March Club Layout

Each month my club meets and I get to come up with a layout that is easy enough and yet challenging enough for my fabulous group of ladies.  They let me know what kind of layout they'd like to do next.  In February the discussion about what sort of theme to do in March started with an immediate "Valentine's Day" vote.  But just as quickly, there was a chorus of, "Aw, no."  Some of my members are single or don't really celebrate this holiday with photos.  So we settled on something a bit more generic and vague: celebrating relationships/family/friendship.  What a tough assignment for me!  How was I going to come up with a layout that could be used for Valentine's Day photos but also for any other relationship?
My March/April Creating Keepsakes magazine came to the rescue!  The title on one of the layouts in the magazine gave me a starting place and the sketch for scrapping 4x6 photos gave me the layout.  We had already decided to still go with the pink/red theme.  Here is the finished product:

I used the That's Amore Level 2 paper pack, Playful Flourishes and various alphabet stamp sets.  I also added some craft buttons threaded with embroidery floss and twill ribbon pleated a bit with Glue Dots.

Here are a few more photos:

The flourishes were stamped in Blush ink and then rolled a bit in Tulip.  After I cut them out, I sponged the edges a bit with a dauber.  I also sponged the edges of the buttons; love doing that!  I used the direct-to-paper technique to edge the title and blush papers.  The title spots were random stamped in second generation with both Blush and Tulip.

These photos were all taken at different times, spanning from April 2009 to January of this year.  In order for them to look cohesive on this layout, I changed them all to a sepia, which actually ended up printing almost black and white.  Still love how this turned out!  It's so nice to be able to work with photos in this way.  I hadn't gotten to scrapbooking our trip to the zoo last year and in looking for photos of my kids, I found the one of my son with his hat.  It's now one of my new favourites!

Som of my club members weren't too happy about cutting the flourishes, but they trust me and did it anyway and came away with a layout they were all very pleased with.

Live in the Durham region?  Want to join my club?  New members can join any time!  Just send me an email.  Our next club night is Friday, April 9 at 7pm.

Happy Creating!