From Drab to Fab

Supplies: teal & sky blue dotted cardstock by Bo Bunny; number grid paper by Pink Paislee; tag by Crate Paper; die cuts and all other patterned papers by Lily Bee Design; alphabet banner stickers by Doodlebug Design; button & rectangular mini alphabet stickers by October Afternoon; round mini alphabet stickers by Authentique; all other mini alphabet stickers by Lily Bee Design; ribbon by October Afternoon; Distress Stain by Ranger.

Hello, all!  Thank you so much for your sweet comments on my previous post.

Over this past weekend Scrap Fest took place at Archivers in the Mall of America, located in the Twin Cities' largest suburb.  I was not able to attend this year, due to prior commitments.  However, I did squeeze in a little shopping time at both Archivers and the nearby independent shop Scrapbooks Too.  It's fun to pick out supplies from all the new lines that are appearing in both shops.

It's amazing how many people come to the Twin Cities for Scrap Fest.  We are usually considered "flyover land," so it's mindblowing (in a good way!) to see so many people visiting our state during Scrap Fest.  It's also a bit mindblowing to walk into Mall of America, a place I visit several times per year, and see Tim Holtz teaching a class in the middle of the mall.  It's like two separate parts of my life have suddenly collided.  :)

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Scrap Fest.  As part of the celebrations, the Archivers chain of stores sponsored a page contest.  The challenge was to create a page that somehow involved the number ten.  I entered the contest, but my layout was not among the winners.  I don't mind though.  Had I won, Archivers would have gained the copyright to my layout.  Since I did not win, I retain the copyright and am free to post the layout on my blog.  Did you see it at the top of this post?

My layout began with the photo that you see above.  My cat Tina (RIP) was super cute, but she was a difficult subject to photograph.  She always closed her eyes, even when I was not using a flash.  I swear, she did it on purpose.  :)  This photo was from 2010, and it was one of the rare photos I managed to capture with Tina's eyes open.  However, in my hurry to snap the photo before Tina closed her eyes, I did not have time to compose my shot.  So Tina's left eye is obscured by a shadow, and the colors in the photo are off.  I still wanted to scrapbook this photo, though, so I got creative.  After converting the photo to black and white, cropping the photo in an unusual way, and making a few more tweaks, I came up with the centerpiece to a fun and eye catching layout.  Well, that's what I think, even if the Scrap Fest judges did not agree.  :)

The journaling reads: Her real name is Valentina, but she has lots of nicknames: Tina, Niffler, Squeak, Teeny, Tio, Teeny-Bean, Beaner, Tee-tee, & Baby.

And that's the story of how I rescued a drab photo and turned it into a special page in my album.  Thanks for reading my story.  I've had a little time to use some of the new supplies I bought over the weekend, and I look forward to sharing some of these layouts with you in a future post.  Until then, take care!