Friends

Just a quick little post, to show off a new Scrap Page I made! I started this at the Scrap Club crop on Sunday, but didn't finish it til today:

This was taken when we stopped for a rest on our way home from Ambleside, Windermere. We were at a picnic site, on the grassy hillside, just on the shores of the Lake. It was a lovely afternoon and the baby was busy, busy, busy, crawling and stumbling around everywhere.  She found J and stood up to talk to him. 

This picture just caught their relationship perfectly!  They became such great friends during that holiday week - and now when they see each other, they just carry on from where they left off!

I cut the tree from some green and brown art papers and the top layer of the trunk from a piece of woodgrain patterned paper by Basic Grey. 

The paper flowers were from a pack I've had for ages, by Hero Arts.  I stuck jewels in the centre of these, to make them look more exciting.  The glitzy, 3d butterfly stickers came from Accessorize.

The chipboard "Sunshine" is a shape from a pack of American Crafts chipboards ("Green House") and the cloud was from the "Secret Garden" set by Papermania.  The little green date sticker (just seen) is from a sheet of journalling spots by October Afternoon ("Ducks in a Row").  The journalling card (seen in the main photo) is also by October Afternoon - they do such fab journalling stuff!

These metal letters are from a set by Papermania too. They came with frames, that you fixed to the page like brads; I didn't use those because they wouldn't allow the letters to sit flat when I overlapped them (which means I now have 7 spare frames, to make some other embellishments with!!). 

The squared-paper die-cut with scalloped edge, that I used as a photo matt, is from a set by Teresa Collins, called "Travelogue" (I used some other pieces from the same set for the "Bon Voyage" layout I made a couple of weeks ago).

I can't tell you much about the papers though! The background paper is the reverse side of a design called "Chicken Little", which was a blue sky with clouds. I cut off the white strip from the bottom and forgot to keep it - now I can't remember the brand of the paper (it may have been Cosmo Cricket, but I wouldn't bet my life on that!). 

The other two papers were part-sheets given to me by Margaret, one of the lovely ladies at Scrap Club. I was messing around with the pile of papers I had brought and couldn't quite find the "right" ones... she looked in her paper box, whisked these out and offered them to me.  They were just right!  So Thank You Margaret - you're a star! 

Both the papers are double-sided. I think the yellow design is almost certainly American Crafts - right thickness, right texture, nice bright pink on the reverse, familiar design on the yellow side... But I don't know which range it's from.  I've no idea about the other sheet.  It is a heavy weight paper - cardstock really - and has a lovely hammered texture; the reverse side is a soft aqua/minty green colour, with a design of  layered circles and flowers. No idea where it is from, but it's lovely!

Overall, I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. It was one of those layouts that kind-of "evolved" as it went along - sort of organic.  I had a general idea of the design - where I wanted the photo, how I wanted layers, where I wanted to put embellishments, journalling, title etc. But I moved things round a bit, shifted the balance from the right-hand edge towards the centre, overlapped the layered papers, rather than matting one on top of the other, changed the colour-scheme a bit (bright paper flowers instead of pastel colours) and just generally messed around until I was happy with it. 

I made the cut-out tree fairly early on, so it kind-of acted as an anchor-point for much of the remaining embellishment etc. I also rounded both right-hand corners of the photo, to match the photo-mat, but ended up covering the bottom corner with flowers. It looks better that way.  I'm glad I thought to ink all the edges, before I started sticking layers to the background paper. It looks much nicer!

I wonder how some people manage to make three, four, even five layouts in one afternoon... I take so long over mine, that I'm lucky to finish one a day! Am I slow, or just deliberate and careful? I don't think mine are any nicer than many of those made by speedier folks! 

Still, this one turned out nice and I'm glad I took my time over it - the photo is special and I wanted to make a layout that did it justice (I think I have).