Opera Night

Love going to the park with friends lately and having picnics in the grass while catching a show.  The opera put on Barber of Seville in Hermann park the other day. 

I have to say that I was inspired by three different amazing layouts:

Celine Navarro and this week's sketch wednesday

Geralyn Sy's plano circle stamp + craft knife use in Country Fair

Kelly Purkey's circle letter stickers in a circle on this layout.







  I don't normally do well with sketches or following other people's inspiration.  It did take me forever to put together.  One night designing my silhouette file.  Another to cut out all the little bits of scraps.  And one more for finishing touches.  I always loved the look of Geralyn's layout, but was too lazy to do all that cutting with a craft knife.  In the end, I think it took me a lot longer to design the silhouette file (though I also used it to make the sewing guide on the paper). I went through months of old Studio Calico kits to find the best scraps.  I looked through half my buttons and all of my stickers to find the right border strips.  It is totally weird for me not to have any thickers on a layout and I rarely use buttons anymore.  It wasn't for any assignment or design team project.  But I had fun. A lot of fun.  And it just makes me smile.

I used my silhouette to sketch the shapes and do all the cutting, as well as to create the stitching template.  I then went back and hand stitched with embroidery floss.  I used black ink and thought the result was a little harsh, so I softened it with some white and shine mister.  I had used a strip of the paper in the past so I added the fabrip to cover the barcode strip showing on the bottom.  I think it actually added something.

 

And, I hate to see good stitching go to waste, even on the back, so I made this on the other side.  Just love this picture of Nandini clapping along with the music.
Supply List: Lily Bee yellow paper, Mister Huey white and shine, SC Anthology fabrips border, SC wooden alphas, SC wooden cameras, random buttons, MME alpha stickers.

Linking up at Purple Mail Box, come play along!