The Big Picture

I went through several ideas, when I was thinking about my post for today.  There are so many great trends out there right now - banners, misting, graphic shapes, wooden accents...the list goes on and on.  And then, I thought of something I haven't done on a layout in years...at least over 2 years ago...using a large photo!  Most of the photos I tend to use, are 4x6 and smaller.  This always works great for me, because I like creating multi-photo layouts, but keeping them as single pages, instead of extending to a double page layout.  But, you still have the option of using multi-photos, with a large photo on your layout, too.


For this page, I printed an 8x10 photo of our little guy playing in the mud.  This was such a perfect photo, because he just happened to look my way the moment I snapped it.  I really wanted to highlight this photo and using the larger photo was just the right way to do that.  And because I had some empty space/white space on my larger photo, I was able to add two smaller (wallet size) photos on top of my large photo.

I decided to keep my embellishments on this page to a minimum, because the photo was the focal point of my layout and the orange, chevron patterned paper added a lot of visual interest to the page.  Just a couple of buttons, some washi tape, and some black accenting...and voila, you're done!!  That's another great advantage to using large photos...makes putting your page together quick and easy.


So, I challenge you to take on a large photo, with a bold visual pattern on your next layout.  The chevron paper on this page is from the Plumeria line by BasicGrey and Christy carries the full collection kit in the store.  This collection is great, because you can pull papers to work with feminine or masculine pages, which is a cost effective way to use your supplies.


Products Used:


Patterned Paper & Stickers:  BasicGrey
Cardstock:  Bazzill
Washi Tape:  SEI & Heidi Swapp
Buttons:  Blumenthal Lansing
Punch:  EK Success
Font:  Eurostyle

Recycling on Your Layouts

I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for ways to save money. One of the ways I do this is by reusing items in my home as often as I can, especially in my scrapbooking and memory keeping projects. And I don't know if you knew this, but this coming Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day - a whole day dedicated to this hobby we love. To combine the two interests (recycling and scrapbooking), Christy gave some old books of upholstery fabric swatches to Ashley Horton and me and asked us to make flowers out of them. If you are coming to the store's crop on Saturday, you might find a few of these flowers lying around (hint hint hint)...and if you're not coming, then you'll just have to settle for looking at my pictures here on the blog.

First up: My Supplies...fabric swatches, my BigShot (Any manual die-cutter will work. You just need to adjust the thickness of your cutting pads to account for the fabric and whatever dies you are using), flower or scalloped-circle dies (I used Spellbinders Nestabilities), and brads, stitching, Glubers, or whatever else you want to hold your flowers together (I used brads. Ashley finished others with stitching and other decoration, but you'll have to come to the store Saturday to see hers!)

When you cut your flowers, try to put your dies as close together as possible so you can get several flowers out of a single swatch.

Once you've cut your flowers, take them to your desk and find some supplies and a photo to match (Sorry the photo is sideways. My computer is refusing to rotate my pictures today).

One item I found on my desk is some leftover embellishment packaging. Seriously, how awesome are those acrylic casings that embellishments come in? I save nearly all of them. What can you do with them, you ask? So many, many options. You can stamp on them with staz-on ink (so you can move a stamped image around on your page and not worry about 'messing up' the page). You can die-cut them and make clear embellishments (Anybody remember Heidi Swapp's old Ghost shapes? Now you know how to make your own!). Or you can adhere other embellishments to them to use as a shiny, clear background (like I've done here with some My Mind's Eye embellishments).

And here's how I put it all together. In addition to the fabric flowers and clear packaging (sorry about the glare), I also used the B-side of a product code strip from a piece of patterned paper on this layout. So many recycled bits and pieces on here. Makes me happy.

I hope I've given you some ideas on how to recycle and save some money on your projects. Please feel free to put a link in the comments to any projects you may make using these ideas. And don't forget to enjoy National Scrapbook Day!

Supplies: fabric, Big Shot die-cutter, Spellbinders nestabilities, brown ink

- patterned paper - Dear Lizzy, Studio Calio, Echo Park, Lilly Bee

- letter stickers - Studio Calico

- brads - Bo Bunny

- washi tape - Hambly

- 'jeweled' frame - My Mind's Eye

- butterfly stickers - Studio Calico

- staple - Tim Holtz

- yellow acrylic heart - Heidi Swapp