Serenity Beyond the Gates

So, I took a short unintended break from blogging, to do some…..creating. Lots of it, actually. And photographing my projects, and editing the photos, and applying for a design team of a company I’d love to work with. So, I’ve been busy in the studio, just not here in sparkling gnomeland. But, the gnomes were restless, and I am back…….with SO much good stuff to share!! Like, the layout you see before you, which has become a recent fave.

I started off trying to decide what photo I had, that would go with that beautiful chipboard piece, that is a fence. I flipped through my photos, and found this one of my daughter, with a gorgeous fence in the background. This was one of those times, where everything just falls in place while creating. The paper, paint, doily, feathers…..it all just fit, and I worked joyfully. It was so wonderful.

This color combo I have going on here……….grey, black, teal, sea foam green, light blue, pinks..is my favorite, really. It is soothing, calm, yet eye catching. There is replica of a room in the Nelson Atkins Museum in KC, it was a french manor type room, and all the colors were similar to these. I always loved that room.  There is also a gothic cloister from a monastery in Italy,  that’s been there since my mom was a child in the 1940′s. They have a false ceiling in there, that provides and almost eerie, overcast glow of a blue green twilight sky. I have always been absolutely fascinated with it.

I used the doily as a mask, and painted over it with a light blue paint in the bottom corner, then stamped. I then painted and inked the fabulous ScrapFX chippy, and dolled it up even more with feathers, thread, and then some “bunting”.

I echoed the banner around the plastic doily, and added more feathers, including a beloved peacock feather.

I decided that the top corner needed something that gave it movement, so I added this pretty fan shaped chipboard piece,also from ScrapFX. My final step, after adding the pretty title made with Pink Paislee alphas, was to shake on some pretty teal paint drips. I think that sealed the deal for me.

Thanks so much for visiting today, I missed you all! Tomorrow I’ll be back with a project full of bright color and pizazz, and dreams of the fun I have to come in a few months.

Blessings!~A