Lake Pleasant Scrapbook Layout

Hello everyone! I thought I'd post a two page scrapbook layout that I did a long time ago with one of SU! stamps from a now-retired stamp set called Southwest (I think... it was one I picked up at a yard sale and the label was torn off).

As you can see, I used the sun swirl to create my background for my Lake Pleasant layout. Lake Pleasant is just northwest of Phoenix, and is a huge, beautiful lake plopped in the middle of the desert (no silly, it's not a mirage!). Once again, I'm struggling to reduce glare on my photos and take better layout pictures, but I think you can see most of the details otherwise. If you have any tips with this, I'd be happy to listen!

The page's title was created on the computer and printed open-line style on blue cardstock. I used colored pencils and added the shadings and highlights to bring out the words. The little lake scene below the title was created by ripping different shades of brown strips of paper and placing them around my "lake" to create mountains in the background and desert scenery in the foreground. The cacti was made with punches, as well as cutting saguaro shaped cacti free-hand using green cardstock. The longhorn skull was cut free-hand after sketching it out on light brown cardstock, then I added shadings in colored pencil to create the skull's contours. Here's a close-up section of the title below:

The letter "h" was a template created with the computer and then cut out with blue cardstock and chipboard. I distressed it and wrapped a little string around it for interest. It started my journaling block to tell about our awesome time at the lake.

The cactus on the 2nd page was cut free-hand and heavily distressed before adding it to a block. I really like how it turned out.

The kids had a super time meeting new friends, fishing and flying kites. We also spent time at the Visitor's Center and learned about the dam, a nearby eagle preserve and various wildlife that surrounded the lake. The entire spread turned out to be 6 pages when it was finally finished!

I love to stamp in my scrapbooks, and look forward to sharing more with you soon. I will be posting samples for an April album class this Saturday that uses the current Sweet Nothings Simply Scrappin' Kit, so I hope that you will come on back and check it out! It is turning out better than I imagined, and I can't wait to share it with you... see you soon!