My Little Pirate Layout

Hello once again fellow scrappers & bloggers--believe it or not I'm back! Life has been very hectic for me lately & it seems that I cannot find the time to do anything anymore. However a true scrapper will 'make' time to at least get one layout done in the month. So here I am with my November page--a Halloween layout of my little Toby dressed as a pirate! Halloween layouts practically in December--yep, for me--this is pretty much right on time. Keep an eye out in July of 2011 for my Christmas pages!

My little fur boy looks like a real person in these pictures doesn't he? By the way, that second picture where he's serious was pretty much at the end of the photo shoot when he was getting tired of 'posing' for pictures. That's his 'Ok, I'm done now' look...believe me, I've seen it a lot so I recognize it instantly!

I did several techniques in this layout beginning with the entire night sky with the flying witch in front of the full moon. That entire scene was alcohol inked & stamped. For a brief tutorial on how I went about doing this, please go here.

The title is held in a Tim Holtz ornate plate. I inked around the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink & then filled the plate face with Glossy Accents. When the glaze dries it creates a dimensional enamel effect.

This entire part of the layout was inspired by my scrap buddy Natasha. As far as I'm concerned, this girl has brought eyelets back in style & has inspired me to be more creative with lacing. This is my first time using eyelets & I have to say that I'm now wondering what took me so long? I did this one technique & I'm now a proud owner of a Big Bite (thank you Natasha for the tip!). I wanted the lacing to give the impression that it was a cobweb made by my stamped fancy spider--so I named it the 'spider lacing' technique. Yes, I'm known for my originality. :-Þ For a tutorial on this lacing technique, please go here.

The spider & spider web stamp are by Inkadinkado.
A close-up of the alcohol inked night scene. For a tutorial on how I put this scene together--please go here.

Stamps used here are by Inkadinkado & Stampscapes.

The corrugated cardboard went through many inking & misting phases. All the edges--especially the top edge--was heavily inked with Walnut Stain distress ink. The entire cardboard was misted with Suede glimmer mist & Olive Smooch. I then ran the corrugated cardboard through my Big Shot to get that die cut border. I used Tim Holtz' Scrollwork die for the border.

The brick wall scene behind the pictures is actually a transparency that I stamped with Staz-On & a brick wall stamp. Remember that for stamping on transparencies or any non-pourous surface you need a permanent ink. Staz-On is one of the best permanent ink pads out there. I used lavender crackle paint to go around the edges of the pictures & give them a 'crackle' frame.

Using a Martha Stewart bat punch I punched out several bats, inked thier upper wings with Diamond Stickles, bent thier wings up & adhered them with pop dots to give them dimension. I wanted to give the illusion that the bats were flying out from the lacing I did on the layout.

Well, there you have it. Thanks for stopping by & all comments are very much appreciated!

Till my next post...