CUT to YOU | The Great Outdoors

 Hey!

I am so excited to be sharing with you today my second September project for CUT to YOU! If you follow me on socials you may have seen a sneak peak of the beginnings of this project…I had so much fun creating this and just am so happy with the end result!

You might remember that just recently my son was lucky enough to spend two weeks in Switzerland as part of the Australian Contingent celebrating the 100 years of the Kandersteg International Scout Centre. They hiked almost every day, up to 40km and up extremely steep inclines BUT the scenery along the way made it all worthwhile. He had the most amazing time and made some great friends.
Now I am left to live out his experiences scrapbooking his photos… to be honest, happy to leave the hiking all to him…as long as I have the photos!!!

Anyway, I have used the absolutely awesome Sketchy Circles Open cut file for this layout and have cut it from plain black card stock. However, did you see that the lovely Gwen has added a new section in the last week to the CUT to YOU store?? A section called The Great Outdoors. She has said to think…camping trips, walks in the park or simply enjoying the sunset. Be sure to check it out here.

I knew straight away when deciding how to document this photo that I wanted to create a mixed media background. I wanted that background to reflect the colours in the background of the photo, especially the mountains…greys, blues and greens.

I started with some Vicki Boutin Foundations paper. Using gel medium I used up some of my little scraps of collage paper ~ Dina Wakely, Natalie May Scrapbooking and Scrap FX along with other scrap paper pieces.

I then used the stencil Get Squared by Natalie May Scrapbooking and some modelling paste for dimension. Once dried I used a mixture of Lindy's Magicals ~Stormy Silver, Frozen Jack Frost, Afternoon Delight Denim, Cathedral Pines Green and Dylusions Ink Spray ~ Slate Grey, Ground Coffee to create the colour.

I added some stamping in both white Gesso and black Archival Ink. I used a variety of stamps Natalie May Scrapbooking ~ Won't Let You Down, Kaisercraft ~ Hexagons, Hessian & Wood Grain.

Here is the background after I had finished creating. So many layers!!!

I wanted a cut file that would add to this and provide the next layer in the background. I didn’t want straight edges and I wanted something to create interest. I think I have ticked those boxes…what do you think?

I decided to leave the Sketchy Circles Open cut file, without backing it so that I didn’t cover up all of the layers created by the mixed media background.

I just love the bright colours in this photo…from the Aussie scarves through to the blues, reds and pinks (so nice of them all to coordinate for the photo shoot – LOL!)

I wanted to replicate the bright colours with the paper layers and embellishment clusters. I have used some papers and sticker elements from the Echo Park ~ Happy Camper collection. I have teamed those with Pink Fresh Studio ~ Simply the Best cardstock stickers and flairs.

I have used two chipboard elements. One from 2 Crafty Chipboard - Aidan's Arrows and the other from Twiddleybitz - Fern Leaf Large as focal embellishments. 

I have added a little detail about the place and time of year on the layout but will add a small amount of journalling on the back of the layout. I did learn something new whilst doing this…the abbreviation (data code) for Switzerland is actually CH?!? Which is derived from the Latin “Conroederatio Helvetica” (English: Helvetic Confederation) 

I decided to use the acronym SUI, CH would have been confusing, which does stand for Switzerland…a talking point but also the word Switzerland is so long and I didn’t want it to be the focus! That is why I decided to use a dark, small font from Uniquely Creative Puffy Alpha Stickers.

I finished with some splatters using 13@rts white Acrylic Ink and some Heidi Swapp tiny words. I really love how this all came together…it took a bit to work it all out, with plenty of stash diving but it is exactly what I envisaged it to be!

Many thanks for popping in and checking out the blog today! I hope that my project inspires you in some way. Be sure to head over to the CUT to YOU shop to check out the new Great Outdoors section and the new cut files that the amazing Gwen has created.

Happy creating everyone,

Mel xo