Scrap the Boys April Challenge - "All in the Name of Research" Layout

Well...you know that thing when you hear or see something and you get an idea and your mind starts running away with it like a derailed train?  I'll be honest, when it happens to me, the outcome is frequently the same, 🙈 but since you can't get off the train, you might as well see it through, right? 🤷


Somehow hearing that the theme for April over at Scrap The boys was "Let's Eat Cake" had this effect, so as busy as April has been for me juggling lots of new adventures, I had to scrapbook a pair of photos waiting patiently for...about four years! 🤦

I bake a lot so it's not as though I have a shortage of baking photos, but these have a story only the quality isn't great so they had to be printed quite small.

Due to the lack of much colour in the photo (besides maybe a touch of blue) meant I was imagining lots of colour in the layout!  Primaries with a touch of green!

I wrote more about the direction of the supplies for this layout HERE when I was compiling my April Kit for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge.  Most of the kit was formed around this cake challenge and these layouts!

I was trying to imagine how I wanted it to look on paper and it reminded me of THIS LAYOUT Shimelle made in 2011 when she was on the American Crafts Design Team.  It's a fairly airy and minimalist layout and I think it has more to do with the feel and subject of the page rather than Shimelle's style at the time (since she has plenty of layouts with lots and lots of "stuff").

 

 "Concrete Planning" 

by Shimelle Laine for American Crafts

 

I have actually attempted to scraplift it before and really wasn't a fan of how it turned out.  I figured out what went wrong and when I'm less pleased than usual,  sometimes want to try it again and this was one of those times.

I usually do a "post mortem" of my projects and I cover all that in the blog post.  I'm not beating myself up, I just feel as though it's a useful part of the process.  My only rule is that if I hate the page to the point that it has me cringing when I look at it then it has to go.  Anything less than that is considered a lesson learned and a story told...and THAT is a pretty big success when you're battling chronic illness.

So...tangent aside, how did I fare second time around? 

I have to say it was a lot better.  It still wasn't as open and light as Shimelle's but that's in part due to having darker colours, and in part still having a of of stuff on the page.  Started off well enough, but when I realized I had only been piling up paper elements and hadn't even remembered about the chipboard and stickers and enamel dots and these lovely large felt cupcake embellies and I was just about ready to cry!

Looking back at Shimelle's layout, she actually has very few non-paper elements in this particular example which is uncommon for her and despite still using more stuff, it actually looks a lot more pared back for me too.  More grid-like than I was expecting for some reason!

I lamented last time that I used mist instead of acrylic paint.  While I'm MUCH happier with the paint, it dried a bit darker than I would have liked.  I had to make "frankenpaint" from several Distress Paints to aim for something in the ballpark of the light aqua or that darker steely teal of the Cosmo Cricket "Early Bird" collection.  ⬅⬅⬅

There isn't an awful lot more to say since I indulged myself and used many supplies from dearly departed manufacturers! 😭😭😭.   The cupcakes near the flowers were fussy cut from a Basic Grey paper and the journaling box is a Sassafras sticker!

I normally use them rather sparing and just sacrifice a sheet or two mixed in with plenty of newish papers to prolong it as long as possible.  This time I threw caution to the wind and used so many "special" papers.  The October Afternoon floral has been waiting so long to be fussy cut (although had I not had multiple sheets it would probably still be waiting! 😳).

I simply adore the 1950s housekeeping motifs in this line.!!  When pulling the kit together, I noticed how well "Box of Crayons" played with Cosmo, but I counted paper and/or embellies from maybe four of Shimelle's collections!  The die cut to the right of the photos seems to summarize all the colours used on the layout.

As sad as I was to not add all-the-things onto this page, I realized I still have a couple of stories to tell about baking these particular cupcakes and this page is the second layout in their chronology, so the journaling on this page looks as though it's right in the middle of a story...which is kind of is!  At the very least I think I'll use many of the same collections on the facing page, but remember to maybe include some of the embellies I couldn't add this time.

One of my personal accomplishments was to make three words in the title from one of my notorious packs of "messed up" Thickers.  Slowly but surely I will use them up!  We all know how well the chipboard Thickers stick over time as you can tell from the pack!  Thank goodness for Glue Dots since I make a mess with liquid glue.

I also pulled the really thick foam tape off the back of the flair badge and replaced it with a Glue Dot since the badges are usually thick enough already.

I would also not be doing MY job in "research" if I didn't  warn you about how unfriendly a word like "research" is to Thickers economy!  Look at all those vowels, TWO Rs and several other really popular letters all in one word!




Here it is all finished:

All in the Name Of Research

Well I shall leave you with my usual salutations:

Love and  crazzzzy cake making!