SEI link party

SEI has started doing a link party at the end of the month.  It is a great opportunity to share your work and to see what others are doing with SEI products.  There is a sketch challenge for the month (based on a Julie Bonner sketch this month) but you can link any project on which you used at least one SEI product.  Pretty easy huh?  I have my layout for the challenge finished but need to get a good photo of it so I am waiting for daylight.  In the meantime, I have two layouts that I completed for the Lets scrap blog hop earlier this month that used SEI products that I haven't shared yet.  These two challenges made me step out of the box a little and ended up being my favorites of the dozen I completed for the hop.  The first one had to be created without any patterned paper.  After much consideration, I decided to do something I have been thinking about for some time.  I saw a layout by Kinsey Wilson awhile back that inspired the background in this layout.  I have been putting off creating this layout because the picture and story are so dear to my heart and I wanted the layout to be something special. 

Although it is a simple layout, I worked on it for days.  The only SEI product on it is the metal filigree leaf but isn't it just perfect here?  Because the only pattern comes from the hand stitching, the single leaf makes quite a statement.  I love the way this layout turned out and I am so happy to have finally put down on paper the feelings I had about the sweet photo.  Layouts like this are the reason I scrap!

The challenge for this second layout was to use the color combo of yellow, teal, and gray.  This is not a color combination I would have come up with on my own, but the finished product has made me a convert.  I chose warm tones of each of the colors and the layout turned out so much more elegant and sophisticated than I thought it would.  I love it!  The gray paper is from SEI's Claire line and I will use it again and again now that I know how versatile it is.  The rest of the papers are from Echo Park and My Mind's Eye. 

Doesn't it just make you want to use gray paper in your next layout?  Apparently gray is the new black and I for one will be adding more gray papers to my stash after this.  By the way, this paper is even more beautiful in person because the lines are a brown foil that doesn't show up as well on camera.  I need to get a better lens for close-ups.  Maybe for my upcoming birthday? ; )