bill's confectionary, fort edmonton park august 2012

Alex and I went to Fort Edmonton Park last summer and spent the day with friends wandering through the four historical periods between 1846 and 1920.  I wondered how Alex would respond to the live presentations of the historical relics being only three years old at the time but I was a very proud mama with his behaviour, stamina and maturity.  He asked the staff some very poignant questions about their work and managed to walk around the park for the better part of five hours stopping only for a 30-minute movie and lunch.

Although our friends were ready to pack it in after five hours, Alex asked me if we could play a game of mini-putt, get some ice cream and ride the ferris wheel.  I have some great photos from the entire day that I will likely work into a couple of layouts so consider this post as the teaser.

I found the cherry washi tape, 50's diner paper, ice cream float chipboard and Basicgrey Hipster embellishments at The Inked Stamper all which inspired the one-page layout.  I love the concept of having multiple elements, each with their own design, coming together to create a greater picture.  Gestalt psychology
is a theory developed from the principle that our brains are capable of perceiving whole objects out of incomplete elements. Kurt Koffka had coined the phrase "the whole is other than the sum of the parts".  Each section of the layout is outlined with assorted washi tapes.  My favourites: cherry washi, camera washi and mustache washi.  It's going to be a sad day when I run out of those three.  I'm pretty sure I'll look back on this time fondly knowing that I had a great adoration for cherry, camera and stash as every project will have as least just a hint of each tape included.  Or almost every project. 

I'm on a collage kick lately and found some really fun ice cream shoppe images to incorporate into the layout which was first sprayed with Ranger Dylusions Ink (squeezed orange and bubblegum pink).  I added white bubbles with bubble wrap and Tim Holtz Distress Stain Ink (picket fence) and some random ink blotches.  There is a great stamp set which has circles or bubbles included (which I don't own) but for some reason I just had to try making my own bubbles with the wrap.  It worked like a charm and I'm completely hooked.  Now I have to figure out how to include my used bubble wrap into my projects.  I'm sure it'll look really fun on an art journal layout.  Friends expect a card or two with bubbles and/or bubble wrap.  The ink splotches and bubbles represent some controlled chaos: ice cream can be messy.  The Ford Model Ts are from Tim Holtz's Visual Collection: The Journey.

mr. click, print, scrapbook and I spent a day together planning out our layouts and painting our ice cream float chipboards with acrylic paints.  We highlighted some of the float details with Tim Holtz's Distress Marker (picket fence) and outlined the glasses and cherries with gelly roll pens to give them some definition.

Our trip to Fort Edmonton Park last summer is one of my favourite outings of the summer.  I look forward to sharing the other photos, layouts and memories from that day with you.