Through the Looking Glass - Scrap for Help and The Paper Mixing Bowl

Today is my first reveal as part of the Scrap for Help Design Team! This month, the recycled element to be used in the Scrap for Help Challenge was plastic. I combined my Scrap for Help layout with the January recipe at The Paper Mixing Bowl (since I didn't have a layout for our January 15th reveal). Here is my layout, entitled Through the Looking Glass, using the gorgeous "Wonderland" collection by 7 Dots Studio. I'm also going to enter this layout in the "Cold Colours" challenge on the 7 Dots Studio blog.

I wanted to do something really different for this layout, so I decided to do an "artsy" layout. Like so many people, I struggle with my weight and often feel badly about my appearance - so this layout is about trying to overcome these feelings. The photos of my eyes are offset to represent the dysmorphia with which I often see myself. 

I machine-stitched around the edge of the top layer of the layout - first using a straight stitch and then a zig-zag. For my plastic element for the Scrap for Help Challenge, I used some plastic packaging that I melted with my heat embossing tool and layered underneath the corrugated cardboard on the layout. I coated the cardboard with gesso and added microbeads in silver and ebony - then I sprayed it with a light coat of acrylic sealer to help keep the beads on. I smashed a mirror from an old compact and used the pieces to surround the photos in my layering. (It isn't bad luck if you break a mirror on purpose, right?)

The journalling in the rolled paper in the top right corner says, "You are so much more than what you see in the mirror."  You can more clearly see the microbeads in this close-up.

I had some fun with Photoshop creating the pics for this. I had my husband take a picture of me and then I cropped it so that I could focus on the eyes. I converted the picture to black & white, but then re-revealed the eye colour - my eyes are very light blue, so the effect is very subtle. Here is a close-up of the photos so you can more clearly see the effect. I sanded the edges of the photos to get that awesome distressed look!

Here is the January recipe card from The Paper Mixing Bowl that I used for this layout.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. I appreciate your visits and sweet comments so much!

Materials Used:
Patterned Papers - 7 Dots Studio - Wonderland Collection - Mushroom & Smoke, Alice, and White Rabbit Alpha Stickers; Plastic Packaging; Corrugated Cardboard; Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso (White); Recollections Microbeads - Silver and Ebony; American Crafts Thickers - Poolside Vinyl Letter Stickers (Black); Queen & Co. Bakers Twine; Aleene's Tacky Glue; 3D Foam Adhesive; Krylon Satin Finish Sealer.