Are you scared to get a little messy on your layouts?  Katrina here and I am confessing that I am!  I don’t mind a little mist, paint or ink here or there.  In fact I think it is FUN!  But the problem comes when I try to do it myself, I am scared of messing up!  Well, with a little prompting from the rest of the wonderful Bascially Bare DT, I decided that I was going to get a little more “artsy” on my layout for today.  And I am so glad that I did, I love how it turned out and I am slowly getting over my fear of making a mistake and not being able to fix it!

Ok, I am admitting that the paper line that I used (American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Sketchbook) helped with some of the artsy part of my layout, but it gave me a starting point!  I started with a chipboard Dress Form and the Dress Me clothes in canvas.  I painted the dress form with some acrylic paint in an off-white color. While it was drying I then took some Distress Stains in Worn Lipstick and Broken China and used them on my canvas skirt.  The colors turned out too dark and I started to panic a little.  I dried the canvas skirt with a heat gun and then used a thin layer of the same off white paint over the top of the skirt, which muted the colors down.  I then stamped a heart image all over the top part of the Dress Form in a light pink color.  I decided to add a felt heart stamped in light blue as a brooch.  I added a belt of twine, a ruffle of paper that was doodled on with my Zig Millennium pen, a punched out butterfly, and then I made some confetti and added to the middle of the skirt.  I then placed everything on a Fanciful Frame piece that I covered in chipboard and backed with a doily that I had misted with some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Viva Pink.

I then wanted to highlight my smaller picture, so I used a Fanciful Frame on it as well.  I backed my picture with a contrasting color, covered my chipboard piece and tied some jute on each end, then placed it over my picture.  I still thought it needed something so I added some of the Pennants-Small to the bottom.  I covered the chipboard ones with paper and then added some doodling around the edges of them.  After that, I then layered the felt pennant pieces behind the chipboard ones to tie everything together.  Layer underneath the frame and violia!

After I had gotten this far, I thought I was done.  BUT, then I saw the cardboard Hearts #1 and knew I had to use them somewhere.  So I cut one in half and covered each half with a different pattern paper.  I put them up in the corner and then layered a canvas Heart #2 on top of the halves.  I doodled around each piece, just a swirly type of design to give me some practice and to tie the pieces in to the rest of the layout.  I then punched a couple more butterflies to embellish just a bit more.

So, I overcame my fear, at least on this layout!  No, I think I will try the “artsy” stuff some more.  It was fun and I had ink on my hands for a couple of days!  I hope you enjoyed my layout AND I hope that I have encouraged you to get a little artsy, even if you are afraid of it!

Katrina Hun

Paper, Scissors and Glue