Artist

This is my latest layout. Called Artist, it is a snapshot of one of my earliest creations - a lady created on the kitchen floor of my nan and grandad's house using beaded necklaces! It was through doing Shimelle Laine's Growing Up workshop that I realised again how creative I had been as a child and I would always be drawing or writing stories. The story element certainly helps in my job as a teacher but its only recently with discovering scrapbooking that I have found an outlet for all that creativity again. In many ways I wish I had chosen a more artistic path, not that I regret studying History as I absolutely love that too.

The photo was actually really poor quality and had become discoloured during storage so when I scanned it in I changed it to grayscale which hides a lot of the faults. I used my Scenic Route Charlotte papers, as well as some grid background to handcut the title and make the journalling block. Several of the paper pieces are machine stitched onto the backing card using dark pink thread in a zig zag stitch. The embellishments are quite simple - stamping with my Autumn Leaves Hearts and Flourishes stamps and then some buttons and a few beads to tie in with the necklaces in the photo.

The journalling is quite sparse on this layout - I wanted it to be a little humorous. It reads:

I have always been a creative person - this 'Lady in Beaded Necklaces' was one of my early works!

I'm not unhappy with the layout though I do think it needs something else - I am not sure if the top right hand corner is totally balanced but having tried placing a few things there I decided to leave it as it is. So unless inspiration suddenly strikes, this is the finished layout.

Still feeling a bit of scrappers block with the photo I was trying to work on last night, so I'm thinking of leaving it and trying another photo - sometimes this gives you a bit of space and you suddenly come up with an idea when you are working on a different layout.