"Be Yourself" with Metals and Petals

Good evening Scrappy friends.  I am popping by the blog tonight to share the first layout I have created for this month's "Metals and Petals" challenge which is running with Scrap Matrix this month.

This is what I created:

 I decided to use this photo of my gorgeous niece, which I decided would be beautifully offset by the gorgeous 7 Dots Studio Garden Party collection.  The deep purple of the "Annual" paper suited the grungy effect I wanted to create.

I actually used two pieces of the Annual paper.  I tore off about one third of the first paper, and distressed the purple side, running some archival ink along the distressed edge.  I then adhered that to the second Annual paper.  Using the 7 Dots "Garden Party" 6x6 Floral Knot Stencil, I added some Black Modelling Paste to the background.

Next, I added some German Scrap Fleur de Lis #2 Black down the join where the two papers meet., and splashed on some white gesso.

To make my photo mat, I got some  tags from the 12x12 tag sheet, and some black paper for the photo mat from the 7 Dots Studio "Garden Party - Garden Gnomes" and stapled it all together.  Once done, I matted it to my photo with some cardboard to give it some dimension.

I added my photo just over the top of the Floral Knot Stencil, allowing some of the swirls to come out from underneath. I also tucked some muslin in under my photo for extra definition.

Finally, I added some embellishments - Cut our butterflies from the 7 Dots Studio "Garden Party - Born" paper, some Brass Round Medium #1 Flowers, some Brass Square Large #4 flowers and some stickers from the Garden Party 6x12 Word Stickers Sheet.  Voila!!  All done!!

Here is a close up:

Here is a list of products available in the Scrap Matrix Shop:

7 Dots Studio "Garden Party" Papers - Annual, Garden Gnomes and Born.

7 Dots Studio "Garden Party" 12x12 Tag Sheet

7 Dots Studio "Garden Party" Floral Knot Stencil

7 Dots Studio "Garden Party" 6x12 Word Sticker Sheet

German Scrap Fleur de Lis #2 Black

Brass Round Medium #1 Flower

Brass Square Large #4 Flower

TCW Black Modelling Paste

Thanks so much for popping by the Scrap Matrix blog today.  I hope I have inspired you to enter our "Metals and Petals" challenge this month. Go on - have a go, and once you have finished your creation all you have to do is upload it into the "Metals and Petals" folder on the Scrap Matrix Shares Facebook Page.