Calvinball- SB layout share

close-up of chipboard embellishment

Whenever I scrap, even if I get the page started fairly easily, there's usually some detail or part of the page that just seems to take forever to get done. If there's buttons on the page, I need to put thread in the holes; if there's sequins on the page, it takes me forever to decide just where to put them-- things like that. I always seem to think of something that takes extra-long to do, or is extra-detailed.

As an example: the idea for this layout came together really quickly; I saw a layout in the Calvinball gallery here, and knew I wanted to scraplift the page design. I even found the photos I wanted to use and chose the papers I wanted fairly quickly. Then, I had to decide how to embellish the page. I settled on chipboard swirls- like the one you see above. Only problem was, the chipboard swirls I had were silver and glittery. And that wouldn't work on my page, at all!

And what did I do? I tried to find something else in my stash of stuff that would work, but once I get fixated on something like that, nothing else looks quite 'right' to me. In the end, it took me a couple hours altogether, but: the chipboard swirls were gessoed, painted brown, then sponged with antiquing gel, all to make them fit with the vintage look of the papers I chose. 

So, here's the final completed page (click to enlarge):

About an hour for most of the page; plus about another hour all together for the chipboard. But the chipboard swirls look perfect! (well, now, they do, anyway-- lol!)

This page showcases one photo (2 copies) of a Costa's hummingbird that I took a couple weeks ago when I was hiking. I happened to see this hummingbird landing on 'his' tree-- hummingbirds pick a vantage point to land on and sort of 'survey' their territory-- so I set up shop right next to this shrub to see if I could get any decent photos of him. I managed to get a few 'okay' shots, but nothing too spectacular. An older gentleman saw what I was doing and waited for me to finish so he could get a few shots of him, too. He said he photographs hummingbirds at the Botanical Gardens and can sometimes take two or three hundred photos and only get maybe ten really good ones out of the whole bunch. So now, I don't feel quite so bad! 

 For this page, I printed the photo in color then turned it to sepia-toned and printed it again. The sepia photo shows a bit more detail of his feathers and how many (tiny, tiny, tiny) feathers he actually has-- which is crazy, considering these birds only weigh 2-3 grams total!! With a wingspan over 4 inches and a total length of 3.5 inches, they're practically all feathers! 

I'll post a few of the better photos I got of him in my next post; meanwhile, you can click HERE to see what a Costa's Hummingbird looks like close up.