Use Your Own Handwriting

Last week, for the first time since I joined the Color Room, I failed to post a project.  It could not be helped; I was gone on vacation for the first part of the week, and I was sick in bed for the second part of the week. (Not a great way to spend the first few days after a vacation!).  

Now that I'm better, I've gone back and made a project (below) for the palette that I missed.  It's palette #66, and it's an interesting color combination, involving bright blue, olive green, orange, and white.  

Supplies: white cardstock (American Crafts), retro botanical patterned papers (Graphic 45), orange/black/white dot paper (BasicGrey), green/white dot paper (My Mind's Eye), teal die-cuts (My Mind's Eye), butterfly die-cuts (Ellison), oval template (Fiskars), decorative scissors (Fiskars), shiny butterflies (Dufex), teal flower (Petaloo), ribbon rose (Offray), pen (Gelly Roll by Sakura), adhesive (3M tabs and liquid).

With such bright colors, I wanted to use a sparkly gel pen on my layout.  I decided to use it for my title lettering (above).  Not only is this a fun way to add interest to the page, it's also environmentally-friendly.  After all, you can get a lot more words out of a pen than you can from a more rapidly consumable product (like alphabet stickers or rub-ons).  And, unlike computers and die-cutting tools, which are also popular means for creating titles, a pen requires no electricity.  My hero--the gel pen.  :)

Here are a few more detail shots from the layout:

I've been crazy about butterflies lately, and I've been sprinkling them all over my layouts.  The realistic ones on this layout come from a British company called Dufex.  They tend to curl up a bit in the heat/humidity that we've been having here.  Luckily, that just makes them look more realistic--like they are about to take flight!

Graphic 45 creates such richly detailed papers.  I'm in love with this vintage postcard--especially the butterfly postmark!

The teal curlicues on this page actually all come from a single, frame-shaped die-cut from My Mind's Eye.  I cut it into pieces and positioned those pieces strategically throughout my page.

Aren't those Graphic 45 fairies sweet?  I've been hoarding them for awhile, and I'm pleased that I finally got a chance to use them on a layout.  That's all for today!  As always, thanks for looking at my post!