Taking the Dusty Attic Challenge!! & Some Best Wishes for some Friends!

Dusty Attic started a challenge up a few weeks back to take the 'Design Team Style Inspiration Challenge'!  The idea is to take a look at a specified design team members gallery and use their style to inspire a page done in their style.  Sadly, I was unable to play along with the first two challenges that began with Emeline and Evana's styles because of a pretty heavy DT workload but I was determined to try and get started with trying out Finn's eclectic and beautiful style of scrapping,  By Finn I mean of course the talented Anna Dabrowska aka. Finnabair.  I've always admired her style and have wanted to try out some of her techniques.  The above page is what I came up with.  I noticed that Finn, more often than not uses black & white photos, her layouts are often BOM (book of Me) style pages and she uses a whole lot of spritzes on her work.  I can't claim to really know her process on how she puts a page together, it was more of a wild guess on my part in figuring out how to layer it all and I probably don't really have her process down perfectly I'm sure.....for example, I'm pretty sure she uses lot's of Gesso on her work, but I unfortunately didn't have any in my stash so I improvised with white paint.

I basically began the page design by choosing a paper without a strong pattern in it (Pink Paislee Vintage Moon...an older collection) and layed a piece of Dusty Attic chipboard in the middle of the page using it as a matt, sprayed some pink and green glimmer mists on it to create the flourishy design.

Note:  I made my own glimmer mist by putting a few drops of alcohol ink (Tim Holtz) in a small spritzer bottle (also Tim Holtz), added a pinch of Perfect Pearls mica powder and some water. 

I then did a bit of stitching on the layout using my sewing machine.  Stitching a frame and adding zig-zag designs.  From there I added my photo, layered on some chipboard pieces, lace bits, buttons and blooms. I then did a little more spritzing on all my embellishments (lay a piece of protective plain paper over your photo before you start spritzing again.  I added some white paint accents over the lace, blooms and chipboard. 

Note:  I had to add a coat of white paint to some of the shiney elements like buttons in order for the spritzes to adhere to them.  

Here are some close-up views of the above page....

For the above page I used 7 different Dusty Attic chipboard pieces, the Wrought Iron Trim DA0547 (used as a mask),  Vintage Keys DA0392, Cogs #1 DA0001, Mini Words #2 DA0476, Skeleton clock frames DA0430, Hinges DA0509, and Chicken Wire DA0177.  For those of you who are wondering where to get Dusty Attic product, I've added a listing in my right side of my blog with links to retailers who sell DA product in the USA & Canada.  (If you are a retailer and would like me to add you to my side panel just let me know :)

So, if you are wanting to try out Anna's style and are ready to take the challenge, you can find the challenge link HERE

I have one more little project to share that I made up last week for the Bo Bunny blog.  I am really not much of a card maker but I was assigned to do a card using Bo Bunny products and the focus was to make your own blooms.  I made this card using the Gabrielle collection and used the fringe trim that comes with this collection to make the larger bloom on the card.  Easily done, just using a needle and thread run a slipstitch along the bottom edge of the trim, gather and join the two ends.  I then adhered the trim to a small disc of cardstock to give it stability and used a pearl gem and small crystals from the Gabrielle collection to create the flower center.  The smaller blooms were punched from some Timepiece paper (Dot), the petals outlined with black pen and curled slightly. 

I decided to make a Friendship card since that is the type of card I find myself reaching for most often.  You can find more inspiring card ideas at the Bo Bunny Blog

And speaking of friends.....I wanted to take this opportunity to wish some dear friends of mine who were on the My Creative Scrapbook Design Team with me for many years, much success and happiness in their future endeavors!  Gerry Van Gent, Sandie Vincent, Patti Hamil and Jeni O'Connor have recently stepped down from the MCS design team and although I did leave them a message at the farewell post at MCS, it seems to have mysteriously disappeared so I'd like to take the opportunity to post it here for them, I just copied and pasted my message here instead so you girls can see it....

"Awww, Gerry you always brought each and every kit you worked with to a new level! Your work is always spectacular my friend!! I'm sure you will be greatly missed, as I'm sure Sandie, Patti and Jeni are too! Not sure I saw a farewell to them here so wishing you all best of luck in all your new endeavours ladies! xx

It's amazing how you become like a family when you work so closely with your fellow design team members, you get to know them, their families, their ups and downs, you laugh with them, cry with them and above all hold them dear.  We'll keep in touch for sure my dear friends! xx