News and a Single Photo Layout

ScrapStreet Magazine's Blog
Hey everyone! Hope you had a good weekend. I just wanted to share that I wrote a guest post for ScrapStreet Magazine's blog today. I shared three easy birthday cards I made based on the same sketch with a few variations that made them look totally different. Here is a sneak peek:

Trio of Birthday Cards on ScrapStreet's Blog

I hope you can head over and take a look!

Paper Made Bakery
My last project for February's Fresh Baked Kit will be revealed this Wednesday. I actually made 5 projects this month with my kit and I still have a ton of paper left. Then on Thursday we'll be celebrating Paper Made Bakery's new release for March with a blog hop and giveaway. I can't wait to show you what I made featuring my nephew Isaiah. Please come back for those fun events.

Trash to Treasure
I haven't really been working with trash, but have picked up a few items through an estate sale, thrift shops and craigslist for my craft room. I altered a few of the items and left some as is, and the outcome is super cute. I'll take some photos and share with you all soon.

Single Photo Layout
I am a multi-photo gal at heart, but wanted to try a single photo layout as it seems like all the rage. I had to ignore so many photos just to pick the final one. I settled on a group shot of my family's trip to Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Patara Elephant Farm layout

I used several collections from Bella Blvd. and picked out the colors that reminded me of the jungle and the bright sky. I did a color block in the background, but the colors looked too busy directly next to each other so that I matted everything in a dark brown to balance the bold colors. 

Title

For my title, I chose colors from the Thai shirts we were given to wear during our trek, and outlined the alpha stickers with a black pen to make them stand out a bit from the patterned background. 

Handmade embellishment

For my embellishments, I didn't want to use elephants as that tends to be associated with baby themed layouts. I went with the jungle theme and cut some thin strips of patterned papers and distressed the edges to simulate the tall jungle grass we traipsed through. 

Journaling Block

For the journaling, I used a sticker and just filled in the basics. The layout was looking pretty full at this point so I just let the photo do the talking. I finished things off by adding a few more little stickers and jewels, and machine stitched each block. 

In the end, I like the balanced look of the layout and the bright colors really reminded me of my Thailand adventures. But I really missed putting in the little photos that would have supported the main photo. I tried, really I did, but it will be back to a multi-photo page next time. 

Thanks for stoppin' by,