Hi there crafty peeps,

Zsoka here with you today, sharing two new layouts with that I've created with the awesome Out and About collection.

With these two layouts I'm also saying goodbye to the Pinkfresh Studio Scrapbook Design Team. It's been an honor...It was a very difficult decision for me and it's very hard to write this blog post too. 

I discovered Pinkfresh a few months after I started scrapbooking in 2015, thanks to Ashley Horton and her use of those awesome rainbow colored wooden chevron pieces which I still have a million packages of (yeah, thanks Ashley!!! Haha!). It was not easy to find PF supplies here back then, in fact  that's how I discovered Scrapbok Werkstatt (which became my favorite scrapbook store and later my second home as a DT member for a few years) on my quest of finding those chevron pieces. Ahhh memories! :( 

Pinkfresh has been one of my favorite companies since then. Together with Basic Grey and Fancy Pants, one of which doesn't do scrapbook collections anymore and the other...I'm not even sure what's happening to the other. If you know me, you know that I am a fan of small, family run businesses, unique, revolutionary designs that break rules, that don't care about trends. Patterns and color combinations I don't find elsewhere. To me Pinkfresh Studio is all that. Pioneers.

OK, I don't believe in coincidences. You know what just started playing on the radio...Nelly Furtado's All Good Things Come to and End. Seriously?! Tears running. But I do believe this was the right decision for me right now.

Thank you Kinnari for having me this past year! Thank you for having faith in me and for your continuous support!

Sorry guys for the long intro, but I had to say all those things!

Back to my layouts phew! Since most of our photos are travel photos I decided to work mainly with Out and About on both these layouts with a bit of other collections mixed in there (patterned papers). 

I first cut this gorgeous Paige Evans cut file from textured white card stock, then backed it with various patterned papers. Once done, I carefully glued the thin frame on the New Places paper, then stitched it down so that it surely stayed put. I then fussy cut out the whole middle part (I actually really loved the cut file on the rainbow paper but I thought it would end up too busy once I add photo and embellies).

I turned the frame around and added foam tape everywhere, on the back of some of the flowers and leaves too. Then I adhered it on the Scenic Route paper. I thought the street map design fit my photo well.

I layered some tissue paper and a bunch of die cut pieces, tags and labels behind my photo and glued the whole stack down in the middle, tucking a part of my picture behind the cut file.  I added a few embellies, die cuts, epoxy clip, puffy stickers, not too many because I wanted the papers to shine. I'm all about patterned papers, can't help it! I stamped my date and added my journaling, done and done.

On my second layout I used a cut file that will soon be available as a freebie in the Pinkfresh Studio Facebook fan group, so don't forget to check every now and then for new cut files! I backed the flower and leaves with patterned papers and also die cut some layered flowers for additional dimension. I need dimension and texture.

The white cut file was pretty much invisible on the background so I glued the stamp on a yellow card stock and fussy cut around it, leaving a bit of outline. Please excuse my fussy cutting, I don't normally do such a bad job. I also could have done this using my Cameo but it was an afterthought and by then I closed down the Silhouette software and I couldn't have gotten the sizing perfect.

Since I used this stamp cut file I thought it would be great to use the Tickets paper with all the different stamps on it. Or at least a small part of it. The top bit of my background is the Present and Perfect paper from the Everyday Musings collection, the bottom part is the Travel Icons paper from Out and About, turned on its side.

Using foam adhesive I glued down the cut file on my background. I added the 3d flowers and started embellishing. Enamel dots for flower centers, and a few die cuts, puffy stickers around my photo. I stamped my date on a label sticker.

Last but not least my title. I'm obsessed with the Adore Alpha die set (coordinating stamp set also available!), I think it's the best alpha die set out there! It's also two for one since you get outlines and inner pieces as well. So I die cut my title from white card stock once, then from the New Places paper as well. I was debating which version I should go with, rainbow outline with white letters or the other way around. In the end I liked this version better. I added pop dots behind the letters and glued them in place. To finish off my title I used the mini puffy alpha stickers from the Everyday Musings collection. That's about it I think!

Alright you guys, thank you so much for stopping by, if you've been reading my posts, please know I really appreciate it! Should you want to keep seeing my work, you could follow me on Instagram (handle: zsoka_marko), which is the only social media platform I share all my work on. I can't keep up with anything else, ha!

So while I was trying to put this post together, several other songs came up (to be fair it took me half a day to write this haha), like Verve's Bittersweet Symphony and Placebo's Song to Say Goodbye. Really?! I mean REALLY? Ugh.

Have a wonderful day!

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