Inspiration Elevator - September 2012

You may recall from last month's challenge that the purpose of this challenge group is to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow.

This month our challenger is the very talented Laurel Seabrook. Laurel loves flea markets and garage sales and would love to incorporate more of those items into her art. We have also invited a valued guest designer to join us this month; her name is Christy Riopel. We welcome Christy from her regular writing and creating job at Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.

Here's a bit of what Laurel had to say about her challenge this month.

"I love going to garage sales, flea markets and thrift shops to find fun items for me to upcycle into something else, either for my own home or to give as a gift. I also love just to pick up some old things that appear to have some sort of story to them. I love the shabbiness of old, worn items and the warm comforting feeling they evoke.

My challenge for you is to scrap an old photo/photos. Not only that I want you to incorporate something that is not normally a scrapping item, upcycle/recycle something to include on your layout. Vintage is definitely not my style when it comes to paper crafting. I like clean and simple so this will be a challenge for me."

Wow! This month's challenge was just that! A challenge! I started with a couple of photos of my paternal grandfather, but the creativity just wasn't happening. Then I remembered a photo I had of my mother with her sister that was taken when my mom was only 3 years old. That is the one that I ended up working with and I am quite happy with the end result!

My personal goal on this layout was to incorporate lots of white space. This was a challenge for me as I kept wanting to add more, but I really wanted the focus to be the photo so I kept it simple.

I started by using my Silhouette to cut out the title for my layout. Instead of adding the title to my page, I subtracted the title! I love the look of a negative title and it worked really well on this design.

I then created a tag cluster that I felt added to the vintage feel of the page.

It was fun digging through all my supplies to find just the right items to add to the cluster. I was so delighted when I found the little button with a bow on it! It mimicked the bow on my Aunt's dress and the colour was perfect!

The upcycle/recycle item on my page is the string I used on the tag. I know... pretty lame! But, that was the only thing I could find! It was attached to a tag that I had saved to use on a page.

I wanted to incorporate the date on my page, so I added a small banner tag in the corner. It is hard to believe that the photo was taken in 1931! My mom was only 3 years old and my aunt was 6 - the only two girls in a family with 6 siblings. To this day, my mom and her sister are still very close and they try to get together every couple of weeks for lunch or for special occasions. They are now 84 and 87 years old and still share a special bond. They especially encourage each other in their struggles, the most difficult being that they have both lost their husbands after many, many years of marriage. I can only hope that my sisters and I stay as close as my mom is to her sister.

Here's the list of my IE friends, who have been working all month to create gorgeous and inspiring designs. I do hope you'll pop by each of their blogs to see what they have created and perhaps take a moment to leave a comment for them.

Ann Jobes

Audrey Yeager

Cathy Harper

Christa Uttley

Joanne Burton

Laura Whitaker

Laurel Seabrook

Lisa Moen

Lisa Spiegel

Sue Sykes
Christy Riopel (Guest Designer)

If you would like to take on this month's challenge, please do so! Just leave a link in the comment section below and I will be sure to take a look :)