did you think

I love challenges because they give me focus when I'm overwhelmed by too many choices, and sometimes force me to try things I've wanted to do but just hadn't yet. Marcy's  weekly challenge at 2Peas to use ombre on a page did both of these things.

I've been noticing the ombre trend in home decor and fashion, probably just like almost every other observant person who goes out in public or uses Pinterest. I thought it would be awesome to dip-dye some plain paper to create an ombre effect for a layout. Instead, I ended up using ink washes with a wide paint brush, starting out with darker layers at the bottom and fading them upwards.

This awesome background floral paper is from Crate Paper's Little Bo Peep collection. I normally have a really hard time using multi-coloured papers on layouts, but this one practically used itself. It was the first piece of paper I thought of, and I didn't even look to try anything else. 

The colour on this photo is terrible! I need to have it reprinted.

I added some ink drops at the bottom of the journalling page, some green cotton thread to the right under the photo, and some Tim Holtz tissue tape around the edges of the ombre journalling page. 

The "baby" confetti was punched from the tag patterned paper from the Little Bo Peep collection. I punched smaller pieces of confetti from other scrap pieces from the same collection. 

Both of these cute epoxy brads are from CP Little Bo Peep. I added a bit more confetti at the top so the brads wouldn't look too lonely.

I typed the journalling on my totally awesome vintage turquoise Underwood typewriter. After the ombre ink washes were dry, I just loaded into the typewriter and typed away. There's a mis-typed letter in there, and my apostrophe key makes a comma, just like the comma key does, but I think that's just part of the charm of real typing. 

Baby! Confetti! Tags!

Supplies: patterned paper (Crate Paper); letter stickers (American Crafts); brads (Crate Paper); tape (Tim Holtz, Love My Tapes); tags (Avery, the Paper Company); photo corners (Canson, Ideal).