Scrapping outside my comfort zone

Eventhough I've never done paper scrapping before (I've been all digi from the start), I still consider myself a paper-style scrapper. I love (relatively) clean & simple pages although I also love doing clustering every once in a while. But in every page I do, I'm sure my obsession with shadowing is obvious. I can't go to bed if I spot one wrong or unrealistic tiny shadow on a layout. LOL!

One thing I VERY rarely do is an "artsy" page. Perhaps not as rarely as a fantasy page (which I've never done before LOL) but I don't see myself as a very visually-artistic person so the thought of doing even remotely artsy layouts simply scares me.

Well, there were occasions when a kit is so inspiring that, despite my fear, I just have to try. Please don't laugh at my attempts but these are what happen when I scrap outside my comfort zone. :)

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The first time I laid eyes on this kit, Mademoiselle from Rio by Lilipruneau, I immediately thought of Andy Warhol. LOL! Must be the colors. From then on it was just so easy and fun. Ideas came pouring in and journaling kept pouring out. Lili's products always have that effect on me, make me eager to create!

And here's what I made with this wonderful kit.:

I can tell you, I had so much fun creating this double pager! The Pop Art effect was not done by any pre-made action in the graphic program. I "painted on" Neill's faces myself one by one. I think this is where the journaling came to be. He is my art. And my art is growing, evolving right before my eyes.

Journaling reads:
We have heard time and time again how our children are non other than blank canvasses or immaculate pieces of whilte cloth, waiting for their parents to paint on, ready to absorb whatever colors in their environment. I think it is true up to a point.

In the end, no matter how much paint we use or how solid the colors we provide, they'd just take their own shades and hues, and all we can do is sit encouragingly, and watch their true colors shine as bright as they can be.

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Last week I helped Åsa made this template for Digital Scrap Cafe's June 25 - July 2, 2010 Template Challenge, so naturally I wanted to use it, and I wanted to rock it! :D Alas, I realised quickly how challenging the template is (and many challenge participants seem to agree with me LOL!!!!) I was totally lost and blocked for a while until I discovered the right kit for it!

Dani Salles (DSDesign Studio) is one of the new designers joining Digital Scrap Cafe store from the beginning of July. Her shop is full of impressively creative kits, and this one, Ink-Me, caught my eyes right away! Suddenly I knew which direction I wanted to go with the challenge and the template.

Here's my page with the kit, for the template challenge.:


Lately I have more and more photos of Neill with this little smirk, and his smugness just amuses me to no end. I'm sure he's gonna be pretty embarrassed with himself when he grows up to see them. So, for now, I think I should do my best at documenting these moments just so I can tease and blackmail him later. LOL!!

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No freebies today. I hope you still love me. :D More layouts later in the week!