Good Things Come To Those Who Wait
(This post is part of my Onwards and Upwards Blog Event)
Good morning! Today we’re starting with an adventure. Challenge #2 is now up at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, and I thought I might have to blog my layout for it tomorrow. Then I realised it fits in just fine with the Onwards and Upwards theme, as it’s about travel, and about me achieving a long-held dream to be like a certain book character!
The challenge is to get inspired by your favourite children’s book! You can be inspired by the theme, cover, topic, style… I took several ideas from mine…
Halong Bay:
My page was inspired by my favourite children’s novel, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S . Lewis.
I love this book so much. When I was about 7 or 8 I received the set of the Narnia Chronicles books, and I devoured them! This one was my particular favourite as I wanted to be Lucy, sailing on a ship in another world, seeing mermaids, dragons and other magical creatures. I’ve always loved the sea so the thought of travelling on a real adventure across the ocean really appealed to me!
I finally got to live the dream (a little) when I went travelling with my husband (then fiancée) about 7 years ago. We went on a trip through Halong Bay in Vietnam, and spent a night on a junk boat. It was all wooden and our cabin had a high wooden bed. We ate fish cooked straight from the sea, we glided past monolithic islands peppered with caves, and rowed a kayak over a jellyfish as big as mel. The next morning I was the first to wake up and I sat alone on the top deck – the mist was curling around the limestone karsts and I couldn’t hear anything apart from the low chugging of the engine propelling us onwards. Even the name ‘Halong Bay’ was perfect as it means ‘the bay of descending dragons’. I was in absolute heaven.
I wanted to get this magical feeling across on my layout, so I took several ideas from the Voyage of the Dawn Treader book.
First of all, there’s the part where the children are looking at a painting of a boat on the sea, and the painting comes to life and starts to escape the frame:
‘a great cold, salt splash had broken right out of the frame and they were breathless from the smack of it’.
So I used a Tando Creative ‘Sequin Waste’ mask to create some white circles spilling out from behind my photo and journaling areas. On the left of the page I used white acrylic paint, laying it on quite thickly so the circles blurred together, they look like underwater bubbles:
I used opaque white mist through the mask on the right of the page, to look more like sea spray:
I also remembered that Lucy has a sun on her dress in the book illustrations:
So I punched circles from some papers with a Martha Stewart Punch All Over The Page Pinking Circles punch, and tucked them in a few places. Finally, I used the mermaid background paper so the mermaid was at the bottom, as in the book their ship glides over some merpeople.
Writing this up makes me want to be back on that trip. One day we will go again. I’m good at waiting for things like that. We were suppossed to go to New Zealand on our trip then – it was the main part of the trip I was looking forward to – but we ran out of money and had to come home. We’ve still not been, and I know we won’t be able to go for at least 5 years more. But I don’t mind too much – as long as I can believe it will happen, and I have a rough idea when, then I can stand the wait. Good things come to those who wait.
Though I have to admit I’m not quite so patient when I’m waiting for new scrappy goodies to arrive!
Be Inspired:
Make a layout inspired by a book – I’ll be extra impressed if you use a detail from an illustration to inspire something
Write about a dream that has come true
Use one product in two different ways (for me it was the mask, but you could alter items, use a stamp in two different orientations/colours, etc
Remember that commenting on this post, and any other over this weekend, will count as an entry into the Grand Giveaway, but only if you’ve registered your interest in winning that prize right HERE!
See you again at 11am! x
Jacky S
It sounds like a wonderful experience……the stuff of dreams…..I love the photo…..and your layout is just perfect for the theme.
Julie Jeavons
That sounds like a fantastic trip and you’ve put so much symbolism in your LO. I have that mask – must try it like that. I bought my daughter the Narnia books and she loved the first ones but we stalled on this one – she just didn’t like it for some reason.
Tracey
Lovely layout it looks so magical x
Zahra
Wow, lovely LO, so much attention to detail!
Jackie Edwards
Love your layout…and all the little details are super!!
Annie
wonderful whimsical page – I love the idea of being inspired by a children’s book … you’ve got my cogs turning now – I loved The Faraway Tree, Mrs Pepperpot, The Hobbit … hmmmm :o)
LesleyG
A very inspired layout, you MUST visit NZ, never remove it from your bucket list 🙂
Jemma @ Just-Jimjams
Gorgeous page – some papers from that stack were offered to me, but I couldn’t think how to use them, but you’ve been very creative with them here (and several other pages). I’d love to do NZ … Hubby and I are waiting another couple of years and then perhaps we’ll have a go at some more exotic travels.
furrypig
that really is a magical page Jennifer in fact I initially didn’t think that it was a real photograph! Love how you have included so many details that are important and significant to you xxx
Julie
I love the blues and greens and how they are the same colors in the photo as in the background. The white circles really do look like bubbles. I thought they were already on the page. They fit so well with the theme.
Julie
I Create Purty Thangs
Lisa L. ( Lisa's Creative Niche)
very pretty!
sandie
That’s a great idea for inspiration. Vietnam looks amazing it’s good you had the chance to visit.
Heather V
Gorgeous photo, and wonderful layout!
Pam Sohan
Lovely Layout. Hmm my favorite children’s books were The Poky Little Puppy and a book about a little girl who wanted to be a ballerina but had trouble because her legs were weak. It was an over sized book and pink. I can remember sitting in the big chair by the living room window reading that book. Funny the things you remember.
K
Love the use of punchenella (sequin waste), it goes soooooooo well!
Louise
You really did the magical feeling across on your wonderful layout Jennifer. We never made it to Vietnam when we traveled 🙁
Becky
I just love this layout. I also read all these books as a child and then again to my children and theses days I just read them again for my own pleasure! You really did make this layout feel magical, I love it.
Bethany Hardy
Really stunning layout! That is one of my favorite books, too! See, we are like twins!
Marilize K
This is quite a neat idea. I would love to give it a go with some of my fav books as backdrops. This could also be a great art project inspiration.
dogmatix
I love this LO. It is so magical
Sandy Ang
that’s a fantastic idea. i’m definitely making a note to scrap my fav childhood story book – Alice in Wonderland.
jengd
Sounds like an amazing experience and again, you nailed the look you were going for on your LO! Gorgeous! I loved the whole Narnia series as a child but haven’t read them in years. I’ve been planning to get them for my son when he gets a bit older- now I want them NOW so I can read them again! LOL!
Rinda
Your layout is fantastic! I love the bubbles with the sequins on top and what a great assortment of embellishments.
Rinda
Julie H
I recognize that cover! We had that same series of Narnia books when I was a kid!
Julene Matthews
Love ,love,love C.S. Lewis’s books. I’m still thinking about my challenge for this one.Love your colourscheme etc.
Lisa H
I am in awe of the detail and thought you put into your creation. this is such a wonderful page and just so evocative. your words about how the book inspired the page brought it to life even more.
Personally, I read any of the Narnia books except the first. I have no idea why as I loved that one. I had a hand me down “Silver Chair” or whatever the name is and never got past the first page. How amazing it is to hear about how we are all influenced by these moments in childhood.
Wonderful. Now, I’m off to check out the rest of your weekend event. It all looks amazing!
Frances
Such imagination! Love it.
Lisa-Jane
How did I miss this layout! Its fab and so perfect for the theme. Halong Bay is incredible, I agree, and I wish we were back on our own travels too. I’ve been reading some fiction about NZ recently and goodness I am desperate to go back. I wish we could live there.