A little houndstooth never hurt anyone!

At TrueXOXO, we were presented with a challenge to use houndstooth paper on our layouts. Honestly, my first thought was if I even had any in my enormous stash. Well low and behold...haha if you only knew how much paper there actually is...I had 6" paper packs from Pink Paislee from warehouse packs I had purchased a while back.

I first had to put together a color scheme. These days I rarely ever start off with a photo I want to scrap. That is generally my last concern. It's the opposite of where I started. I think it comes from wanting to stash bust and more about the creative process. If I start with a photo already printed out, it would give me a bit of a block.

My main staples are My Mind's Eye cardstock. Back in 2008, I went to a retreat in Utah and MME was there. They also had a warehouse sale for us. I still have a lot of the paper because well... it was that cheap! So I inked the edges of the green paper with distress ink. Then I softened the look of the ink by applying Pan Pastels further into the base to create a vignette. That really is one of my favorite things to do in Lightroom, Photoshop or any app...to highlight Riley in photos. A few SEI brads and Melody Ross GCD chipboard elements later, I was almost done. Oh yes I added rubons...those little stamps.

I selected the photos based on the colors. These were taken as we were leaving for school on the day of the walkathon. They had a dancing theme. Riley chose to be a Warbler (Glee). I found a blue blazer at Goodwill over a year and a half before this. I used inkjet twill to create the emblem. Red bias tape was sewn on and I changed  out the buttons. The tie was made after she decided what she was going to dress up as before going to bed. Yes...I was there at 1am making a tie and doing the jacket.

Well visit the TrueXOXO blog and check out some of the other layouts. My houndstooth is small and somewhat blended in. There are some that really POP!