By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.
It’s been hot as we all know, but it has also given us a chance to record history. The next time you are out take notice of what the heat has done to things around you and be sure to take pictures of it. Turn them into a layout to share with future generations. This was a quick layout that included some fun techniques to showcase the hot photos I had taken. Unfortunately, that temperature wasn’t the highest we’d see here. 2 days after I took this picture, we hit 108 so now I have pictures for yet another heat related layout.
It’s always a good starting point to choose a paper that adds to the feeling of what you are trying to say with the individual pictures and the layout as a whole. Here I’m trying to portray how hot it has been so I chose the deep red and distressed look of paper from Tim Holtz. It adds a hot and worn feeling to the layout.
After trimming the photos down, I measured them to see what size they were and then determined the size of paper I would need to mat them. I always add anywhere from ¼” to 1″ to the width and length of the paper compared to the photo. On this layout, my longest picture is in the bottom right corner and it measured 5 ¼” in length by 2 ½” in width so I cut the mat paper to be 6″ long by 3″ wide. I crumpled the paper into a ball to give it a textured, rugged look like the cracked earth to bring that out in my photo. I then flattened out the paper. Starting with the lightest color of ink I was using (Mustard Seed Distress Ink Pad) and a stippling brush, I dabbed ink onto the paper in an up and down motion. Some areas I added extra ink to bring out some of the details of the paper. Next, I added the rest of my ink colors from light to dark (Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo and Fired Brick Distress Inks) using the stippling brush.
Some of the mats I did, I just added the ink to give them a stippled pattern and then mounted the photos on using a tape runner. Using the stippling technique and the Fired Brick Ink, stipple some of the ink over the edges of the photos to give it a finished look. I added the matted photos to the patterned paper using the tape runner at this point, too.
Take the measurement tag from the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Embellishment Pack by American Crafts and write the words onto it as shown in the left picture. Now here’s a good tip to add an extra look to your handwriting. Once you have written the words neatly with plain writing, add swirls, loops and curly ques to the letters. Bring some letters such as the letter “f” below the line as seen in the right picture. Attach the tag to the layout using a tape runner.
Stamp the thermometer (Gadgets Stamp Set) in the left top corner using black ink using an acrylic block. Draw the liquid in the thermometer using a black marker.
Now add all the fun summer stickers to finish off the layout. The numbers above the thermometer and the “Just A Little Sunshine” stickers are from the Accents & Phrase Sticker Book by American Crafts. Create some additional fun and use the black marker to cross out the words, “a little” on the sunshine sticker and write above it “a lot of” sunshine. The sun, sunglasses and suntan lotion bottle are from Jolee’s Fun at the Beach Sticker Pack. Create the title of the layout using the Dear Lizzy Thickers in Splendid White. Have some more fun and run some fine lines of Crackle Accents over the letters to give them a cracked, parched look, too.
Now, go record some history of the heat that you endured this summer! Have fun doing it, but be careful and remember there’s less than 60 days left until fall arrives and new photo opportunities come your way!
