Scrap Around The World February 2015

I decided to play along again at Scrap Around The World. The February moodboard is so evocative of Spring, and right now here in New England, we are buried under several feet of snow, with icy cold temperatures. So, I am imagining the unimaginable, nurturing my heart and creating a Spring layout in the midst of this interminable Winter!!

Here is the beautiful, romantic February moodboard....

Sigh, what a lot of loveliness!!! If you would like to play along with Scrap Around the World this month, HERE is the link to this wonderful challenge.

I seem to be taking my Mother as my muse lately, and have used an old photo of her taken in 1945. The photo was my jumping off point. I was very inspired by the quotation in the upper right and also by the ombre tones behind the quote. I loved the soft greens and yellows of the woods depicted in the lower left, and felt the photo of my Mom had that same sort of feeling. I was also inspired by the beautiful braid and soft curls of the woman's hair.

Here is my layout:

I have titled my layout "Reawakening," and included some lines from a piece of poetry by W. de la Mare that I thought worked with the whole theme of the moodboard and the photograph.

I began with a plain piece of white cardstock. Onto this I did some random stamping, and then put molding paste through various stencils. Inspired by the ombre tones of greens and yellows, I sprayed inks, and also applied them with a brush, building up the layers slowly. When I finally got the colors where I needed them, I did more stamping.  I framed up my photo over many layers and applied it to the background piece over a bit of a lacy trim which I colorized. Then I began adding little pieces of more trims. All of the lace pieces, etc., came from my Mom, who had acquired quite a lot of old textiles. And because I like to use something that belonged to the person I am doing the page on, if I have something, I also did some fussy cutting from a piece of wallpaper that Mom saved. This wallpaper hung in one of the rooms in her home. These pieces I layered under and around the photo, the quotation and the right hand side of the layout. I added some beads in various spots. Inspired by the braid in the hair of the woman on the moodboard, I braided pieces of jute twine, very loosely, and fixed it to the right hand side of my arrangement.

A close up:

This gives a better look at the old pieces of textiles, and some of the fussy cut wallpaper, and the braid.  And the beautiful, old photograph!

Hopefully those soft, sweet Spring days are just a few months away, but the layout has greatly eased my longing, and reawakened my soul to the delights of Springtime! I hope you like my page, and a thank you to all who look at it!