Lasting Memories...Chill Out

The challenge this week at Lasting Memories is to use the sketch below and to be sure to incorporate circles.  Circles are SO hard for me!  It's the engineer in me, I like right angles! ;O)  So, I kind of cheated and used Photoshop to manipulate my picture.  I made a circle around Owen and left that portion in color and then used the Hue/Saturation level to take the background of the photo down to almost black and white.  I think it would have been more profound had I reduced the size of the photo and therefore the colored portion and left more black and white background.  But, I kind of like the results anyway and I learned a lot in the process. So, it was a win-win I think! ;O)  I need to get back to my online courses and get a better handle on Photoshop.  

I combined the basics of the Lasting Memories sketch with some elements of the "On with the Show" sketch in CTMH's latest book Magic.  I LOVE when you can take the best of two sketches and make it even better (or at least I hope its even better)!

I didn't have any paper that was especially ideal for this photo and I'm trying to use up my ridiculous stash before I spend any more money.  But, I didn't want to lose Owen's rosy cheeks by making the whole photo Sepia or B&W.  So, instead, I attempted to grunge up the Aspen paper with lots of Cocoa ink to tie-in his brown coat.  Hopefully, it was enough to do the trick!

Paper:  Aspen (retired)
Cardstock:  Bamboo and Colonial White

Ink: Cocoa and Twighlight
Stamps:  Winter Reflections (retired) and Journaling Jots
Other:  Snowflake Ribbon (by the yard from LSS not sure what brand), CTMH Irresistables Chip Board Alpha, Maya Road (small) and CTMH (large) chip board snowflakes, Recollections adhesive pearls, Delta Creative Ceramcoat acrylic paint (comes in CTMH distressing kit), Martha Stewart glitter, Zig Pen, and Photoshop CS5