right photo.

I felt like I needed to tie everything together and I thought a hand stitched circle was the best option. At this point in the layout adding hand stitching always intimidates me. What if I don’t like it? I’ve taken all this time to create the mixed media background, have all of my embellishments mapped out on the page, and I’m forced to start over if I don’t like how it turns out.

So to take a little pressure off I created a circular template using my Cricut Design Space and cut it on a scrap piece of paper. I used the paper circle as a way to test the waters to be sure I would like a circle on the background. I also cut circles at different sizes to determine how large I wanted the circle and used the template to center the circle on the 12×12 background. After the holes were pierced,  I went around the circle the first time using white embroidery floss, but it just blended in too much. So I stitched around the circle a second time using white embroidery floss and I also mixed in a few strands of red embroidery floss to add just a pop of color to the stitching. All in all there are 12 stands of embroidery floss in that hand stitched circle which added great texture and dimension!

For final touches I used my We R Memory Keepers Typecast Typewriter for my journaling and a few splatters of Black Heidi Swapp Color Shine. I also trimmed a portion of the Say Cheese Border & Titles Strip Elements Patterned Paper to the top and bottom of the layout along with a faux washi strips that I fussy cut from one of the Say Cheese 4×6 cards & the same Borders & Titles Patterned Paper.

Now you can take a look at my process!

I hope you’re finding inspiration as you’re making your way around our hop! Next up is the amazingly talented Stephanie Davis!

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