Polly Picks: Scrap like wombat146 Challenge

It’s time for another Polly Picks! Each month we will chat with one of our Pollys about their scrapbooking style and fave things and give you the chance to win a $5 code for the store just by scrapping like them!

This month we are chatting and scrapping with Ona, that you may know as Polly wombat146. Ona is well known in the forum for her Art Muse inspo and challenges, and she has been involved in the backroom organisation of the Layout Team over the years. Personally I find her to be super down to Earth and funny (much like real wombats!) and always enjoy seeing her creativity in the gallery, and not just because that usually involves nature and quite often birds with her equally amazing photography and mixed media use. Her full gallery is here but I’ll link to some specific pages in a minute. Her pages are definitely on the freestyle artistic end of the scrappy style spectrum to me but her ability to create emotions that jump out of the screen, as well as visuals that do the same because of her shadowing skills and use of dimension, not to mention shape and colour, is also aspirational.

Let’s get find out more about Ona’s scrapping from her with an interview. Here’s my Scrap Like A Polly Q&A with Ona.

Your digiscrapping history and style:
1. How long have you been digiscrapping and has your style changed since then?

I began digiscrapping back in 2007/2008. Prior to that I used to do paper scrapbooking but all that changed when I came across a picture of a digital layout in a scrapbooking magazine that featured a blended photo! and I fell in love! My initial style was fairly traditional with some blending thrown in and my layouts featured my grandchildren in their younger years. Over the years however my style has changed quite a bit and these days I love everything to do with mixed media and art journaling type styles. Creating lots of layers and clusters using various elements and ephemera is something I also love to do along with incorporating textures and messy stamping and brushwork, along with fabrics as well. That doesn’t mean that I don’t scrap more traditional layouts, I really do just love all scrapbooking styles. It all depends on how I feel on the day.

Your page focus and process:
2.What do your layouts usually focus on and how do you usually start a page?

In most cases my layouts normally focus on nature in some way, be it a flower, bird or some scenery, or just how I am feeling at that moment. Starting each layout is different, sometimes I have a clear idea of what I want to create from just looking at the kit. At other times, if I don’t have a clue, then I tend to just go through the kit and literally pick out the elements or papers that catch my eye and move them onto my blank page. After moving things around for a bit an idea will often slowly take shape and from there I can move forward with the next step. If that doesn’t work, I will then go look through my photos and nine times out of ten I will find something that sparks some inspiration.

In 99% of cases I don’t ever use a template as I end up changing the template so much it is unrecognizable! 

Your must-have products:
3. Is there a specific type or category of element you must have on a layout?

My must have products include; paint splatters, stitching, something botanical, scribbles.

4. Are you most drawn to patterned papers or solids for backgrounds?

I am most drawn to solid or messy/textured papers for backgrounds. Those that have some splashes of paint on them or have some sort of brushwork and/or stamping on them already. These are my fave papers to blend photos into as I can then add more layering on top of the photos without worrying about the background becoming too busy.

Examples of your gallery faves:
5. Can you share 3 fave pages with us and tell us a bit about why you love them?

1. I often use large photos on my layouts, for me it’s a way of sharing the feeling I had when I actually took the photo in the first place. With this layout, I wanted to share my happiness in growing this Clematis plant for the first time. It was way too hot to grow at our old place on the Australian mainland but down south in the cooler state of Tasmania it has grown beautifully.

2. Lots of layers + grungy paints + messy threads + transfers in the background = heaven for me! I remember I had so much fun creating this layout as I fell in love with not only the color palette but all the gorgeous goodies in the kit as well.

3. A fave art journaling layout I created at a difficult time. I find art journaling to be such a wonderful therapeutic tool sometimes! I loved all nature-themed stamps and brushes in this collection, along with the embellishments, and I found this collection so relaxing to work with.

Thanks Ona. Your fave pages really reflect your current strengths to me, in both the artsy and art journalling styles, characterised by epic mixed media use and layering with an overarching organic feel.

Now it’s your turn to Scrap Like A Polly! On to the challenge:

Just scrap a new page using the ingredients listed below that channel the featured Polly’s style and upload your page to the TLP gallery, (remember to use the PollyPicks tag in the tag field) and come back here and post the link to your page in the comments please.

These pages helped me come up with the ingredient list below and my own wombat146 style layout and they again have an organic feel, incorporate natural elements or photography with amazing layers and mixed media use. Limiting colour palettes but attention to detail and textures also helps these ‘messy’ style pages feel more cohesive and harmonious but authentic like they could easily be mistaken for ‘real’ paper layouts.

Following on from that, these are the ingredients you need to use on your challenge page to scrap like Ona:

• This can be a scrapbook page or more of an art journal page. Photos are optional but you must include a representation of a person or animal (or both) somewhere on the page
  • they could be in the form of sketches, elements, art dolls or on ephemera, stamps or silhouette transfers
• Use a textured or artsy background
• include floral or foliage elements (or use both!)
• include paint or stamping (or use both!)
• including stitching or scribbles/doodles (or use both!)
• include some kind of text but no obvious, large alpha title work
  • you could use subtle script or newsprint stamps, traditional journalling or word strips
• challenge yourself to not use a template!

Let me show you some currently available goodies that suit scrapping in Ona’s style

This is the page I created for today using the Scrap Like Wombat146 recipe. Not having a template always challenges me but I really loved her daffodil layout in the middle of the inspo grid and sort of started with a similar design just rotated, with a big photo and a framed one. Adding pieces and moving them around like Ona mentioned is her method. So I have people and swans in both the photos and elements from The Frozen Lake by Pixel Giraffe as well as Rebecca McMeen’s Woodland Paths. I’ve got various kinds of foliage and paints, like the gesso leaf element and mask overlapping the painted reeds, with different textures and understated wordart elements with some sketchy scribbles at the top and bottom of the page. I feel like it has Ona’s artsy and bird vibes!

Now it’s your turn! You have from now until the next Polly Picks post in the 2nd week of May to scrap like Ona using the ingredient list above. Feel free to use products from any designer currently selling in the TLP store and add anything extra to the ingredients to make your layout. Don’t forget to link me to your page in the comments or in the April Scrap Like a Polly forum thread for your chance to go in the random draw to win.

The deadline is May 3 . Can’t wait to see what you create. Blog comments should work now or add your page to the thread in the Challenge Pad in the Forum please.