(Scrap)lifting myself out of my comfort zone

I spent a snowy Sunday inside last week, which gave me the chance to follow the Scrap 365 Blog Hop (are you enjoying it), which in turn introduced me to Georgia Heald's fab blog where I saw this layout:

                 

It was love at first sight - the colour combination, the arty effect and the whole design so, as soon as I could get my papers out, I decided to scraplift it and create a background for this photo, taken in the garden:

I had several snow-themed papers and, thinking I might not get the chance to use them again for 2 years, I just ripped into them. If you know my style, you'll know this is not usual , and when I tell you 2 of the sheets were full 12x12s you'll understand how brave it was (even though I did tear against a ruler - not totally reckless!)

Georgia used lots of washi tape but I only had short strips of Smash tape which were the right shades so instead I tore larger boxes of patterned paper.  I then dry-brushed over everything with white acrylic paint, which is also a departure from the norm for me - actually quite liberating - I might do it more often as it's great to tone down various papers which are not exactly the same shade.

To finish off this very unusual process, I got out my stamps and a lace rub-on I'd had for ages (I think I bought it in France last Summer). I hardly ever stamp, and I think you can see why. I couldn't even find my acrylic block so the pressure is very uneven.

I was really happy with it, so as soon as I could I finished it off with the matted photo, a couple of sentiment tags and a title taken from a Charlie and Lola story (We love Charlie and Lola)

I liked the effect so much I used my scraps to make 2 Christmas cards and a Valentine card. The dodgy stamping is more obvious here, so I'm not so pleased with them but still,  Christmas crafting in January? That's not like me either. Thanks for the inspiration, Georgia!