Life & Me #3

Hello and welcome to prompt 3 of Life and Me. We hope you have enjoyed the last 2 prompts and if this is your first week joining in then welcome and why not go back and check out the previous 2 :)

So for this week:

Topic - I am proud of

Technique - Masking Tape Background

Here is my finished Layout.

Topic

The topic this week is all to do with what you are proud of.

When I first started thinking about this I wasn't sure if there was much as I don't have any Children and I still live with my parents, but the more I thought about it the more I realised that yes even I have some things to be proud of!

So start by thinking of things you have achieved in your life, have you been to university, landed the job you really wanted, been accepted into some kind of group etc.

If you have children then I expect there are many things your are proud of about them and could probably fill up a whole page and more but try not to do that! This project if about you so think of things that you have done as well as family around you.

Have you had a very difficult period of your life that you managed to work through, has life knocked you back only for you to pick up the pieces?

There are so many different angles you could take this prompt so have fun and think about what makes you proud to be you!

Technique

This technique is all about creating a fun and unique background. You will need:

Masking Tape

A non porous surface

Paint/watercolours/mist sprays

Paint brushes

Card

Start by sticking strips of masking tape to your non-porous surface, I just used an old placemat, but you could use your craft mat, chopping board etc.

Try and place the strips as close together as possible without overlapping. Cover the surface until you have enough that it would cover the size of your finished layout (mine finished layout measures 8"x8" but I made the masking tape strips longer so that I could then decide which section I wanted to use).

Now start painting away! I started by randomly applying some gesso (this is not essential) and letting it dry (ok well drying with my heat gun then!) then on top I started adding layers of different blue paints and mist sprays and dabbing the excess off with some tissue and letting some layers dry before applying the next.

I dribbled some green down the page and flicked my paint brush so I would get lots of dots and splodges!

The more layers and messier you make the page the more varied your finished background will be; a more even paint coverage will create a more uniform background.

Once all the paint is dry take some card the size you want the finished piece to be. Starting at the top of your cardstock select a random piece of masking tape and stick down. Then select another random strip and stick under the first, continue covering the cardstock with the masking tape strips but arranging them in a different order than on your placemat. This will create a unique and pretty background and no 2 will ever be the same! Trim the tape from the edges and your background is complete.

Now take some letter stickers or cut a title out of patterned paper and stick in the middle of your background. Finally add words, sentences, bullet points etc of what your proud of. I printed mine using a Typewriter type font (Rough_Typewriter which is free and can be found here) onto plain white paper and cut into strips to add to my layout. I left mine at that but you can of course add extra embellishments if you want.

Really hope that you have enjoyed this technique. We would love to see if you create any layout using either the topic or technique so feel free to link to your project by leaving a comment, we love comments!

Hugs and Periwinkles,

Maxine