Beautiful - Mix Up the Kits

I already talked a bit about the tropical nature of the April kit, but I wanted to present another way to make use of a kit that perhaps isn't quite your cup of tea.  Something that Gossamer Blue does quite well is that while each kit has its own theme or feel to it, each kit seems to have pieces or designs or colors that work really well with earlier kits.  And that's the way I went in this layout; I used bits from each of the March and April kits, plus some things from my stash.

Now I am not going to say that this went together 1-2-3.  Because it didn't.  Boy, did it ever NOT want to work the first three times.  I tried three different backgrounds, and had my photos heavily layered.  It just wasn't working for me.  Way too busy... too much going on in the photos to have lots of paint and colors in the background or under the photos.  So I pulled it all apart...all except for the first layer of papers under the photos. 

Then using watercolor paper, I applied a very thin wash of pink and aqua watercolors and forced myself to stop right there.  (Which is kind of hard to do, cuz it's fun to keeping sloshing about in those pretty little pans of color!!) 

And even though I didn't want too much going on behind the photos, in order to add at least some color and pattern, I cut up short strips of papers, pieces of tags and ephemera, and applied those at the left edge of the paper.  Just for a little more interest, I added a tabbed piece and a label. 

Since there was pattern and color at the left of the layout, I glued a few of the same papers together and cut them into a large photo corner type piece for the upper right side of the page. 

Next was to add a bit more detail in the way of just a couple of text stickers to the photo block, then some black paint splatters, a few enamel dots and wood veneer hearts. 

Last was to add my title, which was pulled from a sticker sheet, and my journaling. 

Finally, after three attempts, I got a page I am happy with.  A splash of color and pattern, but still lots of open space for those busy, busy photos.

 
I guess the message is... if at first (or second or even third) you don't succeed, try, try again!

best,
Cheryl