Starbucks Gazer

Have you ever taken a random silly photo and realized how cute it actually is?  That's what happened sometime over the summer.  We picked up a few cold beverages from Starbucks and snapped a quick pic.  Love these days, where there's really nothing on the agenda.  All the laundry is done and the house is tidy enough to venture out into the world and just float for a day.  I plan on having more of those days in 2018... but first ... (hehe).... some coffee... and decluttering, donating and organizing.

I'm joining the gals at Paper Issues to motivate you to use your supplies and get pumped for a new year of scrapping!  I've incorporated the help of Dear Lizzy's "Star Gazer" collection to document my love of the pink drink and my love of my husband (not in any particular order), but my main inspiration comes from this month's new sketch. 

When I first saw the sketch I didn't realize there was a little "mixed media" brush stroke behind the clutter of paper and photo... which may have been the reason why it took me more than 45 minutes to get the right color combo and the right paper clusters to play nice on my page... it just wasn't happening... until I zoomed in on the layout and found the brush stroke.  I ran to my mixed media bucket and grabbed modeling paste, then ran to my stencil drawer and grabbed one of my newest ones by Carta Bella, from the "Cowboy Country" collection, and went to town on the navy cardstock.

[sidebar: there was no actual running going on... more like speed walking]


It hurt me to cut down gorgeous pieces of double-sided pattern paper, because I may need that solid piece one day, but then I realized that not having a solid piece may just push me out of my comfort zone and force me to use what I do have to create something different than the norm... make sense?

The rest of the page was a matter of copying the sketch as best I could... I didn't add all those layers, because I didn't want the pattern papers to clash.  And yes, I could've reached for solid colors, but after all that running from before (lol), I didn't have much energy left.  Crafting is a sport, folks! 

I thought it would be clever to use an ephemera piece from the "Star Gazer" collection and dust off my October Afternoon *cough*hoarded*cough* alpha stickers, (simply because they were the perfect size, the right font and the right color match to hubby's passion tea drink), to add "bucks"... I learned that fun touch from our DT member Lisa Swift.  She's awesome!  Just by being in the same group with her, I've learned how to be more punny.  :)

I added white Nuvo Drops around the stenciled areas, made some of the diecuts dimensional, including the pretty lady with a flower in her hair... I added her because I felt that top corner needed something more, and I wanted another touch of that hot pink color on my page.

I love the turnout and I loved playing with this sketch. 

I hope you can join us this month in the Facebook group, as we share our layouts.  If you participate in the challenges, you are eligible to win a gift card to the shop and even be chosen as a feature on the Paper Issues blog.  How fab is that? 

Below I've added links to the shop and the blog so you can check out how the other DT members translated the scraplift.  I hope you'll take some time this week to join the fun in the facebook group too.

Also, don't forget to take advantage of my 20% off discount "Damaris" at the PI Shop. Where, spending $60 earns you free priority US shipping.  Awesome!

LINKS
Paper Issues Shop
Paper Issues Blog
PI Family & Friends FB Group