Cinnamon sidecart (Kaneel & Zijspan) Mixed media layout

Hey everyone! 

So I have returned with the next layout in my 'scrapiniec alphabet challenge'. 

We're having some time off, the dental  laboratory I work at is always closed from Christmas until New years and my husband Pascal is a school teacher. 

So yeah, we get to sleep in alternating, one of us has to go downstairs to take care of Connor (who's almost 3 years old) while the other can catch up on some much needed sleep. (Our little man hardly ever sleeps through the entire night and wakes up around 6.30 every day.)

Thinking about what to do with all my letters, I suddenly got an idea for the 'Z': ZIJSPAN. Which is Dutch for 'sidecart'.

My husband loves to ride motorcycles and didn't want to wait until Connor was old enough to take him along. So, he bought a motorcycle with a sidecart!

A lovely, vintage, blue, German 'AWO' motorcycle from the fifties. 

And Connor and he have been going for rides ever since Connor was about a 1,5 years old. Connor enjoys the 'speed' very much, even though it's hardly any faster than a moped, LOL. (They are overtaken by cyclists even...)

And the husband? He loves to share his passion with his little man.

Anyways, gears popped up in my head too for this layout, obviously. So I altered the Z a little by adding some (half) gears. Quite happy with the result so far.

Then I made my own blend to recreate the tire tracks (with a Tim Holtz stencil) by mixing a gray structure paint, black gesso, some 13Arts Magic powder to give it more structure, and cinnamon. (Which in retrospective could have been left out easily, it didn't show. But it smelled great when I dried the tracks with my heatgun, hahaha.)

After application I sprinkled some sand on the tracks.

I stamped some numeric and text stamps (not entirely random) over the page with black ink. When I found out this particular piece of paper wasn't very sturdy (Echo Park collection something something, from my stash, a few years old at least) I adhered it to a piece of plain black cardboard. Then I distressed the edges and inked them with black as well.

Then it was time for the gears, which I wanted to have 'surrounding' my picture. I glued them down and let them dry overnight. (Bedtime anyway, so.)

Next, I gave my gears and the 'Z' a coat of anthracite Inka Gold. (Which was hard with all the teeth and points and holes. Took me forever! Spraying them beforehand would have been easier I think.)

After unsuccessfully trying to mix gel medium with cinnamon (my almost 3-year old boy asked me if it was poop...) I simply applied the gel medium on my gears and shook the cinnamon on top. I let it dry and tapped the excess off. And them brushed some more. And sneezed. (But the effect is worth it!) 

After I painted the edges of my Z with a dark blue glimmermist I gave it the same cinnamon treatment as the gears. 

To make my gear-wreath more exciting I twirled some iron wire along it in loops and glued down some (non functional) Christmas lights. Added some chain, brushed some silver micro beads/ nail caviar on the gears (blended in gel medium), added a bit of turquoise alcohol ink to emphasise the rust and then added some crackle medium. Once that dried I inked it a little to bring out the cracks more and dull the shine somewhat. Next day I brushed some brown/gold Inka Gold over the micro beads because the silver stood out too much.

Meanwhile I basically gave the Z the same treatment. I adhered it to a piece of currogated cardboard (which I altered with 2 shades of silver/anthracite and a rust colour Inka Gold and... yes... here it comes... cinnamon! ;) )

Made the rest of the word 'Zijspan' on my Dymo labelwriter and added a few word stickers from 7dots 'Nature Walk'.  (Altered their color a little and covered them in crackle medium.) 

Glued a little licence plate from Prima with the text 'Dreamroad' to the bottom of the page and altered it with alcohol ink and crackle medium. 

There you have it, my cinnamon sidecart layout. Hope you like it. Comments are much appreciated. 

Also, you can keep up with me through my facebookpage Less is bore! 

Or you can follow me on Instagram: ladyguinevere77

I'll leave you with a few more close-ups! 

Happy scrapping everyone! 

"Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly" & "The need 4 speed."

 Hey everybody,

Had some extra time on my hands because both my husband and I have a week off.
During our holiday in England we visited Hastings, and in its town centre there was a beautiful, vintage Merry-go-round. Connor picked the motorcycle to ride on, ofcourse. His face showed us all we needed to know: he was thoroughly enjoying himself, feeling like he was riding on a real motorcycle.

The Scrapberry's paperline 'Vintage circus' was the embodiment of the paper I dreamt up in my head!!!
However, once I was scrapping, I had a very difficult time because the paper was already so busy. And I just didn't know what to add.
I like the first layout I did better than the one after. But I wasn't in the mood to invest in them in anymore so I didn't give it all. A shame about the pictures but my mojo was lost...

I sprayed a chipboard hearts-square background blue and cut it in a few pieces.
I wrote the quote on a journaling note, inked and colored some of the fussy cut buts from the papers and gave them a coat of crackle glaze.
All I could think of to do with the background was stamp a few black diamond shaped bits.

I chose to add golden accents to the next page. The background was a bit easier to work on, but still didn't speak to me the way it should have.  

I fussy cut some borders from the other papers on the series and gave a chipboard swirl border a golden crackle paint coat. Instead of the word 'for' I used a '4' and attached it to a gear I altered first. 

The merry go round horse was from a children's hobby project which was decaying anyway. Gave it a coat of crackle medium for authenticity. 

Can't think of anything more to tell you about these layouts, but if you have questions don't be shy. I was glad they were done in the end hahaha.

Happy scrapping!

PASSIE (Passion...)

Hey there, she's back! Still counting the days until my well-earned summer-vacation. But from now on it's "just" one week to get through, so...That's do-able. We still have to go to a travel-agency though and book our vacation...:S We're thinking of Denmark, Kopenhagen more specific. It's a 7-hour-drive for us. But we will have to wait and see till Tuesday.

This week I finished the mini-album I was making about my hubby. I already had these papers by Marah Johnson lying around, intending to use them for pics of hubby on his motorcycle.

I titled the album "PASSIE". It's a double title, in English Passie means Passion. And that ofcourse has to do with hubbies passion for riding and (re-)building his bikes. But, hubbies name is Pascal, which we shorten to Passie sometimes. So, it's his name and his game. :)

The other day I had scanned an old pic of him sitting on his first motor-bike, he was like 20 years old there. Instead of showing some enthusiasm for my creativeness with his pic (I made frames and antique looks in Photoscape, very cool, or so I thought) he asked me why I was using photographs of him that were 20 years old...(A little exaggerated, he's 35 years old now, so the pics were 15 years old, tops...:P )
Well, there's a simple answer for it, and I gave it to him. He never likes to pose for pictures...All our vacation-pics etc feature him with some weird funny face or a do-I-have-to-be-in-another-picture-because-I-am-so-bored-please-hurry-up-face. I HATE it! (It's one of the reasons I am dying to have kids, hopefully I will finally have a willing photo-object...!)

That being said, I took my chance when he was going away for a motor-drive some Sunday this July. Still in my PJ's, I walked outside and photographed him while he was sitting on his motorcycle and was preparing in his own way. He cooperated reluctantly, which shows in some pictures. The familiar face is there again....Even the eyes look towards the sky as if to ask for lightning to strike me at that exact time so he can get out of this utterly dreadful, totally useless and precious time-consuming posing-session.

But, I got my pictures! Some were even good, hey, I'm good... (Not to brag, but photography is one of my strong points. I am not someone who knows or acknowledges all of her strong points. Ask me for my flaws and I'll give you a list that dazzles you, but strong points...?!) Well, I mean, that sometimes the camera does exactly what I have in my mind. I capture the perfect moment or pose or whatever. And that thrills me, I mean, I can't all be coincidence, some skill has to be involved next to pure luck, right?

So, I made my book, did loads of painting, stamping, glimmer-misting, diamond-glazing, embossing, and searched for all the right details. "Rough & Tough" details. So no flowers and stuff. And I felt kinda restricted, like I was in a box and couldn't step out to use anything else. All the things I would have usually added didn't seem manly enough. Too girly and glitzy. But I made it. Barely though. Because when I was reaching the end, my pages were lying on my desk when... I topped over my mug filled with water (for the paint-brushes)...!!!

Oh man, the water just flowed over almost all my pages and I just saw all my work going down the drain...I didn't cry but I came close...I dabbed it dry as good as I could, and let it dry on the table. Fortunately the damage wasn't too big, the pages were a little wet and soaky but they dried up nicely. Not too many blobs or letting go of glue or destroyed paper. The pics were alright too. One felt a little weird, but it already had an antique look, so I decided a few more funny marks didn't matter. Man...My bad luck hadn't run out totally, because when I put the pages in my newly acquired Bind-it-all, the back-page was in there crooked...So the upper holes are half of the page. Crap...!!!

I had to wait for the black and white checked ribbon, I planned to use that as a closure for the album. It had to be THAT ribbon because that's the motive hubby has on his helmet and bike as well, so, it was perfect. Then I finally finished and proudly showed the fruits of my labor to hubby accompanied by a "Taaaadaaaaa!"

I don't know how YOUR men react to your projects, but mine never comes any farther than:"nice"... Reading some of my journaling had him laughing reluctantly (he wanted to laugh because it WAS funny but he wouldn't give me the credit...). Because, ofcourse, as far as the journaling went, he didn't cooperate either. He gave me stupid childish answers so I had to come up with my own answers. And I did my own description of him, whether he liked it or not. He's the man who likes to be dirty (greasy black) and is surrounded by waaaay to many decibels and the stench of gas...

And guess what, he even had the nerve to ask me if I was gonna do another booklet about him and his other motorcycles as well. WHAT...?! I beg your pardon...?! My jaw practically fell to the floor...Me, do another series of pictures without his cooperation, more descriptions about his bikes without his techical insight and help...Make another album that is being welcomed with a luke-warm "nice" after all my effort...What do you think, Passie...?! Dream on, boy...