R - FELICITY JANE - HAPPY DAY - 12X12 LAYOUT

Hey girlies, so my net is really not wanting to play the last couple of days and it seems we are yet again waiting for a video to upload... It is really starting to bug me when I cant even upload a 10 minute video over night.. 

Anyways, onto the prettiness!! Looking at this layout right now, in the photos, this would have to be one of my most favourite layouts! I love the colours, the style, the direction, and more importantly the message. Today more than any day I am needing this message but I will talk more about that in the video and later in this post. 

For this layout, I decided to work with mainly the Felicity Jane Happy Day kit but Suse Fish, which is still available in store! I also mixed in a few papers from last months Next Stop kit to give my pinks and whites some more tones. I also decided to scrap lift the beautiful Suse Fish. She has made some stunning butterfly layouts and I just knew when these papers came out I had to do something similar. I also adapted her packaging technique and included some beautiful Felicity Jane packaging into my layers behind my photo. 

I just love all the light layers and fluttering butterflies in this layout. In contrast I wanted to build my layers around my photo in only black and white to let the butterflies take center stage. I actually really loved layering with the Felicity Jane black and white papers. I usually struggle doing anything monochromatic simply because it is just that, monochromatic, black and white, and usually for me, that is boring, not any more!!!

The butterflies are all cute from my Silhouette and you can find the cut file for these beautiful geometric butterflies on the Scrapbooks & Cards Today website. This magazine has a heap of free digital downloads every month and they are just awesome!! I have downloaded quite a few cut files from this site and I am just loving them and the best thing of all is THEY ARE FREE!!

So now we get onto the not so happy part. I told you I would get to explaining the layout further in the post and now is the time for that. As most of you know I am struggling with fertility and trying to conceive a child. It is a struggle I have had to deal with for about 14 months now. Every month I am disappointed with negative tests and lately, since tracking my ovulation, I am upset twice a month when I realise we don't sync with my ovulation time very well, or we miss a day, or anything. It is getting to the point now where any small change, any small thing I miss or forget sets me off. You could say I am on the edge of emotions. 

With all tests coming back positive and normal, I have started to wonder "what else can I do to prove I am enough? that I am worthy?" I know it is not the best thing to think about, but its a thought I have almost daily and I am all about capturing life, moods, thoughts and feelings. If I didn't record these moments I would be lying to my own life. I want to capture not only the good days, but the bad days as well. Whoever looks at my albums, I want them to know that no ones life is perfect, filled with polished professional, happy smiling photos. Life is about more than what we allow other people to see. If we only recorded that, you would never know who we really are, what makes us tick, what drives us from day to day and what challenges us!

There is so much more to this story, but I am not going to go further into it. This blog post is already long enough. I just wanted to write in here however, that for the longest of times, sharing your feelings, your personal thoughts, has seemed to be "unprofessional". My whole life I have been told to be professional, don't colour your hair, don't let people know how you really feel. Put on this fake persona to let everyone know that you are ok, willing and able for any job. Now in my 30's I feel I can be professional and a real person. I can be whoever I want to be and society norms are not going to crush that. 

Back to the layout. I added in a heap of sequins, bling and of course gold to my layout and to my Felicity Jane kits. I love that these kits are so versatile and yet you can completely make them your own. Just by adding in some bling and a touch of gold, these kits scream Nae!! After I had stopped the camera, I grabbed out my sewing machine and added stitching to the center of the butterflies and to both the left and right side of the layout, leaving the top and bottom edges open so that the butterflies could fly through. It gave an openness and a direction to the layout that I wasn't even conscious of.

So that is the layout girlies, I hope you didn't get too put off by the mass amount of text in this blog post but sometimes you just have to put your heart on the line and let the world know exactly what is going on in life. It is therapeutic for me, I have always said social media and youtube are my therapists. Thank you so much for following along lovelies and I will be back on Tuesday with another awesome video and a DIY Embellishment post. 

Love you all,