Layout 4 using November CKC kit

TEN DAYS?  😱😱😱

It's been ten days and I've only just made another layout with my November Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit. 

The day after Challenge 2 went up on my blog (and the CKC blog because I'm guest designer for November) I go in for my 8 weekly infusion to keep old Arthur* at arms length and what happens?

NOTHING!  (During the infusion itself, that is!) Afterwards, all hell broke loose, though!

Rarely do I get a nice straightforward one with no reactions or complications, buuut the aftermath!  It's normal for most people to get some kind of post-infusion "hangover" and it has varied in severity from infusion to infusion over the years, but this week was worse than it has been in a very long time.  And if that's not enough, lets add all the weather changes the Spring brings and the barometric pressure changes have been kicking my butt! 🤕🤕🤕

After a week of such nonsense I was determined not to let my one day without having to do the school run go to waste,  I wasn't feeling it, but forged on ahead.  That was my first mistake.  With many jobs, fatigue, pain or lack of inspiration wont have any adverse affect on result or performance.  Creative work isn't one of those things!

I managed to dislike how much I cut back my background paper and how it looked with the border, so fortunately I had one last piece in my stash I could cut into. 

This paper is from Shimelle's True Stories collection (aptly named Blueberry Muffin) and is filled with text from Alice in Wonderland, so how perfect to use for the cover page to the section in my album about our visit to the exhibition.  I think I have used it three times by now, and used the B-side two out of those three times!!

I may have to hunt down more somewhere!

The biggest die cut looked good against it, but the cursive text needed some definition.  I couldn't find the open toe foot to my paper sewing machine, but chose to proceed without it (hint - DON'T DO IT!!).  

Messyish, but not TOO bad.

I know!! 💡💡💡 It would look better if I hand-stitched over the top (NO!).

Yes it probably would except all the machine sewing caused the paper to be weak and unable to support the hand stitching,

If I had an extra bit of background paper I would have started again.  New cut file and everything.

I guess one advantage of having a chronic illness is persevering in adversity.  💪💪💪 The quote in the cut file also kept this in my head and I re-cut just the text part of the cut file a second time on the Silhouette to stick over the top.

Not having been drawn together with dense sewing, the new cut was a little bigger despite having the same dimensions as the original.  I made do and got it as right as I could.  Still, plenty of scars of past disasters peek through the text.  I don't mind...much.  I was determined to finish this page and  enjoy the memories of the outing which was really special.

I was planning to use some of the florals from embellies from the Echo Park Alice in Wonderland collection along with some from Paige Evans' Pick Me Up.  Colours and style go together much better than I thought!

The basic layout of the page draws some inspiration from this layout by Paige Evans.  My cut file and photo are smaller leaving more room for "stuff"

The placement of the subtitle and photo were not my first choices.  Placing the photo anywhere on the left side of the cut file would have obscured the small detail of the advertisement of the exhibition on the front of the building (bottom right of the photo).  I can't exactly remember, but it may have been moving light so Hubz did a good job catching it.

I thought the slightly artsy and fairly plain photo of the building before we went in was just right for a cover page. The more detailed the die cut, the more challenging to bring together without them elbowing each other in the face for attention.

The sharper than usual angle of the photo position seemed to only work if I made it look like it was fastened with something so enter the paperclip.  The brads helped bring in more metallic texture to make it a bit more balanced.  Along with the gems in Alice Blue, some hide boo-boos and some don't! 😉

Not every rogue thread and stitch hole was covered over, but most were.  Any more and it started looking over-worked (I know because I tried!)...and it has to be bad if the Queen of More starts pulling things off (with their heads!) (see what I did there? 😂)

The small amount of journaling seemed to work well on the teapot.  Alice's name even shows up in two spots on the paper and I took great pains to keep it so.  It's fairly obvious at the top here.

The other one is at the bottom.  Can you find it?

Overall, I'm happy enough especially considering what it was!

I still have plenty of Alice layouts as well as ones from the High Tea to scrapbook with this kit, so I'm not shelving it just yet.

I'm also still re-working October's kit and turning it into a mainly Autumnal, but also colours-and-stuff-that-does-get-enough-love kit (pretty much anything that isn't pink or aqua! 😝) so I'll get those kits sorted in December.

I'm also going yo use a really special kit I made together with a scrappy friend from another hemisphere to document photos of when we met each other earlier this year so it's definitely worth sticking around for that!

What?  Ohhh you want to see the whole layout.  Hmm...be careful what you wish for, but OK then!

This is Impossible Only if You Think it is 

Alice in Wonderland Comes to ACMI

*⬅ Acronyms in left sidebar

Love, and remember that sometimes more is more!