Scrapbooking 10: Capturing the setting when preserving memories

Many times when taking photos of special occasions we do not stop to consider that there are aspects of the event which may be lost to its main subjects. It is this thought that sparked the thought in me to start taking pictures outside the scope of the event, trying to give the persons involved a setting against which to understand the time and place of things. In the example of this blog, I took photos of the garden on the day of the little girl's birth. This way she would know that she came with sunshine and fruitful trees, as if nature was declaring the blessings she would bring to the earth with her being here. Let me show you how to incorporate these photos into the rest of the album.

Even though this is a baby girl's album I am working on, I don't want to make every single page pink. I therefore love this paper that has enough pink to keep it girly, while still allowing me to add some different colors. I love the idea of lifting out the yellow and green as these are the colors in the photo of the cling peach tree.

My photos measure 13 x 9 cm and therefore my first frame will need to measure 14 x 10 cm, seeing as I am going to make it only 1 cm deep.

I cut the two inner frames according to the measurements above. I use a craft knife and metal ruler, using the guidelines on the cutting mat to serve as measurements.

The outer frames are also 1 cm wide and measure 15 x 11 cm each.

The frames are attached to the photos with double-sided tape.

The photos are also attached to the paper with double-sided tape.

The photos are not stuck down yet, but here you can see how the double frame sets them off against the background page.

These foam stickers on a roll was bought on my travels abroad and I have not come across them in South Africa yet. I love the idea of foam stickers for children's layouts since the foam rubber already contains that element of playfulness that encompasses children.

I want to add some journaling to the page to explain the significance of the trees and cut two small squares of paper for this from the same colors I used for the frames. I cut the green slightly bigger than the yellow to serve as matting for the foreground yellow.

I put the yellow through an embossing roller. The roller embosses a heart shape onto the paper, which is similar to the hearts in the foam ribbon I used as a border, which is a repetition of shapes - always a good idea.

I smear an ink pad lightly over the raised hearts created by the embossing. This makes the hearts ever so much more obvious.

The journaling squares are attached with double-sided tape.

The layout looks like this at the moment.

I use a fine-liner to add journaling to the squares.

This is the story of the trees.

This journaling block contains the story of the page that is next to this one in the album. The photos have nothing in common with each other, but by using the same colors in the layout and repeating the same elements, you can tie these dissimilar photos together seamlessly. Adding elements from one page to the other, assists in creating unity.

Feeling that I now need to enhance the pink to bring it back to its girly roots, I decide to add pink embellishments. I love the idea of buttons in baby pages and when those buttons are fruit-shaped next to the fruit trees in the photos, I find the embellishments near perfect. I attach these heavier embellishments with Tombow glue.

When I am done, the layout looks like this.

Can you see how I tied it together with the photos from the companion page? Now it doesn't bother at all that these dissimilar photos are grouped together.

For more crafty ideas and great products, visit APrettyTalent.com.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
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