ST April GDT Challenge & One of My Favs!

Sketchy Thursdays posted the sketch this weekend for the April GDT Challenge and I jumped right on it!  There are times that I have a hard time getting my vision for a lo onto paper, but happily this was not one of those occasions.  To brag on myself a little bit...I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way this lo turned out.  I think one of the biggest contributing factors is the use of Spring colors, which was part of the challenge from the ST team.  The winter blahs are getting to me and being able to use Spring colors was very refreshing!  I took my color scheme from the over-sized K&Company brad and then added in green...because you just can't have Spring without the color green.

The trim frame behind the photo was a first for me.  My photos are usually matted on paper, but this trim served as the perfect texture around the photo.  I decided to add the stitching to help anchor the trim.  For the word "Natural" in the title, I used the Cricut Colors (which I must admit, I don't use that often, but always love the results when I do).  I used a scrap piece of the background to draw out the letters on the Cricut and then shadowed the letters to cut them out.  I used the same effect for my journaling, by just printing out the strips and then outlining with the Cricut Color.  The butterfly was a Dollar Tree find...can't beat those!  I like the fact that it adds texture to the lo, but it's still a fairly flat embellishment.

Products used:

Paper - Scenic Route, BoBunny, DCWV
Decorative Trim - Hobby Lobby
Thickers - American Crafts
Brad - K&Company
Pearls - Kaisercraft
Other - Embroidery Floss, Expression, Cricut Colors