Winter Walk - Carta Bella - Winter Market Collection

Hello, it's Rebecca with you today to share my second layout created with the 'Winter Market' Collection by Carta Bella.

I was in the mood to create a grid layout so I printed my photo 4x4 inches as a starting point. I then selected several of the patterned papers (Frosty Plaid (A and B sides), Stay Cozy, 4x4 Journalling Cards (B side), Winter Florals and the 3x4 Journalling Cards (B side)) and cut several pieces in both 2x2 inches and 2x4 inches.

I used the blade of my scissors to distress the edges and then pierced holes, before hand-stitching around all the pieces of patterned paper using the WRMK Silver Metallic Thread. This is my favourite thread to use on my layouts because it has a wiry texture so it's easy to stitch with, and manipulate into thread clusters and adds more texture and interest to the page.

The photo I've used on this layout is of a recent walk with my little boy. It was -3 degrees and boy did it feel it! The ground was all frosty and icy and the lake was completely iced over. Sadly there was no snow, but it was a real wintery day - so I wanted to translate that onto my layout. I watered down some white gesso and added splatters to a sheet of Bazzill Basics Cardstock (in 'Coastal') from the matchmaker pack to resemble ice and snow. I'm really pleased with how this simple addition of mixed media elevated the layout.

Once the gesso had dried, I adhered all of my patterned paper pieces flat to my layout using double sided tape, and added more gesso splatters, before adding my photo raised up on a layer of foam.

I added my title to the bottom 2x4 rectangular section of the grid using silver glitter thickers from my stash, and then went to town on the 'Elements Stickers'. 

There are so many stickers on the elements stickers sheet - the more I looked at it, the more I seemed to see! So I thought I would really showcase them on my layout. 

I've added all of the tiny trees from the sheet, and raised them up onto foam pads to add some dimension to the layout. On our outing, we had to walk down a very long path to the lake, and the path was lined on both sides with trees - so I lined the tree stickers up to imitate that.

I added a floral sticker to the bottom right corner, and needed something in the top left corner to balance it out, so I fussy-cut a small cluster from the 'Winter Floral' paper. I stuck them down with thread tangles underneath.

I finished my layout by adding some silver splatters using a Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain in 'Brushed Pewter' and a white doodled border around the edge of my background cardstock using a Uni-ball signo white gel pen.

Thank you very much for reading. If you'd like to see how this layout came together, there is a process video up on my YouTube channel here.

See you next month!

Take care,

Rebecca x