Thursday 13 October 2011

XOXO Blog Hop!

Hey there hopping XOXO Girls! (And hey to everyone else who ain't hopping!)


The True XOXO Girls blog has been going through some changes lately, so to round them all off we've decided to have a blog hop.

First, a little bit about me. I'm a very recently married, lindy-hopping, vintage-loving, dog-owning, punky but shy scrapper. I live in Brussels, Belgium, and am lucky enough to work from home so whenever the need takes me I can just pop into my craft room and get scrapping. At the moment I am loving stars, paint, texturiser, circles and ink.

If you've just come to visit me but would like to start the blog hop, begin here. As ever, there is a prize! And this time, it is immense!

The overall prize for the person who completes the blog hop: a Guest Design Team spot for True XOXO for December! Completing the blog hop means commenting on every single member of the team's blog. There are also RAKs along the way, depending on how generous or organised people are, and whether they suffer from stash overflow or not (me, I'm in the Not Organised category this time. I am, however, planning to sort through my stash and offer a RAK when my follower numbers reach 100... not far to go!).

Now, there was a twist to the challenges for this blog hop. Each member challenged another member, so all the challenges are different - and I can tell you, we are a diverse bunch! I was challenged by Ana Oxendale-White (who you should have come to me from if you're hopping right) to make a layout inspired by a road sign.

All I could think about for a long time was how I didn't have my own version of that classic photo: the American desert, a lone roadsign, a deep blue sky, sand and dust, nothing else around, inevitably hipstamaticised or instagramised. I didn't have my own version of that photo. But oh, how I wanted it.

After a couple of weeks I fished around in my brain and caught all the swirling ideas. I dipped into our hard drive of pictures and emerged with one that was just right for me to mess around with in Paint.net:

this is it post-production

Then I set to work with my haul of ideas. I wanted to get that feel of brightness the classic road sign photo evokes in me, so setting it all against a dark background was important for me. I also added some shapes that were reminiscent of signs, and a couple of casino-inspired embellishments to point at the desert part of my vision. The electric blue and purple paint splotches are almost hidden by the clusters of paper but I wouldn't be without them.





So there you go. I in turn challenged Emma Ruth Cruz-Fronda to make me smile with some awesome nu-school/old-school tattoo-inspired work - I mean anchors, nautical stars, swallows, hearts and barbed wire, bright colours and thick black outlines. Go check out what Emma did - you won't be disappointed. I wasn't!

33 comments:

  1. These colors are FABULOUS!! I love the blues and purples in the background. How do you splotch that way anyhow??!! I so need a tutorial! You totally captured that feel you were hoping for. Super cute!

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  2. OH MY This is AWESOME!!!! First of all the photo is FAB and the layout you created makes it shine!

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  3. Cheryl....I LOVE how fun and funky this layout is! From the great bright colors to the awesome picture...it's all wonderful!

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  4. Awesome job on the challenge - very fun layout!

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  5. hey there!! You already know I am a HUGE fan of dark backgrounds & the reverse cutouts so I won't gush like a groupie :)

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  6. What a fun layout! Love the black base!

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  7. I love this one so very much. The mix of shapes and patterns are fantastic, but that photo puts it over the edge of awesome! LOVE.

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  8. Oh my goodness! I LOVE that photo! Now I must have my own version of a stormy sea with vignetting on the edges- AAA the foreground texture!!! FABULOUS!
    I tried the paint.net site when you first talked about it a few weeks ago but alas I am on a Mac. I will be writing about it in a upcoming article because it's a GREAT alternative for those who don't want to feed the Mac Monster.
    Beautiful layout- love the details and your black background that makes them jump and jive like proper Vegas show pieces. :)

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  9. Great photo and what a fun and funky layout!

    Carrie
    cau0617 at yahoo dot com

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  10. great movement on that LO. Thanks for sharing

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  11. Love the dark background with bright colors! The way you processed the photo was awesome too!

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  12. Great photo and layout. How on earth do you mangage to put all those shapes together? I wouldn't know where to begin!

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  13. wow a super layout and take on the challenge, love it.
    karensneedle@sbcglobal.net

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  14. What an amazing journey with your challenge - love where it ended!

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  15. awesome job with my challenge.

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  16. that is one cool page, love your blog too. Never heard of paint.net, can't wait to look into that!

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  17. Love your blog and am now a follower! Fun layout!

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  18. Thanks everyone for such positive comments! Really, really appreciate them! x

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  19. I lov the pop of colour against the dark background, almost like floating in space. Thanks for sharing your art

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  20. Sorry Blogger was not co-operating!
    I love the pop of colour against the dark background, almost like floating in space. Thanks for sharing your art

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  21. Wow, super cool LO! Love the bright colors against the black background..:)

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  22. I love that you aren't afraid to mess with your pics! Inspiring! (PS: I am happy to be your 100th folloer! I'll be watching!)

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  23. This is awesome!!! Being an indiana girl I was instantly drawn to the colts embellishment! lol
    I love that photo and the design is out of this world!

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  24. This layout is fantastic. Everything just JUMPS OFF THE PAGE!! Thank you so much for sharing it

    Toodles
    Erika

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  25. Wow, you really have an awesome blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The layout you made is absolutely stunning and I just love the picture you used! It draws so much attention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  26. Thanks for the ideas.....

    krafybre@yahoo.com

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  27. the contrast with the black is striking!

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  28. The picture is amazing! Your layout is eye popping!

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  29. what a cool inspirational idea

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  30. INspired by the bold colors of your LO & the overall design.. here's my page.... http://lostinadreamofjosh.blogspot.com/2011/10/xoxo-inspired.html

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  31. This layout is so colorfull and it brightens my day.

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  32. I LOVE how your colours POP! Fantastic, I chuckled how you couldn't end the song mid-verse...I have that problem.

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  33. http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii64/scrapaholicaef/xoxoxo%20blog%20hop/?action=view&current=signsscrapliftchallenge.jpg

    Thankyou for the inspiration this photo I had was just what perfect for this. Hugs Alesia scrapaholicaef@yahoo.com

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