Tambarambaa: Dear Mama.....

Hi everyone, I'm here today to share my layout for the current 'You've Got Mail' Challenge at Scrap Matrix.

I love this theme......so many options. As soon as I saw it, I knew what I wanted to do.

You see I've had these precious letters that my daughter wrote to me a couple of years ago. They are just beautiful, heartfelt and so very precious to me. I actually carry a copy around with me in my purse at ALL times. I often sit and read them, and I think they bring a tear every time.

Anyway, I really wanted to preserve these letters, and now I have!!

Here's my layout.....

Yep, in that hand made envelope sits the letters.

So let's see how this came together......

I began with a gorgeous paper from 7Dots 'Writer's Block' Range. The script feel is just perfect.

I knew I would add lots of colour.....yep it's gotta have colour, so I added a thin coat of clear gesso to act as a barrier/sealer to protect the paper.

Whilst this was drying, I grabbed another sheet from the 7Dots 'Writer's Block' Range. I chose a darker colour, as a contrast to the background.

I grabbed an envelope that I had laying about the place, and I opened it up, and used this as a template.

I traced it and cut it out

I then taped it back together.....such a simple way to have a perfectly co-ordinating envelope.

Now it's time to add some colour to the layout..... you know how much I LOVE colour!

For this part, I used the 'clear packaging' technique.

I began with Dylusions 'Polished Jade', and spritzed some onto some old packaging, I also added some water.

I then turned this over and splodged it onto my layout. (super technical hey!)

I then repeated this process with Dylusions 'Lemon Zest'.

Then just a hint of Dylusions 'After Midnight'.

*Make sure you dry in between each colour*

I then added some string to my page.

You will notice that these are vertical on the page, however, on the final layout they are horizontal.

When I got to the very end of the layout, I changed my mind and decided that this needed to change!

So I swapped the string to vertical.

I just felt it 'tied' in with the layout more (he he see what I did there)

I then added a few stamps to the background.

I used AALL & Create #60. I used the circle/script/word section of this stamp.

I grabbed a Dina Wakley flower stamp and stamped this onto white cardstock using an Archival Black Ink.

I again used the 'clear packaging' technique to add colour to these stamped images.

I cut these out and began layering and tucking in and around my photos using both the flowers and lots of 7Dots Tags, again from the 'Writer's Block' collection.