Hi Everyone! It is Andrea again and I am so excited to share with you my latest layout called “there is a light”. For this layout I really wanted to have fun with color and use it in some new and clever ways. I thought that the May Hip Kits would be perfect for a really colorful layout so I pulled together some of my favorite things in the kit and started working on my layout. I normally start my layouts with a piece of patterned paper but this time I wanted to try something different so that I might be able to use color in some ways that I haven’t before.

For this layout, I decided to use white cardstock for the background because I thought it would be fun to do some painting! I started by spraying the white paper with some blue and yellow mists (which were actually from the April Color Add on kit). I then got out my Gouache paints. I love using these paints because you can combine them with water for a more watercolor effect or leave them thick for a more acrylic look. I decided I wanted to have fun with some script so I used a thin paintbrush and painted out these words…”there is a light that shines ever brighter in the darkness”.  It is something that I truly believe and that I often say. I wrote it down once a long time ago when I was alone in a dark hospital room and I noticed that there was just a tiny bit of light shining in from the hallway and despite being small it filled me with hope that I was not alone. This thought gave me great comfort and I realized that such a light is not just one that comes from without, but within too. I feel like through adversity, we all have within us a light that has the potential to grow brighter and brighter despite the hardships we face. I wanted this layout to express that and I wanted it to have a lot of color because it is in the light that we get to see all the colors of this world.

After I wrote out my script, I layered some scrappy goodies from the kits together under my photograph. I combined some of the exclusive patterned paper with a journal card from the Project Life Add on Kit. I embellished with some enamel hearts and a chipboard piece from Bella Blvd., some fussy cut flowers from one of the exclusive patterned papers by Kim Watson, and a cool puffy sticker that says “favorite Memory”.

I also added a few enamel dots from Simple Stories and I cut a little Simple Stories chipboard frame down to be a little tab on my layout.

At the end I thought it needed one final touch, so I cut out the butterfly that came in the set of die-cut pocket journal cards, or “placemats” from Jillibean Soup. It was white and I thought that it needed some color so I got a little clever…  I used my Gouache paints, in red and blue, combined them with a lot of water and colored in the wings of the butterfly with a thin brush. For the middle of the butterfly, I simply dipped my finger in the yellow paint and colored in…I did the same for the edges with the blue paint, to give the wings a little pop!

I really love how colorful the layout is!  I hope I have inspired you to have fun and get clever with some color too on your next layout!