Johnston's Cranberry Marsh

This month at My creative Sketches the challenge involved a double page layout. I haven't done one of these in years and forgot how fun and rewarding it is! You can tell more of a story on a two page layout. I decided to do mine on the cranberry harvest that happens up here in Bala every October.

 

 

I dug deep into my stash and pulled out some golden oldies from Basic Grey. I used their Stella Ruby and Indian Summer lines. I wanted to compliment the beautiful reds you see when you go into the cranberry marsh. I learned so much on my visit there this year. I didn't know that cranberries grow on small evergreen bushes and that the farmer floods the land until it becomes a marsh as it is easier to harvest the cranberries when they are floating on top of the water!

Here you can see the irrigation system flooding the fields in early October. Fall here in Muskoka is absolutely stunning!

I used a ton of rub-ons from the Indian Summer line and rubbed them onto matching cardstock then cut them out as embellishments. The heavy chipboard you see is also from the Indian Summer line. The large flower is from Petaloo the tiny ones from Prima. You can also catch a glimpse of the coarse burlap I used to frame my pictures. I used six smaller pictures as there was so much I wanted to show in this layout!

 Cut the title out using my Silhouette and then added Glimmer Glam for a sheen. You can also see the Dusty Attic piece Bird in a Filed peeking up.

More Indian Summer chipboard.

On the left side of the page I did the same thing. Used rubons and also I stamped out some leaf images and colored them in to bring more orange into the page.

Another Dusty Attic piece Crane. These birds are abundant in the marsh and are so graceful and huge! When they take off they are all wings! Tired to match the colors to the cranes indigenous to our area.

I used moulding paste and a stencil from TCW to make the tree coming in from the side of the page. I used more rubons from Indian Summer to show the leaves falling from the tree.

Another animal indigenous to the area, deer! Lots and lots of deer. I cut the  grass with my Silhouette used a few rubons and added the deer. It was quite entertaining around here when it came time to do the deer. I did their coats with four different colors but they didn't look right without faces so my dear hubby decided that he was an artist and drew their faces. Needless to say I tired to fix it with white paint but the one deer has some facial issues lol. 

I really enjoyed doing this layout especially given that I was so amazed at what actually happens on a cranberry farm. Did you know in the winter they actually water the fields and plough all 27 acres to keep the snow off the ice so that it doesn't allow the water to warm up or it will kill the plants! Sorry I get all excited when I learn something new! Well that's it for now. This layout actually took me awhile as I kept having to put it to the side due to a funeral in the family followed by an influx of kids after the funeral who decided to all come home for the weekend. Hope you enjoyed!

All the best! :)