I’ve been stuck in a scrappy rut of late. Whenever I pull my Project Life album out to work on I find myself staring at the blank or unfinished pages, then just walking away. I needed to do something similar but different enough to challenge me. Enter the Jot Magazine Mood Board Challenge.

I love Jot magazine, it’s free, it’s full of pretty layouts, and they compile monthly mood boards which are great for inspiration. I always look at the boards and think ‘one month I’ll try a layout’. Well the month arrived for two reasons; I really love the colours of the mood board and right away knew which photos would be perfect for them, and then I saw Aimee from Betwixt and Between’s layout and was completely inspired.

I decided to do an 8×8 layout rather than 12×12 as I’m trying to move away from 12×12 albums. I’ve reached my capacity to store them so starting another 12×12 seemed silly, so I grabbed a Heidi Swapp for Project Life 8×8 instead.

I went into this project with no real direction other than I knew I wanted to use photos from the beach, and lots of watercolour. I started by choosing the photos and deciding on their layout, then put together the journaling.

I painted watercolour stripes on a piece of cardstock, then once it had dried, I printed a map of the Mornington Peninsula onto it to add a bit of detail, you can’t really see it in the photos, but it’s there. Next I cut up the watercolour paper, mounted the journaling on one piece and used another behind the photo.

From there it was just pulling together some papers and elements from my stash that I felt tied in with the board and the theme and feel of my photos. I punched a few tabs using my WRMK punch to add a bit more depth and also stamped some of the papers with an empty tealight candle dipped in ink, and splattered some black watercolour on others. The water colours themselves are pearlescent so the layout has a nice shimmer in person.

I really enjoyed creating this and forcing myself to step out of my comfort zone. I used to scrap 12×12 but never really did this kind of layout as it all seemed a bit daunting. I am definitely inspired to do some more!