First Challenge Win

I thought for my very first blog post, I'd share a little bit about my layout that just won Lynn Grieveson's Inspiration Design Challenge. I'm sooooo excited. While I have scrapbooked and crafted for many years, I've only been doing digital scrapbooking for about 6 months. In my mind, for my layout to be good enough to win, is definitely an accomplishment and something to be proud of.

In this challenge, a member of Lynn's design team posted a layout. I had to look at the layout and pick something(s) from the layout that inspired me. I then had to take that inspiration and create my own layout. I'll be honest, at first glance, I didn't know if I'd find the right thing inspiring an amazing layout. I took a step back and really looked at the layout and that's when I found my inspiration. A tiny little bird on the page (you can see him below on the light post).

How does a bird inspire? You'd be surprised....never underestimate the details. Growing up, my Dad used to bird watch out the kitchen window. This bird prompted that memory (we even had a bird book and binoculars lying on the kitchen window sill). I then remembered that I had this photo. It's the barn that is still standing on the property that I grew up on. Lynn has some amazing kits and I knew that I needed to use her "Light Me Home" kit to bring creative justice to this photo.

The layout was designed as 12x12. I used the following for the layout (all by Lynn Grieveson from The LilyPad). Photo had a layer mask applied to achieve this look.

Light Me Home Kit:

Background Paper

Window (color overlay applied to make it this gray color and I removed the "glass" from the window because I wanted my window to have clear glass)

Transfer 2 (layered around the window in 4 different areas)

Phrase Tag 2 (Home Sweet Home)

Brush 4 for the stamped lightpost look (did these on their own layer so that I could better control positioning)

Berries

Leaves & leaves 4

Lamps 1 (extracted each lamp used separately so that I could control positioning)

Square Tag (drop shadow added)

Flowers #4, 5, 6

Epoxy 4

Valencia Kit:

Leaves #2

Be Kind Kit:

Bird