Pebble Sculptures

On days like these (although I like the rain!) I often think myself back to drier times with sunshine, a nice view and a refreshing breeze around. Like it was on the day I shot this picture of the stack of pebbles. I was on my very long walk from the Golden Cap to Abbotsbury along the Dorset coast. Every now and then the South West Coast Path leads you back to the shoreline to various beaches, like this one: I am not really sure, but I think it was Eype Beach where I took this picture of these sculptures. What a nice way to brighten up the dreariness of pebbles beach after pebbles beach!

For this layout I was inspired by Katherine Sutton (aka sutty and former colleague at The Studio Challenge) and her page about a carousel ride at Butlins. She used some die-cuts for her circles themed layout which I couldn’t just take over like that, because I don’t have my Big Shot with me (and the lucky ownership of an electronic die-cutting machine is written in the stars). But as we call ourselves scrapbookers we aren’t stopped at this hurdle. No. We are very inventive and I rummaged my stash: papers, stamps, embellishments,… everything circle-like was soon piled up on my sofa!

Then I started with stamping down some of the dotted circles (a very old stamp by Studio Calico) with different pebbles-like colours. After that I wanted to fill them like Katherine was doing it with her patterned paper. But without a circle punch or circle dies it was difficult to get proper round circles (yes, I admit: I’m a perfectionist). My solution was simple: I used the round designs of the papers and just cut out the printed circles. And I was lucky, most of them fitted with my colour scheme and the style of the page. I also added some stickers and layered them up with more circles in those cases the text didn’t fit my purpose.

And then, it happened: while foraging my label stickers and banner galore with (apparently too much) enthusiasm, the cardstock with all the temporarily placed circles and the photo just tucked between them slid off the table and left everything scattered all over the carpet. Blimey! “Oh well, I start again then” I thought, bent down and was starting to pick up the pieces. But wait! What was that?! The cardstock somehow rotated just the perfect 90 degrees clockwise – and that was the perfect solution! Now the circles itself were stacked like the pebbles sculptures I have photographed on the beach!

And with this altered orientation I went on and finished the layout: the title with some glittery orange Thickers (AC) and label stickers by Teresa Collins, and more details with enamel dots, banners, journaling and colour sprinkles.

Looking back at the original Carousel layout and my finished Pebbles page – not much is left from her version, but I am so very grateful for Katherine’s inspiration! And that is just one of the reasons, why scrappers share their pages on their blogs: to inspire and motivate others to create something new from something existing and make it their own!

And now over to you: Which person has inspired you lately? I would love to see your outcomes!

Have a good week – just two more days left until the weekend! x