Mixed Media Layout "Laid to ruins", 'Words & Paintery' Designteam July challenge

Hi everyone!

Today I'm proudly blogging about my debut as an official Words & Paintery designteam member!

I applied for their designteam call some time ago. You can't imagine how happy I was when I got mail welcoming me to the team! 

Upon seeing July's color challenge that happiness diminished a little though, LOL. The pink was especially difficult to me because I felt I couldn't use a picture of Connor. Since it had to sort of beach related I suddenly thought about Brightons "West Pier".

You can play along with our challenge until August 15! We'd love to see what you come up with! Click here!

During our first vacation to England In 1996, my husband and I visited Brighton and we were impressed by the beautiful, decaying 'West Pier'. Built in Victorian Times, as one of Britain's greatest piers. 

Ever since the 1970's it fell into neglect, crumbling into the sea brick by brick, succumbed to storms, has been set on fire. We came back several years to watch it become nothing more than a small carcass of the majestic beauty and glory it had once been.

Apparently restoring it would have been too costly. It's heartbreaking to me. 

Then again, had it not looked like a shadow of its former self, it might not have haunted me as much... 

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This sheet of paper is from a store called 'Action' so it's not really from a big scrapbooking brand. It suited the picture perfectly though: the colors and the scrolls that resemble the Victorian scrollwork as well as the waves.

Sadly the picture isn't mine, I found it on the net. We were never around at that hour with such beautiful skies.

To enhance the wavelike swirl theme, I used a #timholtz stencil with modeling paste. Slightly blended it with #tatteredangels #glimmermist 'Crushed Shells' but since that did not show enough, I sprayed it on some more afterwards. I sprinkled on (a little more than I wanted to) #Prima #finnabair Artstones and #13Arts glassfiller. 

Later on I sprayed the big swirl with some #tatteredangels #glimmermist 'Coral Reef'.

Sprayed some #tatteredangels #glimmermist 'Coral Reef' here and there on the paper, allowing it to drip as well. 

Using black ink I stamped a gate image all over the paper.

Then came the time to try my new #artextravagance #finnabair #rustpaste! The jars are tiny but the contents work great. I love how quickly it dries, unlike my #VivaDecor #RustyPaper. Wasn't sure how to use the yellow though, I think they should have added a patina blue to the set instead of this. But the result is like real rust! LOVE!

The figurine is from a #prima #IOD mould, by the way. And the lovely hanging clock with the beautiful scrolls is a #Scrapiniec chipboard piece. The face of the clock was covered with #onestepcracklemedium to add to its aging.

So, time to put everything in its place. Used some flowers, leaves, metal embellishments, straws, branches and for the title I used some rub on letters from #Makingmemories.

Unfortunately I had to go and lay this layout in ruins as well as the subject...

The black ink splatters that I added all over the page were too intense. Some of the paper flowers soaked up the ink and it all became a big black blur. 

Luckily there is #gesso and #Inkagold. I used 'Apricot' and 'Browngold'. Also I used some more #tatteredangels #glimmermists, 'Chalkboard French Vanilla' for splattering over the page, and for some accents 'Walnut Gold' and 'Latte'.

I will leave you with some more close-ups of my layout. If you do like it, please let me know. I didn't have enough time because of my boy who fell ill and has been throwing up for a couple of days, otherwise I would have made another one. Seriously.

If you're still interested to see more of my work you can find me on 

Facebook:Less is Bore!

And on Instagram: mandylessisbore 

Happy scrapping!