Journey ~ Bird is the Word using The Stamping Scrapper Sketch

I was so delighted to find this old photo of my husband's father when he was only 15 with his younger sister and a cousin. The guitars and accordion help make this an even more precious photo. This paper by g.c.d. studios couldn't have been more perfect with the vintage design and music borders.

The challenge at Bird is the Word to use "Journey" on a layout was just perfect because in a few short years each of these young men and woman would be taking a journey to live in a different part of the country. Journey is the title, in the quote printed next to the title, and on the Muse Token in my embellishment cluster. 

I was inspired by this creative sketch, by The Scrapping Stamper:

I enjoy doing subtle things on my pages to support the photo(s). It's hard to see here, but the pen nib has the word notes on it. I'm sure it was meant for written notes, but works perfectly to reflect the musical notes that would have been played on the instruments. I created the flowers using my Donna Salazer Spellbinders Rose Creations die set and more of the gorgeous g.c.d. studios paper from the Antiquities line. One of those g.c.d. papers I used for the flowers was sheet music, again to give that subtle music touch.

I cut my gears from a couple different SVG file sets that I converted with Inkscape to files I could cut on my Gazelle. Here are links to the files: Gear set 1; Gear set 2; Gear 3. There are a number of free gear svg files out there, so if you don't like what you see here, you can try doing a Google search.

I cut the gears from a dark brown - nearly black paper, then painted with a brown metalic paint mixed with black. When that was dry I used a nearly dry brush with antique white acrylic to add a little distressing to the gears. Since I didn't have any chipboard gears, I made due with what I had on hand. I also added a couple of the Tim Holtz metal gears ~ treated with black alcohol ink to mix things up a little.

I wanted to embellish with some of the rich yellow color from the gorgeous compass in the border of the background paper. I alcohol inked some clear gem brads for my flower centers and included some yellow trinkets in my bottle cap. 

My friend, Kelly, gave me the mini bottle cap. This is such a fun embellishment to create. Simply take a bottle cap (bought or found), set it with the edges turned up (preferably on some cardboard or a few layers of newspaper so you don't damage your table) and use a rubber mallet to pound the edges down. (Who said scrapbooking is a passive art??) If you want to distress/antique it ~ paint some alcohol ink on the edges. You could also use Copic markers for this as well. I put a pool of E6000 adhesive in the bottom and placed little trinkets into the thick glue. You can adhere it to the page right away, but remember to keep it flat over night so the glue has a chance to dry before you put it in your album. If you want to be on the safe side, just wait until the E6000 is dry before adhering to your page.

Some of my other embellishments include buttons and trinkets from my collection of vintage items, a metal flower that I alcohol inked from Hobby Lobby, and a few Tim Holtz goodies including the "journey" muse token. Most of my metal items were alcohol inked and then sanded to distress and to make certain features more visible like the numbers on the clock.

I cut the letters from some craft aluminum using the Tim Holtz Typeset die strip, then dabbed on a mixture of espresso and black alcohol inks using a felt applicator.

I'm participating in Friendship Friday at Create with Joy - I started using blogger because that seemed to be the platform that most scrapbook artists were using. I has worked well for me so far. 

Be sure to drop by Shannon's sketch blog to see the amazing LO's created by her design team, and if you haven't tried one of the Bird is the Word Challenges, stop over there and give one a try. 

Thanks for dropping by. I treasure your comments!

~ Blessings ~