tackling school photos: year 1

One thing about school photos is that they appear to be endless this is my year 1 layout and as with the kindy i have scrapped both the individual and the class photo. Unlike in the kindy page the teacher is in black which doesn’t inspire other colour choices. However it did give me opportunity to pick something random that contrasts nicely. i have always loved the pink and blue combination so I jumped at the chance to use it for this layout. i kept it fairly simple with a plain block colour as a background and then blue embellishments.  I used blue ribbon to add some shape to the layout placing it over the photos to add some dimension to the page.

I used the cricut paper dolls cartridge to create a school girl wearing a "uniform" in the same colours as mine and even found a hairstyle that matched my bob at the time. i found this served to fill in some of the empty space left by the smaller portrait as well as adding a little bit more interest to the page. Placing it on top of both the ribbon and the corner of the photo adds even more dimension to the page without the need for 3d adhesive blocks. The bow on the ribbon in the top left corner also serves to add both texture and dimension. 

The second page of this layout I kept as a simple mirror image of the first, removing the extra embellishments (bow and school-girl) so the focus will be more drawn to the image. Although the image is bigger the individual elements in the image are smaller so any big embellishments would only serve to crowd the page and remove attention from the image.

~panda

Muddy Play

I know to some of you this may seem strange but this layout came to me in a dream. I have been furiously scrapping for the past few days (and studiously avoiding studying for uni exams) after seeing these photos I had a dream in which i created a mud-splattered heading and first thing the next morning i started the prep work to get this layout done.

I knew I wanted the page to be rustic so I gravitated to the earthy greens and reds and to one of my favourite techniques paper tearing. The big feature was the title so I didn't want to lose it in a bright layout. The mats have been distressed to remove the clean cut lines. All my torn edges have been inked in a red-brown.

for those of you who have not distressed edges before I simply ran the edge of a scissor blade across the edges of the matt do this until you are happy with how "distressed" the edges look if you tear the paper a little bit doesn’t matter it just adds to the effect.

The title is made simply by cutting out the letters on the cricut in scrap paper and using a dry brush and a small amount of paint dapping flecks around the letters. I strongly suggest you experiment before doing this on your actual page as it takes time to get the nack. This is how i learnt to use a dry brush. I also suggest testing the paint colour you plan to use on the page before doing the heading as even soft neutral colours like this creamy beige will change the paint colour since you are applying lightly i tested mine where I knew I was going to place my torn paper.
~panda

these boots are made for walking

This page i did a while ago.
i fell in love with this picture of me stealing pop's boots
and the first thing that came into my head was the song.
we had just got the cricut and this was my experimentation page.
used a swirly stamp in a darker pink ink on Boots and Walking to emphasise the title.
fairly simple still quite happy with how it turned out.
~panda