I Love You More Than Ice Cream

Mike, what day is it?  Hump DAAAY!  Yes, happy Wednesday everyone.  We are now on that downward slope of the hill headed towards the weekend.  I'm really looking forward to some scrappy time this weekend - my hubby will be out of town, and the kids and I will just have a relatively quiet weekend hanging out.

Today I wanted to share a layout I created with a photo from our recent trip to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.  It's been a yearly tradition for us to take a day off (usually during spring break) and head to the show.  This year, all four of us enjoyed a day eating, riding the carnival rides, and watching Paxton in the Mutton Bustin' contest! Towards the end of the day, the boys left for home, and Presley and I headed to the Maroon 5 concert!  We had so much fun.  If you haven't been to the HLSR, you definitely need to check it out if you visit Houston.

I decided to play along with the Sketchabilities sketch this week because it was very inspiring!  Here's my full layout:

I took the base page from American Crafts Cut & Paste line ("On the Edge" paper) and trimmed just about 1/16" from each edge - I didn't want to lose the paint/washi tape effect edge.  I layered that over a piece of black cardstock and stitched along the bottom and right side following along with the sketch.  

Next, I mixed paint and CTMH Smoothie and Sorbet reinkers to create a matching pinkish/orangish color.  I painted a large area under where I knew I wanted to put the photo and embellishment cluster.  After it dried, I sewed a large heart.  You can see part of the paint and the sewn heart below.

I used some of the Bella Blvd Snapshots collection (Family Chaos paper) to bring out the colors on the page a little more.  I cut an arrow and sewed over it on the top area with a journal card "I love you more than ice cream", which I decided would be my title.  Twine, a dot, and a black epoxy heart finished the cluster.

The photo area is layered with more Bella Blvd paper that I scalloped the bottom edge of, a heart journal card, CTMH Lagoon zipper lace, a Heidi Swapp "loved" clear pop tab, and a row of fussy cut hearts from another journal tag with a large black epoxy heart on top.

Here's the sketch:

I hope you were inspired by my layout!  I think sketches are a great way to kick-start a layout.  It's just a good way for me to launch how I want to put together a page I have in mind.

Hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!  Happy scrapping!

Majken