Big Idea Festival -- Part II

As promised, here are the rest of my word layouts for Big Idea Festival. I really like the format used to make the layouts. I kept it pretty simple with just a bit of journaling, a photo, and a couple of embellishments.

Since there were only 12 words, I am thinking about adding 8 more pages for a total of 20. That will make a nice size album. Now to come up with some words of my own!

Big Idea Festival

I've been doing the Big Picture's Big Idea Festival Word a Day class and having lots of fun doing it. I started late on Friday and did catch up for the weekend. Below are the first six layouts I did and will finish up the other six sometime later this week.

I wish I was a more consistent blogger. Some people just have the knack of remembering to blog a bit each day, but I guess that isn't me. I won't even say I'll try to do better in the future because that isn't going to happen.

Explore Class -- Color Layout

While we were visiting our friend, Wilson, in March of 2011, several of his buddies brought their show cars down to Myrtle Beach for exhibition at a local car show. You would have to see the cars in person to realize how good the paint jobs are on the cars. There must be at least 15 layers of paint slabbed onto these cars, and they are just beautiful.

As soon as they drove their cars into Wilson's development, neighbors started looking out their windows and doors to see these beauties. The cars were soon surrounded by people announcing how they used to have cars like these. Some of them were disappointed the cars did not have their original engines but it probably would have been difficult for them to drive from Maryland to South Carolina with original equipment.

The interior is just as sweet as the exterior in these cars. They are a pleasure to look at and a pleasure to drive--so the owners said. Although I am not a car buff, I can appreciate the beauty of these cars and am happy I was there to see them.

This layout was done entirely digitally. Our assignment for this part of the class was to pile all our leftover scrap papers onto a table and pick out colors that were pleasing to the eye and the photo. Because I don't have paper supplies, I used my Picassa program to pick out various papers and embellishments.

Our Backyard Woodland

I am sometimes astounded by what suddenly appears in our backyard. We've had almost a herd of deer arrive, a family of skunks, ground hogs, quail, ducks, hawks, owls, and now the latest is a family of wild turkeys--at least I think that's what they are.

Just as we were sitting down to eat dinner, my hubby called me to the kitchen window and there at the bird feeder was a family of wild turkeys. I went out the front door and traveled to the back yard. I tried to get as close to them as I could without scaring them away. I did manage to snap a few photos, one of which is below.

Today, he called me again and sure enough the family of wild turkeys had come back to feed. As they were walking up from the woods, the crows and squirrels who were already feeding ran away. It was almost as though they were frightened of what the mother turkey would do if they didn't let her family feed.

If they come back, I hope I get a better photo of them.

Explor Class -- Color

Our task in today's lesson is all about color and how we decide which colors to use. First, I answered a number of questions about color choices.

Then I chose a photograph my sister sent me a while ago. I don't know the artist or even who took the original photo. My sister found it on the internet so I can't give credit to the artist.




I particularly like cows but this photo is very strange to me. It's been just sitting there waiting to give me a clue on how to do a layout using it. The photo only has a few colors in it but they are intense, moody and slightly threatening to me. The photo gives me a feeling of unease. To reduce the feelings I get from this photograph, I might use colors like softer colors like turquoise, and a grungy orange or yellow. Tell me what you think?

I enjoy using colors and trying different ones that I probably would never use if I didn't have a color wheel next to me!

Explore class -- Video 2

After watching Shimelle's second video, I tried to put into practice some of her suggestions. I really like the idea of clustering and think it adds a great deal to the layouts.

I did a layout I've been meaning to do for quite a while. Here is the back story--we met up at a restaurant with my brother and his wife for his birthday last year. The restaurant was in the Lancaster area smack dab in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch country where the food is good and plentiful. Before we went into the restaurant, I gave my brother a gift bag containing his birthday gift (a hand knitted scarf for the cold winters we have here.) When we walked in the waitresses wanted to know if it was his birthday. When he replied that it was indeed his birthday, they said he would get a free lunch. Well, that just made his day. They made a really big fuss over him (what man would not love that?) However, they did not sing Happy Birthday to him for which I was sorry, I would have loved to see him blush.

At last, here is the digital layout I did...