Reach for the Sky

Now you may think I had photos of us riding horses or spending time on a farm, but in reality, I have these photos of my husband playing with our cat. So how does that go with a western theme?He gets our cat to put his paws up in the air. It's very silly and a lot of fun to watch. It makes me think of a little kid playing cowboy and my cat is just sort of happily going along with it all.
 So now that I had decided to go with a western theme, I set about trying to carry it to the page. I decided I wanted to use a phrase like " get your paws up" or " reach for the sky". I imagined using western themed papers and embellishments. However, in going through my supplies, I really had very little in that genre. What I did finally find were some die cuts, well over 10 years in age( still not sure why I have those. I bought them when my son was about two.) and some more current My Mind's Eye die cuts in a boy theme which just happened to feature a saddle. With die cuts in hand, I set out to find the perfect paper to go with them. I asked myself what reminded me of the western theme. I came up with denim, bandannas ,hand-tooled leather...all with a somewhat weathered look.
  For the hand- tooled leather, I decided to stamp and heat emboss the old boot die cut. It's subtle, but I think it gives just enough texture and adds to the theme.

 It reminds me of the fancy boots and leather saddles I saw as a child.
   I used an off colour cowboy die cut as a mask. The colour just did not work well with the rest of the page, but as a mask, it was perfect. I think I have discovered a use for all those old, plain die cuts sitting un-loved in my stash.

Sketchy Thursday 9-8-11 sketch
scrap of old blue jeans
sapphire glimmer mist
My Mind's eye die cuts
unknown die cut boot from the dawn of scrapping
i-rock jewels- brown square metal
Making Memories snaps(antique)
unknown gingham ribbon
colorbox chestnut roan ink

Leftover scraps from old jeans made the perfect background since I never could find just the right paper. Twine outlining the circle and accents of gingham ribbon also added to the texture and theme. All in all, a page proving that having specifically themed papers is not a necessity to set the right tone for your page.