Guest: Genevieve Simmonds
- posted by: guest
- posted in: Guest
- on: July 6, 2007
I feel extremely honoured to have been asked to be a guest blogger for the Fiskateers. What a fun and creative bunch with boundless energy and passion! My first contact with the Fiskateers came when they offered to sponsor a Dare, and when May contacted me in February to do a guest spot I immediately said yes. Then, when I switched email accounts completely forgot about it! I went back and begged and pleaded on bended knee to have the opportunity to redeem myself and she said yes. Sweet.
Turns out the timing couldn’t be more perfect for this assignment. I’m not sure how it happened, but the layout fell together, embracing so much of what’s going on with me right now, in terms of both my thoughts and my favourite stuff.
I’ve used some patterned paper from the Organic line I designed for Lazar StudioWERX. The yellow one is called pollination and the name sort of made me think of flying things (such as butterflies and bumblebees) and how they transfer pollen from one plant to another. I wanted to use the circles to represent movement, and wanted the butterfly to be the jumping point. One of my favourite things to do with the Organic paper is use a razor blade and carefully trim slits along the edges of the wings and shove a photo in there. I sanded the edges of the “wings” carefully to soften them.
I used my new Lazar open circle stamp (which is created from an actual stamped image of the hand-carved stamp I made to create the Cellular line of paper!) (did you follow all that!?) and stamped with paint instead of ink. I wanted a more opaque look and I wanted bold stampage. I mixed two colours (one Making Memories and one Heidi Swapp) to get the perfect colour.
To be honest, when I finished stamping the circles, I thought..that looks weird. So I added more. Then I thought…that looks like a big mess. Oh well…I carried on. I cut out circles (they do not have to be perfect circles because I know I for one don’t always feel like digging around for my circle cutter and as much as I love the look of perfect circles, I’m learning to love the imperfect ones just as much but for different reasons!). I cut out different sized “circles” and inked the edges with a nice soft ink pad. Played around with positioning and then went for the glue.
I added some painty dots because I felt like getting a little more painty.
I decided on a title and used the Heidi Grace cardstock stickers that come in different hues (LOVE these!). The title comes directly from something I’m doing on my blog right now…sharing with myself and whoever a tiny bit of gratitude each day. It provides me with perspective when I’m feeling a little blue (or stressed or tired or overwhelmed or or or…) and keeps me in check when I might be feeling a little too over the top.
Because of the busy-ness of the page already, I decided to not put journalling, other than to record the date of the photos. I have been having a great time walking down memory lane looking through old photos and scrapping them, since when Jax was a baby I didn’t scrapbook.
Last but certainly not least, I added the turquoise measuring tape from npw.co.uk and it’s called Mini Pop Tape and comes in different colours and patterns. (thanks to Scrapologie for that one!) I’m seriously addicted to the stuff and will be using it LOTS. It’s slightly transparent and came in yellow and turquoise. The other nice thing about the Heidi Grace stickers is that if you don’t pound them into your page when you first put them on there, you can carefully lift them up and stick something under there (in my case, this tape!)
Honestly, that’s about that, and now that I’ve written a book on where this one page came from, I’m sure you’re all glad it’s come to an end! 
But seriously, there’s a lot going on here. Had to ‘splain myself. Thanks everyone!
xog
blog * lazar studio werx * the dares * the dares book
Becky says:
July 6th, 2007 at 8:33 pmi LOVE the lil’ measuring tape thingys!!!! is there any way you can post the pictures a little bigger? from what i can see that is an AWESOME layout!!!
Note from May: If you click on the photo you will see it enlarged.
melita says:
July 6th, 2007 at 8:42 pmtotally cool! love the dares! Just haven’t had a chance to do many, but I check them out every chance I get!
Wendy Jo says:
July 6th, 2007 at 10:02 pmI love the details of explination of this blog. Cool tricks I’m going to have to try, not to mention I love the looks of that organic paper. So…Dare or Double Dare??? I’m actually going to take the Physical Challenge on this one! (Totally off the subject, but that’s one family game show I think they should bring back!)
Amanda says:
July 6th, 2007 at 10:40 pmLove the layout. I really like circles on anything and i was SOOOOOOO excited to see a 8X11 scrapper here!!!! Thanks for the inspiration!
Sara says:
July 6th, 2007 at 10:42 pmI’ve done a couple of the dares…and loved them! Thanks for sharing!
Brenda says:
July 6th, 2007 at 10:50 pmWow that looks so great. Love working with circles and other shapes. Paint and stamping is also something I just love. I love making a MESS!
Sandi Price says:
July 6th, 2007 at 10:56 pmVery nice layout. Way out of my comfort zone, but I can work with some elements of it. Thanks for sharing with us.
Ellen says:
July 6th, 2007 at 11:58 pmVery nice! Love the colors you used and the circles around and on the photo. I have never done a dare but, I think I will check it out…maybe it will be something to get my scrappin mojo up and running. THanks for sharing.
Genevieve says:
July 7th, 2007 at 12:04 amLove your work AND your name!
Jennifer Muller says:
July 7th, 2007 at 12:07 amI love the layout! And I love the Heidi Grace cardstock stickers, too…don’t you wish you could have them in every single color?! Thanks for sharing with us!
Jenifer Cowles says:
July 7th, 2007 at 12:26 ambeautiful layout, I think I might give it a try.
Laura says:
July 7th, 2007 at 12:28 amLove the explanation !!…beautifully done and yes, I think I may have to give it a go !! Thanks !!
erin yamabe says:
July 7th, 2007 at 2:42 amwhere did you get the blue measuring tape? you mentioned a uk co. is it available in the u.s.?
erin and janice
Hisaho says:
July 7th, 2007 at 5:39 amI love the energy in your layout! And the papers you designed are awesome. I’m going to have to go shopping. I also enjoyed the Dares blog… I might have to try one of the challenges some day as well. Thank you so much for sharing. It is really neat to see something different, definitely cutting edge!
doverdi says:
July 7th, 2007 at 5:41 amGreat layout! I love all the detailed explanations that you provided. Definately outside of my comfort zone but it might be something I’ll have to try. I have tons of paints just taking up space and have only used them once or twice on a layout. Definately a DARE for me. Thanks for sharing.
Lene Tingberg Hatfield says:
July 7th, 2007 at 6:43 amSo pretty! Love that mustard yellow. And I have been playing with paints lately, they’re FUN!
TFS a beautiful LO!
Lene Tingberg Hatfield says:
July 7th, 2007 at 6:48 amOh, and I LOVE both your pp lines from paperWERX. Beautiful!
Sue # 1325 says:
July 7th, 2007 at 7:16 amI’m here for a dare,
Do I dare?
Yes I do…
Im leaving a comment,
From me to you,,
Dare I say it ..
Or dare I not?
No.. I daren’t…
So thats your lot !
LOL
Sarah says:
July 7th, 2007 at 7:33 amI love the details and the way you are not afraid to try new things…I am feeling very creative from this post!!
Sarah
Amy G. says:
July 7th, 2007 at 8:08 amI love how you cut out the butterfly and put the picture behind it. Beautiful LO! Thanks for the ideas.
Amyre says:
July 7th, 2007 at 9:02 amThanks for sharing your LO with us. I just loved the photos and the carefree look about your LO. I need to dare myself to use some paint on one of my LO’s. I just love the look of it. Thanks for some great ideas and your inspiration Genevieve.
PS So glad she gave you another chance to share with us…. LOL
Kelly Jo says:
July 7th, 2007 at 9:13 amVery cool LO! I love how you used the paint…I am inspired to be messy!
PS I added your blog to my list! Fun!
Maur says:
July 7th, 2007 at 9:41 amlove the layout and the detailed thinking behind what you did to CREATE:) Thanks for sharing.
Sandy Wilkins says:
July 7th, 2007 at 10:34 amThat’s a cute poem Sue!
I love the look of cutting around the butterfly. I popped over to the Dares and found “Me” looking out! The current dare is my kinda thing. I love to collect findings and I’ve used several. I especially love rusted things. Thanks for the inspiration!
Bonnie H says:
July 7th, 2007 at 11:21 amlove your layout - thanks for the inspiration & for pushing some of us out of our comfort zones!!!
Amy J Bagnall says:
July 7th, 2007 at 11:21 amHi Genevieve,
Thanks so much for “writing a book” about your layout! I think we have all benefited from reading about your techniques. I love using all different kinds of ideas when creating a layout, from paint to mesh, etc, so I am very intrigued by your ideas! Can’t wait to try some of them.
Linda A. says:
July 7th, 2007 at 11:57 amLove your project! Thanks for sharing with us!
Vanessa Baker says:
July 7th, 2007 at 12:02 pmAbsolutely love the page! It looks awesome! I love painting on my pages!
Patti Smith says:
July 7th, 2007 at 12:06 pmThis is a wonderful layout. I enjoyed your blog. Thanks for sharing..
Jessica says:
July 7th, 2007 at 12:14 pmwhat a cool unique design- thanks for sharing!
Ania says:
July 7th, 2007 at 1:33 pmSeriously that’s such a CUTE page and I loved your explaination!
Michele L says:
July 7th, 2007 at 2:05 pmkick it up a notch and let’s all go and play…love to get messy!
Sandy "aspromised" says:
July 7th, 2007 at 2:26 pmLove that layout - the organic papers and colors are a perfect match for that beautiful little face
Jessica says:
July 7th, 2007 at 2:50 pmLove the layout! Thanks so much for telling us about how you created it!
stephanie says:
July 7th, 2007 at 4:09 pmHey there, this dare stuff, sounds kool, think I might check it out.
Maya says:
July 7th, 2007 at 4:41 pmBeautiful layout! Thanks for sharing!
Joan says:
July 7th, 2007 at 5:22 pmI love the lay outs.They are different and the papers give the lay outs a different look.
Geraldine says:
July 7th, 2007 at 5:24 pmThe layouts are different and the papers are so different which gives the layouts a different look altogether.
[Amy] says:
July 7th, 2007 at 6:32 pmi love how Gen used the photo trio. plus the paint to highlight her son’s face… so cool!
thanks so much for sharing your creative process with us, Gen!
Lynda #1749 says:
July 7th, 2007 at 7:21 pmWow!!! Totally love this!!! Thank you so much for sharing it with us!!
Vicki Bell says:
July 7th, 2007 at 9:18 pmLove the looks. The circles are inspiring and the paint is something that I would not have thought to done with this. I am now inspired to use paint in ways that I normally do not.
Jennifer says:
July 7th, 2007 at 9:40 pmVery pretty! I love those colors and textures. Great blog!
Sandy says:
July 7th, 2007 at 11:28 pmWow! I am going to have t check out that book! Might get me out of my comfort zone!
Cherie says:
July 7th, 2007 at 11:51 pmWOW!!! this is too cool!!! I love the part where you cut the edge of the butterfly to tuck a picture on the page. The paiting was sooo awsome I can’t wait to try some of your techincs. Thanks for sharing you ideas.
Janet says:
July 8th, 2007 at 11:50 amLove the layout. Thank you for sharing.
Bethany says:
July 8th, 2007 at 6:38 pmThat is beautiful paper…I have to find your line!!
=0 )
Kathleen says:
July 8th, 2007 at 7:12 pmThis is a very free style interesting way to design a page. Way cool!!! Thank so much for sharing
Jen B #258 says:
July 8th, 2007 at 11:42 pmLove how artistic your page is. I am artistic by nature and this is a good reminder that its okay to have fun on layouts. Your page is beautiful!
Lorig says:
July 9th, 2007 at 10:17 amBeautiful page. Thank you for the detailed explanation of the process behind the page.
Rhonda says:
July 11th, 2007 at 10:59 pmAs always, love your work but this is a real treat to have the process detailed out. Thanks so much!