"Laugh as much as you breathe" by Melissa Struhs

Morning Everyone! With Christmas only a few days away sometimes our crafting hours seem to take the backseat as we fill it with preparations for the holiday season. Whatever you have planned, us scrapbookers will always take a tonne of photo's to remember the occasion.

And as I sat to create my layout for this post, I am excited to have a day of creativity planned with my oldest gal pals over the holidays and chose a black and white photo of us at our last get together.

I began with a piece of white cardstock, a simple heart stencil and Tangareen Dream Colour Paste,

it has a simple drop style pendant and was

perfect to stamp and diecut simple stitched circles around the stencilling.

To create a little texture, Tangareen Dream  Colour Shimmer Spray was flicked over the circles.

This piece of white cardstock was cut to form a title panel and it too was stencilled with the Tangareen Dream Colour Paste.

I love how intense this colour is when it dries, almost with coppery undertones.

On a 7 Dots Studio Cotton Candy patterned paper, a cobblestone stencil was used to create a blistered and textured wall in one corner.

I have used Heavy White Gesso and Dusty Charcoal Colour Paste as a half mixed medium and you end up with so many variations throughout the pattern.

Usually, I like to let pastes dry naturally but this time, my heat gun was positioned very close to the mediums so it would bubble and blister as it was dried.

It was only then, that I decided to add another piece of white cardstock as a background instead and trim and position the 7 Dots paper in the centre.

I found lots of circular die cuts from the 7 Dots Studio papers and embellishments to team with my stamped circles and just began layering them altogether. No plan...just glued as I went and created three separate clusters.

The distressed look of the techniques really needed a darker colour from the Colour Blast range added.

I edged some elements and stamped with a script stamp image with a black Staz on ink and then reached for the Roadbase  Colour Spray. It is a true dark black and even when it dries doesn't fade in it's intensity. Ideal for dark droplets and grungy style layouts.

That is the last 2016 post for me. Wishing you a Happy Holiday season and a Happy New Year Colour Blasters!

Till next year,

Mel.