Stuck?! Sketches November 15th Design Team Layout

Hi there!

This year just keeps flying by at a rapid rate and here we are already half way through November! The good news is that that means that it's time for a new sketch challenge at Stuck?! Sketches! Laura has designed another really pretty sketch for us and for this challenge we are once again partnering up with Scrap it with a Song. They have chosen "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin as their inspiration song, you can find out all of the details about how to play along with their challenge over on their blog. So first up, let's take a look at the sketch...

I decided to play along with the Scrap it with a Song challenge as well. I was inspired by the song title "Stairway to Heaven"... It made me think of my beautiful mother-in-law who is no longer with us and is now in Heaven. I was also inspired by the song lyrics "all that glitters is gold"... I included a glittery gold title on my layout. So here is my layout...

The papers that I've used are from the Heidi Swapp Wanderlust range. I really love this colour combo... It's probably not one that I would use very often, but seeing as I was using a black and white photo, I think it looks really pretty! Can I tell you a secret... This photo was terrible quality, it had a horrible yellow colour cast that I just couldn't seem to correct and it was quite dark. After brightening it up, I still wasn't happy with the colour, so I turned it black and white, and now I LOVE it! I don't often use black and white photos, but I think I should more often, because I was really happy with this one! Plus when you use a black and white photo, you have more freedom to choose the products that you want to use as you don't have to worry about perfectly matching your papers and embellishments to your photo. So, don't dismiss a photo just because it isn't perfect quality - try turning it black and white!

I kept my layout fairly clean and uncluttered as I really wanted the focus to be on the photo and the journalling.

Let's take a look at some closeups...

To the right of my photo I added a couple of paper flowers from D-lish Scraps.

Here you can see some of the layers behind my photo. I love the banners in the sketch. I added a doily behind my photo as the circular element. I also added another paper flower to the top left of my photo.

I LOVE these gold thickers!!! This was the perfect word for my title, and I love the elegance that the gold glitter adds to the page!

If you haven't done so already, I hope that you'll pop on over to the Stuck?! Sketches blog and take a look at the gorgeous layouts created by my fellow design team members! We would love you to play along with us by creating a layout inspired by this sketch and linking it up on the Stuck?! Sketches blog by November 29th! The randomly chosen winners will win a prize from one of our very generous sponsors:

We will also be choosing one scrapbooker from each of our challenges to be a guest designer with us at a later date!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and taking a look at my layout! Thank you also to those who take the time to leave me a comment - it is very much appreciated!

Mandy