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The most frustrating thing about taking it upon myself to take photos everywhere I go, is that I never seem to have any photos of me – i’m always on the wrong side of the camera! But when I looked through some photos which were taken at a friend’s BBQ a few weeks back, I was delighted to find a few of me. This one in particular was a little over exposed, but I played around in photoshop for a bit, and this was the result. I loved it, and finding a photo of yourself that you really like is such a rare occasion that I decided that it needed to be scrapbooked. After all, I hardly ever scrapbook about me.
It’s a little hard to see but I made the photo black and white except for the little pink flower barrette in my hair, so I thought that I would try to experiment with a black background with pinks and other bright, summery colours. So I pulled out a few scraps from my scrap stash in coordinating colours, and in all honesty I just had a great time playing, placing embellishments here and there, and sticking them down in layers to create interest and dimension.
Three techniques
Today I want to draw attention to three things in this layout in particular, and share these three techniques so you be inspired to use them on your craft projects too.
1. Pinwheel Paradise!
Do you remember those little windmills on a stick which would twirl manically in the wind, making a whoosh of colour as it spun round? I do, and I loved them, but I forgot how easy they were to make. I was feeling particularly inspired to make a little pin wheel and put it on this layout, as I had been reading a post on the Studio Calico blog about this fun and easy technique. It shows a step by step instructions on how you can make these little beauties which can be used as embellishments like I have done here, or you could make larger ones and use a brad to attach it to a straw or a stick for your kids to play with. Check out the instructions here.
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2. Paint it the colour you need
The second thing I want to share with you is the letters I have used to make the word ‘me’. I must have lay down about 5-6 different colours and styles of chipboard letters before I found the perfect ones. Well, they weren’t quite perfect because they weren’t the right colours, reds and pastel pinks which would definitely not have coordinated with the other elements on the page. Determined not to let a little thing like that stand in my way, I considered tracing around the letters unto a suitable piece of pattern paper, when I noticed my Adirondack Paint dabbers sitting on the shelf.
You may remember me posting a blog entry a little while back when I bought them, and luckily for me, one of the colours I bought was a pale blue which was the perfect shade to use with this layout. I used a temporary tape runner to adhere the letters to a piece of scratch paper, and ran the dabber over the top of the letters. I was instantly impressed by the thick coverage and great even finish, and it only took a few minutes to dry – even better! So if you haven’t already got your hands on these Adirondack Paint dabbers, you really should try them out as being able to adapt the colours of your embellishments and papers will give you the freedom to use up old crafting supplies instead of buying new ones. See the difference in the before and after pics below.
Before
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After
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3. Lollipop flower frenzy
The third thing that I want to share with you today is the little flower at the bottom right of the photo, which I also made from scratch in order to match the colours of my layout. Prima sell sets of very similar and very cute embellishments called lollipop flowers, and these are super easy to make using scraps of paper: Here’s a quick tutorial for you:
How to make your own Prima-style lollipop flower embellishments
1. Roughly cut out 5 circles from scrap paper, each one slightly larger than the other. Don’t worry about making them perfect circles as I find the shabby imperfect look gives a great result
2. Lay onto a craft mat, or scratch paper and spray with water or glimmer mist to dampen the paper. Scrunch each circle in your fist and then gently flatten out again. Curl up some of the edges to give added dimension.
3. Dry with a heat gun or leave overnight to dry naturally.
4. Use your finger to rub gesso or paint unto the edges of each circle, then leave to dry again.
5. Layer all five circles on top of one another and punch a hole in the middle, and insert a brad.
6. If necessary, spray with water again to dampen so that you can mould each layer to create the dimension you want.
So give it a try yourself, and you can even stamp unto the layers as well, which works great if you are using plain paper or cardstock, but please remember to use an ink that wont bleed when in contact with water, such as this Archival Ink from Ranger.
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Sorry the post is so long, but I hope you like the layout and please leave me a comment here.
Other Products Used:
Pink Paper – Bisous
Pinwheel & tab – Bisous scraps
Owl & Stars printed Chipboard – Bisous
Black and blue brads – Do Crafts
Striped paper – unknown
Pink frame, pink & white polka dot diecut & photo corner diecut – Bought from Poundland :0)
Polka dot parenthesis chipboard & blue frame chipboard – Bought from Poundland :0)
Ornate Rub on – letraset
Nothing but wording – Dymo
Die Cut letters – Making memories
Flourish – Foam stamp by Do crafts
Number rub ons – ki memories, favourite things collection
xoxo rub on – Fancy pants designs, crush
Flowers rub on – Three bugs in a rug, full bloom
Life is good rub on – Basic grey
Paint dabber – Adirondack, aqua
Bling – Creative Imaginations self adhesive gems
