Be You{tiful}: True Beauty

I've been having so much fun with all the paints I've pulled out of my basement. My uncle and mom are talented artists, and I used to paint with them, but it was never really my passion. However, painting on scrapbook pages is a totally different realm. It's sort of like coloring outside the lines. There are no rules, just good old messy fun. 

I was inspired by a several challenges for this layout (which I will list as we go on). You can check out my full list of March challenges here. 

There's still plenty of time to get in on the scrappy action, though March is flying past at an alarming rate, isn't it? I take that back...life is flying past at an alarming rate. My nephew turns eight tomorrow. Seems like I was just holding him in the maternity ward (after driving 20 hours to get there)! Happy birthday, Layne. Loving you from a thousand miles away.

The challenge at More Than Words was to be inspired by the word beautiful and butterflies. I fussy cut this butterfly from a paper from DCWV's Primrose collection. It was originally a very pretty aegean blue, but it just didn't go with my color scheme, so I inked the butterfly using the colors inspired by Colorful Creations color scheme.

Since I was working on a layout of me (for the Studios Challenge), I thought about what my idea of beauty is. While butterflies embrace all the attributes of physical beauty, when it comes to people, physical beauty is far less important than inner beauty.

Cliche much? For good reason. I would much rather spend a day with someone kind, thoughtful, and intelligent than someone with a pretty face. How many "mean girls" have you met (especially back in high school)...those pretty faces fade, but if you're beautiful on the inside, that never fades. You carry that with you until your dying day, and age and wrinkles never mar that kind of beauty.

At Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge,  the challenge was to use chipboard and something old from your stash. I used these little chipboard hearts and heat embossed them with a very light coating of Blue Fern Studios ebony embossing powder (by using a light dab of Versamark embossing ink and a light sprinkle of Blue Fern Studios ebony embossing powder, then giving it a good shake and tap) which created a great texture that sort of mimics the die cut glitter leaves. From my stash, I used these two flowers that I have had in my drawer for years.

The challenge at Scrap Our Stash was a tic-tac-toe challenge. I chose mini-alphas (see them on the top of the photo), washi tape, and gold.  I used these sweet little hearts that had gold foil accents, given to me by a pocket letter pal (Thank you, Laura!)

Over at Picture This! the challenge was this moodboard. I loved the polka dots and the contemporary elements. I tend to scrap toward the rustic (my home is filled with well-loved things), but I was excited to try something a little more contemporary. I mimicked the polka dots by hand painting some dots onto my pink cardstock using black gesso. It also worked to echo the pink polka dot fabric flower.

The hearts are the Sizzix Heartfelt Die by Tim Holtz.

Finally, when all the pretty things were in place, I went back and dirtied them all up with some Tattered Angels glimmer mist in silver, black, and pink, and a healthy dose of Prima's Heavy Black Gesso. This is the scary but fun part! Let me tell ya...going at the work of art you spent hours creating with the purpose of "messing it up" is intimidating. But the results are always so dynamic and creates cohesion between elements, which is especially useful if you don't scrap using entire collections specifically created to go together.

Thank you for coming over and checking out my work. I appreciate your visit!