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Saturday 30 October 2010

Banana Frog Blog Hop

Good morning good morning good morning!  I have no idea why I am feeling so chirpy, but it is an exciting day for me - today is the Banana Frog Blog Hop, and I am also featured this month as I was the guest designer for October. 

Today's theme is autumn and I have added my own twist to the interpretation.  I used the beautiful colours of autumn to make a layout instead about elephants (hmmm - random at all?  Naaaaa.....  :lol:) Earlier this year, I was involved in the ardent hunt  to capture the most number of elephants I could which were displayed around London as part of the Elephant Parade.  Most of them were sold off afterwards by auction which raised double the target - £4 million! to save the endangered Asian elephants. 

I found the beautiful decoration and design of the elephants very inspiring and will have great fun making arty scrapbook pages around these beautiful creatures, so with the theme of autumn colour in my mind I chose this particular elephant, Cha-Chang! to be the first model. 



Supplies:    Banana Frog Perfect Paisley  
                 (available now for a staggering £3.30!)
                 Banana Frog teen lower (also on special!)
                 Banana Frog Christmas elegance
                 American Crafts Tropical cardstock 8 1/2 x 11"
                 Tim Holtz Ideology - Paperie Journaling Ticket
                 Tim Holtz Sizzix Sizzlets Decorative Strip die - Ticket Strip
                 Twinkling H20's
                 Paisley ribbon
                 Versamark
                 Gold embossing powder
                 Ocean Sunlight Cosmic Shimmer mist
                 Turquoise Stickles
                 Jo Sonja Lagoon acrylic paint
                 A date stamp and smaller alphabet stamps
                 Scraps of cardstock
                 Lots of chalk inks!

I started off using this particular stamp from the Perfect Paisley set and embossed it onto the cardstock with gold embossing powder, which is perfect for Asian themes.  Paisley was also a very dominant theme in the Arts and Crafts movement, and to me it represents home comforts. 
                 
I stamped this all over the top right hand side of the page, and just used the leaf top as a stamping margin on the bottom of the page. 

Did you know you could turn part of a stamp into something akin to a border punch?  I took the journalling stamp from the Christmas Elegance set and used the bottom half to embellish underneath the photo.  This stamp also made a lovely background number embellishment as a plaque. 



This Chatterbox sticker alphabet is something that has been kicking around in my stash - probably for almost five years - and I kept looking at it, wondering how on earth I would use it.  I think it looks great here - sometimes it is worth banging stuff onto a page without too much unnecessary worry about how it will turn out!  Same with choosing the scraps, too.  Whilst I am not a huge fan of too many clashing patterns and colours, sometimes a bit of extra interest really adds some dynamism. 

I really like how this layout turned out - a mix of painty, a bit grungy, a bit blingy - not too clean!  But it still feels a bit folksy and "handmade" to me.  I think Autumn is a bit like that too - so an autumnal representation on a page, using a different subject. 

Thanks for stopping by on this first leg of the Banana Frog blog hop.  Make a comment here to be in with a chance of winning some lovely Banana Frog goodies!

Why don't you hop on over to Julie's blog, to see how she has interpreted Autumn?  Happy leaf gathering! :)

16 comments:

  1. I love the colours Ali, and your idea for using the stamps as a border punch effect.

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  2. gorgeous LO and I love the paisley stamp, works so well with your LO

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  3. I miss those elephants! They were such a colourful edition to the city!

    Love the colourful page you have created. Well done!

    LMP

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  4. Love it Alison - so zingy for this time of year!

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  5. Ooh!!!

    I love the embossed paisley and it goes so well with the picture you chose for this lo, as you know, I followed your elephant hunt avidly and love this lo you have produced Alison! its totally gorgeous xxx

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  6. gorgeous lo, i love the colours and that elephant is fab

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  7. love ellies! Loving the paisly got an old spellbinder paisly die!
    Loving the colours so warm and bright!
    xx
    Its lee from UKS!

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  8. Great idea with the stamps, thank for a very inspiring post,
    Hazel
    zaraandmax on UKS

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  9. Orange is your Cha Chang thang just now, isn't it! I love paisley; always have done from a child. Is this 8.5 x 11 or have you cut it down? Loving your live feed too, you have folk coming from all over the show. Including me from Weston Super Mare, North Somerset, apparently! rofl!

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  10. This is lovely Ali, Beautiful Autumn colours and a fab photo of the elephant. Im looking forward to seeing your other Eli LOs, I loved all the photo's you took.
    xx
    Bev
    Bevsie UKS

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  11. gorgeous layout! love the rich colors you've used!

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  12. Ali, Your LO is georgeous, I love the way you used the stamps. You are so creative. I must take some notes to use stamps more if I get great LO like this.The colours you have used really compliement the photo.

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  13. Gorgeous layout Ali, I love that you embossed the paisley stamp and how you used the journaling stamp under the photo! Fab!

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  14. I have been looking forward to seeing the elephants start to appear on your layouts. I love the embossed paisley and the use of the journalling stamp to make a border - great idea.

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  15. Beautiful LO - the paisley stamps work perfectly with your subject

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  16. Great use of the stamp!
    love your layout!

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