Scraps on the beach

So these pics are beach themed...  but the layout itself doesn't scream beach.

I think just the blue background and the  brown bag ink shading kinda give it a

beachy feel...

I orginially was going to overlap the photos on top of the octagon background,  but after placing them, they just didn't look right.

My favorite part of this layout is the different fabric scraps under the octagon cut-outs.

 

The main idea I was going for here is just a big cluster.  Putting any little clusters around the edges would've just competed and looked too busy.  It's busy enough in the main cluster with fabric, ribbon, and brads.

As far as materials go here, most of it was using scraps.  I used one blue background cardstock,  some scraps of fabric, some ribbon, ric-ric, brads, and some scrap pieces of cardstock for the Beach letters and octagon outlines and the one by the word beach.  Lately, I've been on this kick to set the photos back a step.  Instead of being on top. This layout kinda takes the focus off the pictures a little.  Not that I don' t love the pics, but when you have a bunch of pics that aren't really the greatest photo masterpieces, putting them in a busy cluster lets you kinda jimmy up the photos without covering up the whole scene. You can still tell he's playing in the sand in one, he's on a ride in the other, and he's looking cool in his sunglasses! Three major beach activities!  So it's more of a story layout than a posed photo orient.

So here's the making of this layout! Enjoy and have a great week!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Anwrfjtl8&w=420&h=315]

Catching up on babyness

So I was re-organizing my photo collection and came across these from when Eleanor was about 7 months old. I can't believe she was such a ham already... Well, she was a canned ham, and now she's pretty mobile.

So we started kinda like this... a couple papers, a water squirty pen thing... and some watercolors.
You can see a couple stages of the flowers in this photo. I cut out 2" scalloped circles, wet them with the squirty pen (any spayer will do... even dabbing a little water and letting it soak in). After they're good and wet, crinkle em up into balls. Let em' sit a few minutes, then open em' up. Don't open em' flat because you want that wrinkled look. You can actually start to shape them at this point to how you'd like them to dry.

And though I have the worst handwriting in parts of the world... I love sloppy handwriting for scrapbooking. It just becomes another embellishment. ya know... I hate the word EMBELLISHMENT. I don't know why. It's like... too good for itself or something. embellish... maybe we should shorten it to bellish. Let's BELLISH THAT PAGE! But that page is nothing like a bell although if it chimed, I'm sure it'd sound like Elvis on a tuesday night. Saturday has a higher probability for brain-power diminishing activity. Then again... shut up fits.


Long story short... and without further interruption.