I'm in!!!

I passed the elimination round of ScrappinMom's Idol challenge. I actually made a layout and submitted it to the Scrappin Moms Idol Challenge. Click here to see my entry. As mentioned in my previous post, I am bent on scrapping my wedding photos so I can hit two birds at a time - join a challenge and ease out my wedding photo scrapping backlog. This challenge is no exception. I'm just glad that the first round allowed us to use any photo so I was able to use one of my faves. It's a picture of me and Ariel kissing during our reception.

Anyway, the first challenge was to scraplift a layout made by our "idol" - an international scrapper. I had three in mind and on top of the list is Cathy Zielske. My other options were Ali Edwards and Elsie Flannigan. I love Cathy's clean and simple layouts and her scrapping style in which the photo and journaling are the center stage of her pages. Her layouts always tell a story and it's clear that she doesn't scrap for the sake of scrapping. However, since her layouts are usually very simple, and usually made of cardstock only, I foudn it difficult to find a layout that will take me through the elimination round. I finally settled on a layout I found in Clean and Simple Scrpabooking The Sequel (page 21). This layout has a monochromatic color palette which I love, but there are a lot of patterns. She used foam stamp (which is unusual for her) on her lo and I love the effect. As usual, she used a b/w photo that really stood out against an all-pink background. I scraplifted the monochromatic look and the b/w square photo. For my own layout, I used shades of lavender which was our wedding color.

I used different pps here as well as cardstock which I run through my Big Impressions embossing pads (I am so loving it!!!). I smeared white paint all over the page elements including the photo. I also did a bit of hand-stitching here and there for that shabby chic and romantic look. I enjoyed making the title the most. I painted several layers of lavender and white on chipboard and sanded it so that a bit of both colors would show. I thought of layering it with UTEE but decided against it as I prefer the "distressed" look.

I wrote my journaling at the time I was making my layout and I must say that it came from the heart. The title sort of summarizes the journaling. A day after I finished the lo, I took a look at it again and thought my journaling and title were so CHEESY!!! But who cares?!!! They came from the heart and so be it!

Anyway, I didn't get eliminated on the elimination round, so I guess the cheesy title and journaling weren't so bad after all! Haha! Here are the talented people who made it.

For the 1st round of Idol, we were supposed to use cardstock only, that is, no patterned papers. Read about it here. Suits me well, since I love the clean look of CS. The main challege for me is that 50% of the base CS should be visible. Hmmm... How do I do that?

Anyway, as of this writing, I've finished my layout already and is ready to be emailed to the Scrappin Moms. Yahoo!!! Watch out for it. Will post it as soon as the entries are already in the gallery. All I can say is that I love the photos I used in this layout and I used an analogous color scheme which perfectly complemented the photos. (*wink*)

Good luck to all 30 of us. I know it's not easy considering that we are "competing" against really talented scrappers, some of whom have already won multiple challenges. I wish I can say I'm in it just for the sheer fun. Yes, that is one of my reasons. But I am also hoping to make it to the finals. Who doesn't want to win? In any case, I promised myself I'll make my idol layout week on week even if I get eliminated. Will just post my own los here in my blog. Keeping my fingers crossed!!!