The Magic of Oz

I had hoped and prayed...and prayed and hoped...but BabyOfTheFamily refused to be ANY of the characters from Wizard of Oz for Halloween this year!  LOL!

Why was I hoping for this?  Because I wanted to put the photos of her (dressed up as Dorothy, no less) on my "Magic of Oz" layout! hee hee!

So I decided to scrap my photos of the musical "WICKED"...which my BFF Sandra treated me to in August.  I don't see a lot of live theatre, and this performance had a powerful impact on me.  In fact, I was inspired to design a layout about Oz with the wonderful Graphic 45 papers.

This 2-page layout is a class I taught at Scrap-A-Lot a couple of weeks ago.  I have another single page Oz layout still in my sketch book!  But some day soon (I hope) it will become a reality :)

A slightly crooked photo....it's hard to take a pic of a double pager!

I am kicking myself for cheaping out and not buying a program...which would have had wonderful photos of the cast and sets.  I could have cut those out for my layout since you cannot take pictures during the performance.  Instead, I downloaded the rather poor quality photos of Glinda (left page) and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West (far right page).  The middle photo is of Sandra and me posing in the foyer with a huge poster.  Don't you love the graphic of the two witches on the poster?!? Hey....I just noticed something...wait a minute....why is Sandra standing in front of "Glinda the GOOD Witch" and I am standing in front of the "WICKED witch"???

Why do BLONDES always end up being the "GOOD" witch????

The brick road was a feature technique for this class. I used my trusty Big Shot and the Tim Holtz brick embossing folder.  I inked the embossing folder with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink BEFORE I put the yellow cardstock inside and ran it through the Big Shot.

I used a 6" x 12" piece of yellow cardstock, and kept moving the folder to emboss the length.

Then I cut along the edges of the bricks to make the edges uneven....I wanted to create the perspective of the road from a distance. (And I did this twice for the road on both left and right pages.)

I added Yellow Stickles randomly and spread them with my finger for a little glimmer.

The other special element is Glinda on the bird cage, in the top left corner.

I hung the cage from the top gears die cut border using gold wire.

I created the antique "crackled" effect on the wings (which are Tim Holtz grunge paper die cuts) using Picket Fence (white) Distress Crackle Paint, then inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

Most of you have seen that Tim Holtz Die Cut bird cage before...and I cut it from Grunge Paper. To make that cage look metallic, I "pounced" my Adirondack Gold Metallic Paint Dabber all over it, giving it a hammered metal effect.

I really wanted Glinda to SHINE....so Stickles did their magic...

Glinda LOVES Stickles :)

A closer look...

I think I'm falling in love with Glinda :)

The other Tim Holtz Grunge Paper element I created is the Tin Man's Heart...

The "tools" for altering the grunge paper heart

The heart is coloured with Fired Brick Distress Stain.  Grunge paper really drinks up the Stain, so you have to apply lots of layers of it to get a rich dark colour.  Then I applied Clear Rock Candy Stickles to the red heart piece for some sugary shine.

I used almost half a bottle of yellow Stickles to get that bottom layer to look REALLY glittery.  First I coloured the raw grunge paper with Mustard Seed Distress Ink to give the Stickles a nice yellow base.

The oversized "postage stamp" edges of the layout are created with a 1/2 inch circle punch...easy peasy!

I made 1 inch markings on the blue background to space the punches...

With a Sharpie, I marked the halfway point on the back of my punch so I could easily measure and punch half a circle....

The top border of both pages is created with POW Micro Glitter paper (American Crafts)...LOVE that stuff....it's soooo thin and pliable and doesn't stink and cuts beautifully...and MOST important, the glitter does not rub off AT ALL.  It is miraculous paper!

I added a glittery red ribbon across the top of the gears to match Dorothy's shoes.

If you're wondering why I chose a rather "unusual" border along the top, it's because of the sets in the play Wicked....they are Steampunk!  If you're not familiar with this term, think "Sci-Fi" mechanical elements...or Timex watches on crack...ha ha!

I added Xmas Red Stickles to sparkle up Dorothy's shoes...

Sigh...don't we ALL wish we had a pair of these beauties?

I also Stickled the Witch's striped stockings/legs in Purple...

I fussy cut these lovely poppies along the bottom edges of both pages.

I also fussy cut the title banner from the same piece of paper the characters came from...

The frame is made of BoBunny double dot card stock "Chiffon" and I punched the edges with a small postage stamp border punch from Fiskars.

I added some poppies in the bottom corners of the photo mat/frame for some colour...

The characters are cut from one fabulous piece of Graphic 45 paper...

More Red Stickles to brighten Dorothy's shoes..

And now your trip along my yellow brick road has come to an end.

Thanks for joining me...and may the rest of your day be magical...OR "wicked."  hee hee!