A Soft, Harmonious Palette at CCG!

We have a new challenge up at Color Combos Galore with a beautiful palette and a fun Designer's Challenge.

I had the perfect pictures for this challenge. Our sponsor this month, Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker, sent us papers from her It's Raining, It's Pouring collection, so we used those papers for this challenge. The blue paper in the background and the plaid papers are from this collection.

I read aloud to my students every day--gather them on the carpet for a good story. I have a bearded dragon named Leo who lives in our classroom during the week, and I take her out during storytime. Well, one day, I look up from my book, and this is what I saw... Fortunately, I happened to have my camera in my purse that day!

Here are some close-ups. I covered a BasicGrey chipboard element with old Chatterbox paper, which was the only paper I could find in my stash that had the exact green of the palette. Love the subtle textures on those old papers. The buttons on the punched stars are old Making Memories buttons that I stitched on with baker's twine. Those silver circles on the title block are called "metallic dots," and I got them from Jo-Ann's in a bunch of different colors. The letter stickers are by Webster's Pages--love them because they're small. I tried to use elements on my page to support the "literary" theme, and I thought the Heidi Swapp ledger chipboard letters were perfect for this. I outlined them in pen to make them stand out.

I found some burlap in my stash which went with the taupe color in the palette, and I also thought it reminded me of the rough texture of my dragon. I tore a dictionary page that had literary words, added a spiral notebook punch, and used a typewriter font for my journaling--to further the literary theme. I found a trim in my stash that had a similar burlap-y texture.

Here's a shot that shows I adhered the stars for extra lift. I outlined all my elements with a fine-line pen to give them extra texture and dimension. That larger brad is an old MOD brad, and the smaller one is by BasicGrey. I used some old Heidi Swapp photo corners on here, too.

I thought a metal bookplate would be a perfect embellishment--you know, for the literary theme. I was going to leave it open and then thought of adding something dark to balance the black letters in my title. I found these ancient Making Memories brads in my stash. The patterned brad is by BasicGrey--love the edging on the new brads BasicGrey is making these days. The "U Make Me Smile" is a cut-out from one of the Nikki Sivils papers, and that thermometer accent is from Pink Paislee's Hometown collection. It's in the May Work in Progress kit, and this piece was sitting my desk leftover from a layout I was working on and the "Easy to Read" caught my eye and struck me as funny and the perfect addition to my page--you know, the lizard with all the words piled on her.

I thought this sticker, by Creative Imaginations, was hilarious for this page:

You should hop over to CCG and see what the rest of the team made with the Nikki Sivils papers--so fun to see all the different takes on this challenge. And be sure to play along to be eligible for the prizes provided by our sponsor, and you might be spotted and faved for our Gallery Faves!

Thank you for stopping by today and reading about my layout!