Searching for answers - Ruby Rock-it Creative Team

I was inspired by the Vision Board challenge set for the team to instead scrapbook taking the first step in a very important goal I have.
The only avenue I have for finding out who my Father was and the sister I was told I have is Ancestry DNA and the possibility that someone related on my paternal side has done a DNA test.  It has been a goal for some time to do my Ancestry DNA and create my family tree in preparation for sorting through the results, but life events have often gotten in the way of my doing this and I know from being in the DNA Detectives groups and other groups dedicated to finding answers for children who need them that this can be a difficult journey mentally so I also needed to have a good therapist to support me if things go badly.  I have a brilliant therapist so it is time to do my DNA.  My husband, children and in-laws all pitched in and got me a Ancestry DNA kit as a early birthday present and today's layout is documenting the day I filled that vial with spit and mailed it back to Ancestry.

When I saw the new Wanderlust range I knew I had to use it for this layout, as well Ancestry DNA does tell you where your DNA is from and links you with relatives around the world so it felt perfect for this.  I also grabbed out ATY90 Paperworld Baby Boy Little Star as I felt it would make a nice contrast and some scraps of light blue card left over from the light blue Franceville Cards & Envelopes Pastel Pack I cut a window out of for my Frozen themed card.  I also grabbed out some SB91 Just Bead It Glass Beads in Lime and a broken family tree frame chipboard I had in my stash.






My goal was to let my papers and embellishments tell the story of what this photo was all about.
The broken family tree frame represents that I am trying to fill in missing pieces, the beads and double helix represent using DNA to fill in missing pieces and finding out information about myself via my DNA.  The map paper represents the fact that I could get answers from all around the world.  The words I wind up using represent that I am searching and hoping to discover things that are incredibly important for a person to know.

I wanted to have a double helix on my layout and I wanted it to be a similar green to the Ancestry logo so I chose this light green from the Franceville Cards & Envelopes Primary Pack, later I would realise it was perfect for the leaf hints so I cut some leaves from it too.
And I cut the word searching from the card.

I gave the edges of all my leaves and double helix a slight edging with Distress Ink in Twisted Citron.


I figured this would also make a great photo matte so I cut my photo to fit (I had accidentally order 5x7 photos so I had some wiggle room for cropping) and then trimmed the excess card away.

I then got my inks back out and edged my leaves with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.
And using a scrap of foam and a embossing tool I embossed veins on my leaves.

I then added Distress Ink in Twisted Citron over each leave to try and bring out the embossing a bit more.













To colour my broken chipboard frame I first gave it a light coat of white gesso and then experimented with my Distress Ink in Twisted Citron to get a nice green, at first dabbing it on my mat and dipping/rubbing my piece through it, then just applying it directly with a blending tool.

I then edged it with Distress Ink Vintage Photo.

While I had my inks out I edged all my paper layers that I had at that point decided to use.

As for sizes I cut my papers, I don't go for any particular size, I like to cut random pieces and play with them until I am happy with how it has turned out.  If you ever have a creative block give that a go, that is how I came to be scrapping in this way, the need to push through a creative block so I just cut things randomly and played.

I started adhering my layers together with Helmar Acid Free Glue, just putting a swirl in the middle or along the edge depending on how things were going to go together so I would have areas not stuck down for tucking things in later.

You can see how I piece the 2 blue scraps of card to look like a full piece.

I am happy with how they are looking, now it's time to get the background sorted to add them too.

I had alread cut the word Discover from my sheet of THE616 Wanderlust Labels paper and as I was looking at the chevron colours on THE593 Wanderlust Chevrons as being my main background I decided to use the B side of the Labels paper as a edge for my background.

I cut my THE616 Wanderlust Labels paper to form a 1 inch window, trimmed 1/2 a inch of the bottom and one side of my paper and adhered it to my 1 inch frame of THE616 Wanderlust Labels paper.  I then grabbed my stack of layers and worked out where I wanted them, made some marks with a grey lead so I would have a rough guide of where I could cut some more away from the THE616 Wanderlust Labels paper to save for later.

Here is how it looks flipped over.


I now had some scraps for another project or another layer so I went with creating another layer with the THE616 Wanderlust Labels paper.  I forgot to ink it before adhering it down, but that is ok.

I started building my embellishment clusters using my die cuts, broken chipboard, the word I cut from THE616 Wanderlust Labels paper.

I decided I needed a tag in my layers so I grabbed out some Fundamentals Rectangle Tags and I distressed 2 of them with Distress Ink, one with just Vintage photo and the other going in with Twisted Citron followed by Vintage Photo.  I decided to use this one.

To add it to my layout I cut it in half and tucked it into my layers.

I was then inspired by the key in the Faded Empire Stamp Set to add it to my embellishment cluster as well I am trying to unlock some mysteries, so I stamped it with Distress Ink Vintage photo on the left over piece of my tag and fussy cut it out to add to my cluster.

Once I had everything down including the SB91 Just Bead It Glass Beads in Lime I decided I should add in this random frame I had that was similar to my broken frame to represent joining the missing pieces together.  I decided to colour this one differently.

I base coated it with my Dina Wakely paint and then added some Yellow Vicki Boutin paint to my mat and sort of mixed things together until I got a more Ancestry type green.




I then decided my broken chipboard frame needed to be more green so I dry brushed some of my left over lime green I had created over it.  It blends in with the beads, etc much better now.

I then swiped the last remnants on my brush on my 2 corners of my background.

Finally I decided I needed the date I did my test somewhere on my layout so I grabbed the last scrap of my tag and stamped the date with Archival ink on it and tucked it in under some leaves.

I then decided to tuck in some green and grey ricrac I have in my stash and finally called this layout done.