Pirate ahoy!!!

Good morning!!

So Im back again with todays layout and its much more my style, I found it a lot easier to do than the bits and pieces page from yesterday. 

Ive also taken step by step process photos to show you just how it went together, hopefully this well help someone along the way

Before i begin let me tell you a bit about how I scrap, I don't do it in chronological order, I actually don't do it in any order... if I have photos that I LOVE then those tend to get scrapped first, if not they are all put into my photo file box. 

I arrange them into sub sections which look like this:

one each for my 4 children, then i have one for all of them or more than one of them in the photo, then i have a section for pictures of myself or Paul, my husband. I also have a section for our spanish holiday (which was 9 years ago!) and a section for our wedding photos. the last ones are used for the photos that i print into square format and a section for randoms... this is what i call it anyways but it includes pictures of people who are friends or not immediate family, it includes pictures of our pets and any other random photo that doesn't fit anywhere else in my box! 

This allows me to get hold of photos that I know I have, and that I want really fast, it works you should try it if you struggle.

When deciding on what photo to scrap I use a great decision making app.... I'm horrendous and making choices, seriously!, so this app called decide now (free in the app store) is perfect, I input all of the sections I have in my photo box and let it choose which one I will delve into for that page.

Im telling you all of this because today.... I cheated!!!!!!

Today it told me to use a photo of Michael, my 12 year old son.. so I did, I chose one and I started to scrap with it, then I decided that the page, and the way i wanted it to go was way too feminine for a boy photo so i changed it up and used a picture of Elsie! 

I say cheated but this is allowed, we are allowed to change our minds, thankfully else I would be in trouble!

I have learnt over all my years that you have to change your mind, you HAVE to make a choice, whether to stick with something because you've already made that decision... or to change it even if it means pulling everything else up, because it just doesn't feel right. 

Ive made far too many pages that Im not happy with, hundreds probably so i made a pact with myself to NOT do this anymore, and i don't!!!

omg that was long and boring right?!?!? sorry but I've said it now!

on with the good stuff, this is the inspiration that i used to create todays layout:

I found this via pinterest but you can go straight to the web link here, i just loved all of the little elements, the slanted patterned papers and the square photo. Heres what I did with it:

So... this is the first stage of my layout building... as you can see I chose a simple grid paper as my starting point, followed by a red/pink wood grain paper, it was at this point that I decided that the photo of Michael setting off for camp just wouldn't work, but instead of changing the paper I was using , I opted to change the picture as I really did fall in love with that woodgrain!!!

I found a strip of the kraft patterned paper to go under the red and stuck those down.

I do tend to just go with my gut instinct and stick things as i go along, sometimes this works for me and sometimes it doesn't but its how I do things, if you are unsure about things then id say wait until you have a few more bits together to see if you are happy with it then do a mass stick... I find the only problem i have with that is that you have to move things to then stick them down which isn't so great if you've got it just perfect! there are good and bad points as with everything, so this is just personal preference!

This was my next choice.... a paper that i don't normally look twice at, yet alone for a girl page... but today it spoke to me. I wanted the page to have a grungy kind of girly feel, she is a pirate after all!! so for me the kraft worked and the bright colours gave me more to work with as I went along.... you may be thinking im mad, why would I ever choose this to match with that gorgeous woodgrain but I'll show you...

Once you trim that patterned paper down and use it only as a border it takes away the overpowering boldness and allows you to just focus on the photo but with a lifting element. i think it draws the eye straight towards the photo, which is where the eye should be looking. hopefully you'll agree.

Ill let you into a little secret of mine... this is how I secure most of my page elements, just a single strip of double sided tape diagonally across the piece I want to fix. This is so that i can tuck in pieces behind this element once I've stuck it down, many a time I've had to rip up bits to add more in, so this makes sense to me... and if it feels a bit floaty once the page is done you can always add more to stick the edges down. 

So by this stage I've glues my photo down and added some extra pieces. This is where I start to go slightly off track and more my own way, when this happens I tend to turn off the pinterest and go it alone... obviously I don't forget everything and so some elements remain the same but its much more relaxing to just do what feels right to me than to try and copy someone else's design 100%.

I was looking through my project life card box to find something to sit by the side of the picture (as in the original) I was originally searching for a 4x6 and instead this beauty was lying on the top. 

A lovely cyber friend sent me a package which included this only last week... I love it!

It doesn't match the red in the photo exactly, neither does the woodgrain that i love so much... but to me it doesn't matter, and as long as you, the person making it, feels happy about it thats all that counts!

it did however need something behind it so I did manage to find a 4x6, the kraft lined card, which fitted in perfectly with the colour theme for this. 

Then I started thinking about where I would put my title, as in Jenny's its on the bottom of the journalling card... I knew i didn't want to do that as words on top of words don't generally stand out too well.

I chose to move my title and tried it in a few places before settling for here, it could have gone underneath the cards, along the bottom of the photo, or even at the side of the journalling cards or the photo but I decided to go with my old favourite, the top!

I chose 2 alphabets for this, and the reason behind this is simple, i wanted the grandad and pirate to be more masculine as those words are to me and i wanted the gorgeous to be feminine, the colour that screams girls to me is pink... I know its not the only girly colour but my girls are so pink it just had to be! 

It works because the red woodgrain has pink undertones, making the pink lettering fit in just right. 

The next bit i addressed was the semi circle that i saw on top of the photo... I chose a pre cut floral patterned circle from my embellishment bag and went with it, it was perfect as it had the cream to blend in with the grid paper and red to tie it in with everything else. I cut the bottom half off to use another time, it has a button image on it which just didn't work for me on this page but i didn't want to waste it altogether so thats gone back into its pocket for another project.

I knew my journalling would not fint on this tiny space so I chose to fill it with the date, which i stamped on in a brown ink. I slid it slightly underneath the photo mat so that it flows nicely. 

To finish up I added some journalling onto the 4x6 card. as Id only stuck along the bottom of the 3x4 card i was able to slightly fold it back to add what i wanted to say. this wasn't my original plan, I was going to add the journalling along the bottom of the photo, straight onto the grid paper, but in my experience, with my handwriting I chose to hide it instead. 

I added a couple of wooden, sea related embellishments and the gold metal tab onto the journalling card to weigh it down, to balance the gold out i added a gold phrase sticker on top of the sewn banner that i had already added to the left of my picture. I also used some gold star rub ons on top of the journalling card and machine sewed through it as i really loved that piece on Jenny's page!

Then to make the circle balance I added a much smaller semi circle rub on underneath the journalling.and this completes my page for today, heres the finished layout:

I hope you like it?!?!?! let me know what you think?? and please share if you create something today, Id love to see it xxx