Music to My Ears - Disney Layout - Plus New Blog Candy!

I got home from Texas about an hour ago.  And yes, right now it's about 1:20am, which is equivalent to 3:20am Texas time.  Guess it might be time for a little sleep!  So for now, I'm going to do a quick post and show you the layout I made last weekend when I was at the Lake Tahoe retreat.  This layout is for Kathleen in New Jersey.  She was the winner of the custom layout prize, and she chose a Disney music themed layout.  Her son is going to be in a band competition at Disneyworld soon.  So I combined the Mickey & Friends cart and the Quarter Note cart for a little music magic.  Hope you like it!!

And btw, this week's blog candy will be the Basic Gray paper pack that I used to help make this layout.  It's called "Life of the Party".  It's brand spankin' new, and super duper cute and useful.  It retails for about $20 or so.  Just follow this blog and leave a comment to be entered.  Plus you can come back each day for more chances.

Of course all of the characters are from the Mickey and Friends cart. I believe Goofy was cut at 6". Mickey and Donald were 5", and Pluto was at 4 1/2".  I actually used dark brown chalk ink and inked EVERY single layer of the characters - even the eyes and tongues.  Eeeek!  So yes, it took me all day to make this, but I loved every minute of it.  I lined them all up like they're in a marching band, and gave each character an instrument, placing it in their hands the best that I could.  Kathleen's son plays clarinet, so that is the instrument that Mickey has.

I was trying to come up with a cute title, and then saw it staring me in the face. "Music to my ears" - how perfect is that???? So the title itself is from Quarter Note (cut at 3 1/2"), but I spliced the mouse ears into it from the Mickey cart.  I also added extra layers to give it more depth and make it stand out.  Normally, this title would just have 2 layers - the ivory and the orange.  But I added a dark brown layer off-set under the orange, and then cut out the title again in red, and cut away the pieces I wanted and added those on top of the orange. 

Not sure if you can tell, but the instruments are all Stickled to make them a bit more festive. I thought it looked especially good on the brass instruments.  I also shadowed each character to help separate them from the busy background paper.  And also added white dots to bring a bit more life.  The fancy shmancy music notes were all cut at 1 3/4".

Goofy is on the saxophone, and Mickey leads the way with his clarinet.  All characters were pop-dotted. Mats are quadrupled to help them stand out against the background and also to help disperse the different colors throughout the layout.  I used white faux stitching on the mats and around the background.  The silver brads and orange ribbon are from Stampin' Up. 

This journal box is from Mickey and Friends. Or was it Mickey Font? See - I definitely need some sleep!! I hope you all like the layout. And Kathleen, I'm especially hoping that you and your son love it. I will work on getting it shipped off to you this week. Nighty-night, all!