Friday 1 May 2009

More Layouts (nos. 5 & 6) Backporch Memories

Still trying to plough my way through uploading these layouts for you. Seeing as I had to photograph them all to put them into the Backporch Memories Gallery I thought I may aswell get them up on the blog aswell. I don't know about you, but I love looking at other people's layouts & keep an Inspiration Folder on my Desktop (virtual-on my pc) for each month of the year - where I store anything that catches my eye so much so that I don't want to forget about it (it could be a photograph, a layout, a good colour combination, etc) At the end of the month I check my folder, print out the images if necessary & make sure I have implemented (or filed - in a real-life file) the good ideas I have come across.

Both these layouts fell under the OVERKILL Challenge (where we were required to use A LOT of ONE type of embellishment). I've had this photo of Cami for about a year now & have been putting off scrapping it as I had it printed in Gloss, instead of matt, by mistake. I hate glossy photographs, sorry, but I do! I like to challenge myself, so I decided to use flowers, but not all the millions I already have (kinda self-defeating!?)...I wanted to do a layout FULL of flowers - but with a modern twist. A while ago I bought the yellow felt flowers you see here so started with them. Then I added paper flowers (all cheap Checkers Hyper ones) and plastic ones (I bought them at "Bernice's Place" in Durban North - attached to little girl's hairclips) I pulled them off the clips & gave my daughter the plain clips to use for school! I used a couple of fabric flowers & one MM faux leather flower aswell. I played about with the positioning & layering & cut a few down the centre to stretch my supplies. I like the look of a half-flower along an edge here & there...



I filled in a few gaps with elements cut from a sheet of Sassafrass Lass paper & journalled on a sheet of MM journalling paper (from one of their mini journalling books of which I have 4) but I cut it down by half to make it fit the space. I inked these with pink. An A4 photo on a single page is a good way to go it you have a special photo you want to showcase. Of course, it's not practical for your entire album, but I do like a LARGE enlargement here & there, for variety, thrown into the mix. As the background was white I used white bazzill as my backing cardstock so the photo would stand out. Stickers for my title & date & that was that done!


I got this lovely metallic Bazzill in my Cocoa Caisy kit last month. I used a few of the prints from there aswell (the floral one is Basic Grey - can't remember the other one off hand...October Afternoon perhaps? & also can't remember the manufacturer of the checked one! Can you tell it is a public holiday here?!) I inked with dark brown for a bit of contrast against the aqua. Every Christmas I enlarge ONE photo of each of the kids & this is the one of Chelsea. I wanted to frame/mat it but was faced with a space shortage so used the black & white houndstooth check paper to make a frame that I adhered ON TOP of the photograph. This is easily done if you have a trimmer with a pointed-blade, but difficult to do with a rotary-one. With my Fiskars trimmer (which BTW I LOVE) it's easy to do once you have the correct measurements. No lifting - just turning, as the blade point goes right to the corner. I used a bling strip across the top & bottom & along the side (can you tell I'm having a bling revival phase???) & some Prima Centre Kisses in a cascade at opposite corners.

The alpha stickers are MM Puffy Dot red & black & the "Be Mine" is a MM love-note ticket (also from CD kit). A bit of hand journalling & some dimensional glaze within the title letters & that was another one down...

7 comments:

Jenny in Durbs said...

Glad you are back & busy. i love the l/o's & the flowers & bling. Looks really good. Enjoy your weekend.

Jacqui said...

I think the name "overkill" doesnt do justice to the stunning layouts you've made - I'd rather call the technique "clustering" or something - looks really great!

Vicki said...

Very nice Helen and just for the record I don't like glossy photos either. LOL

topkatnz said...

Great work ... I have never actually enlarged a photo that big for a LO ... and no, I don't do glossy either!!

Jenny said...

Looks great - as usual. And I aslo don't like glossy photos

Desire Fourie said...

Love these two layouts of your girls. One can never be too girly. Great idea having an electronic idea folder. Hugs from Desire

Bernie said...

Helen all your layouts are gorgeous but I really love the Cami layout...love all the flowers. :)