White Hexagons

Hi everyone, Ruth here with this weeks inspiration post. The current challenge theme is about favourite memories; scrapbooking is certainly one way of cherishing these so I've created a scrapbook style canvas utilising white space....yes, I do like white space! This week I thought I'd share my thought process when designing a layout.

My daughter was in South America this summer and one of the many highlights for her was visiting Salar de Uyuni - the worlds largest salt flat in Bolivia, I'll leave it to you to find out more about this stunning unique place! The photo I chose shows the vast expanse of hexagonal salt crust and looking at it I knew I wanted to create a canvas that echoed that space.

When I look at a photo...or any focal image, I'm trying to find elements that I can use to tie the background into it. I could see white, hexagons, textured edges, space and some blue and green, all of which needed to be used if the photo was going to look part of the canvas and not just dropped on top. The elements also needed to connect.

First of all, what had I got in my craft room that I could use for these elements?

• White? Paint!...paper, vellum, embossing powder etc.
• Hexagons?  Chicken wire stencils, stamps, honeycomb alterations die.
• Texture? in my craft room?....puff paint, texture pastes, gels, tyvek, lutrador, fabric, lace etc etc....
• Space? Think light, transparency and use of white space. acrylic shapes, acetate, frosting glaze.
• Blue / Green? Inks, threads etc

So I started with a 12 x 12 box canvas and gessoed it. I randomly scraped some white crackle embossing paste over the canvas, once dry I spread white puff paint through the chicken wire stencil (TCW) and then sprinkled on some sea foam white embossing powder before heating it.

Having decided where the photo would go ...right of centre, I squeezed on glue in rough hexagons before sprinkling with embossing pwder. the hexagons in the photo aren't perfect and the EP would give texture. I used various scraps of paper, emboss resist canvas, heated tyvek and cotton lace that had a geometric look to it. I used horizontal lines to echo the horizon in the photo. Ignore the X and V, they're for support!

No glitter as this wasn't ice or snow but I did use some ice silk glaze on the tyvek before heating, the only bit of shine on the whole project.

B for Bolivia and the Dakar Bolivia stone sculpture at the salt flats...another memory for her. It's embossed in seafoam again.

Having die cut acetate for embellishment I also used it as a stencil and spread more crackle paste on to the canvas.

Close up of more hexagonal texture....creamy white above and matte white below

I added some watersoluble pencil to give shadow to a few background areas. I tried a few combinations of thread and fibres for the blue and green elements but in the end used some inktense pencils to echo the sky and scarf.

I wanted some height to the layout but used transparent elements so it still gave a sense of light and space. I stippled PaperArtsy frosting glaze on acetate before die cutting a hexagonal frame for the photo. I also stippled the frosting glaze through a stencil onto an idea-ology fragment, the addition of this balanced with the B bottom right and the Tyvek top right and to my eye completed a 'visual triangle'.

2 small strips of vellum either side of the photo grounded it more and completed the canvas.

Hope you enjoyed the post and that I may have inspired you in some way. You still have another week to join in our challenge...and just remember white space is good!