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Saturday 3 August 2013

bavarian mining railway north star school august 2012

It wasn't difficult selecting a photo series to highlight the adorable layout designed by Kathleen at Treasured Memories.  

Kathleen's original layout as demonstrated in class

The family: Alex, mr. everythingshetouches, Baba and Dyeda took a road trip last summer to the beautiful and majestic Fairmont, British Columbia.  Although I have now lived in western Canada for almost seven years, it my was first real trip to B.C.  I had been to the Vancouver airport twice, however, it didn't capture the stunning beauty for which B.C. is famous.  I was born and raised in Montréal and spent a few great years in Ottawa getting educated.  The plan: finish my  undergraduate degree in psychology research and acquire my masters and post-doctorate degrees at the University of  British Columbia in the faculty of psychology.  The reality: finish my undergraduate degree in psychology research, move back to Montréal to attend McGill University and obtain my masters in Special and Inclusive Education.  I would have never imagined that I would one day live in Alberta and have the wonders of B.C. in my backyard.  But as beautiful as B.C. is, Alberta has captured my heart.  It is a province filled with stunning and diverse landscapes and amazing people.  It is simply breath-taking.  If you haven't yet had a chance to visit Alberta I strongly recommend the trip and no, I do not have shares in Travel Alberta.

Anyway, back to our trip to Fairmont, B.C.  There are some very fine hot springs in Fairmont (as well as in Banff, Alberta - okay, okay, I'll let up slightly on my province-mance with Alberta) as well as, if you like that sort of thing, golf.  It really is a golfers paradise with lush greens and the Rockies as your backdrop.  A little over an hour south of Fairmont is the sleepy little town of Kimberley, B.C.  From 1917 to 2001, Kimberly was the home to the world's largest lead-zinc mine  and  now  operates  as a tourist destination, especially for skiers, and includes the Kimberley Underground Mining Railway that features a  230m underground mining interpretive centre and is the home of Canada's  largest cuckoo clock.  The  Bavarian  Mining Railway North Star School is a small one-room schoolhouse  where Alex, without hesitation, sat down  and began drawing out his adventures using the complementary  paper and crayons.


I  digitally modified  the  photos to  better  fit  with  the vintage feel of the layout and contrasted the third photo of the desk and chalkboard by printing it in black and white. 


I outlined the layout, and added throughout the two pages, tea drops.  Who thought a simple concept like home-brewed earl grey tea could have such  an  impressive effect? According to Kathleen, different hues in teas will have different effects on how it appears on the layout.  Makes sense.  Blueberry tea will have a blue hue, green tea a green hue, orange pekoe .. well, you get it.  And tea is one of those things that I definitely have lying around the house.  In fact many of the elements used in the layering of this project are items that you most likely have lying about or, if not, you can take away the lesson that almost anything can be re-purposed and included in your project. 


Remember re-purposing can give the item a whole new function, sometimes making it very silly (it looks better on the layout).


The  cup rings and ink drops were stamped on.  And  I free-handed the accent doodle line around the edge of my pages with my black gelly roll.


I have never felt comfortable journaling (hard to believe, right?) and so many of my layouts are void of any conversation or description of what was happening when the photograph was taken.  My fear is that as we look back through my work and layouts I will not (a)remember the details of the event or the story itself and (b) be around some day to tell it.  One of my recent (last two months or so) promises to myself is to try and journal at least once directly on my layout but until that day arrives I have included my sentiments somewhat hidden from public view by tucking a tag away behind the layout.  The one used for this project was pre-made but I love creating tags (you might have noticed) and need very little prompting to create ones which will tie into the layout theme.



I love the variety of materials used, as I mentioned before, to layer and add dimension to the project.  Layers included aged pages of a book, cardstock, printed vellum, packing materials, drywall tape, rope, wired wool and a zipper.  There seriously is a lot going on in these two pages.



I'm not a fan of doilies and my original plan was to leave it off of the layout entirely, however, I cracked open my weathered wood Tim Holtz distress ink and distressed it.  In the process it ripped and somehow I fell in love.  I gathered up the pieces, tucked it between the layers and there it remains.




The butterflies were printed onto cardstock, cut out and the wings were curled around a pencil (or whatever round tool of choice) to give it a really fun and three-dimensional effect.  I added liquid glass to some of the butterflies for even more fun and I intentionally had them flying in a unified direction to give the layout some movement.







I'm entering this layout in a few challenges:


I really had a blast making this layout (thanks Kathleen, my die cut conspirator and the hysterical ladies in this class) and thank you for stopping by and visiting. 

16 comments:

  1. Wow....what a gorgeous page! So many elements for the eye to see. I love all the different textures you have included on your page. Thanks for playing along with us at About A Boy!

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  2. This is beautiful Pam! You did such a wonderful job incorporating so many different materials. I love all the dimension too. Thanks for joining us in the Berry71Bleu Aug Challenge :D

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  3. Awesome upcycling! Thank you for playing along with Berry71Bleu.

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  4. Absolutely beautiful and fantastic way to reuse items! Thanks for playing along with us at AAB! :)

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  5. Wow love all the textures and the mix of materials here Pam, Awesome!!! Thanks for joining us at Berry71Bleu!

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  6. Amazing layout! Absolutely love all the details!!! So glad you could join us over at About A Boy!

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  7. This is great! Textures, materials, what can I say? I simply love it! Thanks for joining us at About A Boy!

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  8. beautiful LO. So much dimension and beautiful layering details. Thanks for joining us at About a Boy

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  9. beautifully done! I love vintage pages! thanks for joining us at AAB!

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  10. Amazing work! I am loving all those little details from the print butterflies and mesh to the tea dying! Thanks for playing with us at AAB :)

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  11. Gorgeous layout Pam, love it. The detailing is gorgeous. Thanks for playing along with us at AAB.

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  12. Awesome pages! The textured layers and paint are so fun! Thanks for joining the Berry71Bleu August Challenge!

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  13. Beautiful layout! Love all of the different textures! Thanks for joining us at Berry71bleu!

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  14. Wow Wow... I love them! Great!!! Thanks for playing with us at ABB.

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  15. Beautiful layout. Also many details. The photos are great. Loved it all. Thanks for playing along at AAB

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  16. Thanks for playing along with AAB. Great take on the challenge

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