We all need a Lift challenge!

Hi Everyone!! I am posting today my layout for the new challenge: "We all need a Lift". In this challenge we were supposed to each lift a member, and I chose to lift Michelle (Ravenea). Michelle is an amazing art journalist and scrapbooker, and even though her style of scrapping is extremely different from mine, I am very inspired by her. I chose this layout to lift:

I was so extremely moved by the amount of emotion on this one page, I knew instantly that it was the one. Michelle's mother just recently passed away, and this has been very hard on her, but this is something that I can relate to having lost my own mother almost 8 years ago, so this layout was very identifiable for me. I know too well those emotions she expressed her on this page, and it makes me heart break all over again. The 8th anniversary of my mother's passing is quickly approaching, and has been on my mind so much. I took this opportunity to get some of those emotions out onto paper, like Michelle has done here, as this is extremely therapeutic.

There were several things I really loved about Michelle's layout that I wanted to incorporate on my page in some way. First was the handmade paper she did her journaling on. I decided to try and make my own artsy paper out of a bunch of neutral patterned papers, so I cut different sizes of paper out and just laid them all down. I only glued them slightly in the center of each so that their edges could be pulled up and curl a little. I used a couple of the border strips from the Crate Paper Portrait collection to add even more texture. Final touches to my handmade paper were painting the whole thing white, not really caring that some areas had more paint on them than others, and then sewing in a few random places. I used two strips of darker paper on two edges of my layout for a little contrast.

Another thing I really loved about her layout was the repetitiveness of her words. I kept this idea and did my journaling around one word. Everything I needed to say on here revolved around one feeling, one emotion, one word. So I made that one word pop with letter stickers in my journaling.

The only thing that I really did different was the addition of the flowers. I wanted this to be softer, and it is actually almost impossible for me to do a layout without flowers-so some flowers just had to make it on there. :D I hand cut these out of the Crate Paper Portrait paper and used a few brads from the My Mind's Eye set and some Primas from my stash. Most everything else on this layout was made with my Jump and Jive kit-there are still some left!! This kit is gorgeous and so extremely versatile, so go grab yours if you haven't already!

So there you have it!! I really enjoyed this challenge, even though it had me bawling while finishing it. I have always felt that scrapbooking is therapeutic for me, and these emotions needed to be written. So I actually need to thank Michelle very much for inspiring me to make this. It let me get out a lot that I needed to say.

~Amy