Finding the right Pictures

Hello fellow bloggers & scrapbookers, I am sure you all have layouts designed waiting for those perfect pictures, I know I do... I was busy digging through all of my pictures to find the right ones for these layouts I had already completed while working at Scrap-A-Lot and I realised why it is so important to have your picture BEFORE you tack your layout together! What a challenge! It took me hours and I still have so much more to do. Some of my pictures were perfect but they were taken portrait when I needed landscape or vice versa... But, the worst part was trying to "un-glue" the design to put the pictures on the mats! Thank goodness for un-do it is honestly a scrapbooking necessity! If you have never used it, un-do is a liquid product that dissolves adhesive without damaging your layout or your photos. It is Awesome!

I bought my un-do at Scrap-A-Lot, you can find it at most local scrapbook stores or even online.

After several hours fighting with stacks of pictures and un-gluing the foam squares and adhesive glued down over top of my photo mats(not very smart in hind-sight) Here are some of the layouts I managed to find pictures for, these were designs I taught as classes while I was working at Scrap-A-Lot.

Gypsy Rose

For this layout I used a beautiful paper line by Kaisercraft , I love the color combination and the design of the paper.  I did a lot of fussy cutting and used Prima flowers and bling to accent the layout.  The larger individual gems were from a bulk package of multi-colored gems.

Enchanted Garden

Most of this beautiful paper is by Prima, I also used Fancy Pants(the pink patterned paper used to mat the photos & in the background) I carefully cut out only the butterflies from the paper using an exacto knife leaving the openings in the background. I used a Martha Stewart punch to create the scalloped polka-dot edge on the pink patterned paper. The flowers are 'Color Me Crazy' flowers with glitter by Petaloo, sprayed with a combination of Maya Road Mists and Tattered Angels Glimmer mists. The ribbon is May Arts and Fancy Pants. The large butterflies are Prima. I used glossy accents to adhere the pink & purple glass beads by Martha Stewart onto the swirls and flower centers. Finally I used Stickles around the edges of each butterfly as well as the butterfly openings in the background to add a more whimsical feel to the layout.

L'Amour

This layout was designed with a gorgeous paper line as well as wood accents by Kaisercraft. The blue hydrangea flowers are by Petaloo and I used a Martha Stewart corner & edge punch to frame the photos.  I used Tim Holtz Ranger white picket fence distress stain on the wooden bird cage to stain it white. There is a crazy amount of fussy cutting and dimension on this layout.

Morning's Frost

I created this snowy winter design using SEI papers.  The snowflakes and trees are fussy cut from the paper, I layered the trees and used dimension foam to create the hilly scene. I used a specialty metallic silver paper to mat the photos. I added some clear gems, a stick pin and fancy button. The sheer navy ribbon is by May Arts. The owl is a Prima stamp, using silver embossing powder on a shimmery white cardstock. I then used my stylus tool to shade in some blue ink onto the back of the owl.

Spring in Bloom

Here I used Prima papers, I fussy cut out the flowers from the paper using an exacto knife and used 3-D foam squares to add dimension to them.  The border and corner punches I used are by Martha Stewart. The lace ribbon is by Prima, it was white and I used Tattered Angels glimmer mists to make it multi-colored.  The flower centers are by Websters Pages. The 3 chipboard frames in the top right corner are Tattered Angels, I used several colors of Tattered Angels Glimmer Glazes to color them to match the layout. Once they were dry I took my brown ink and ran it across the top of the frames to bring out the embossed raised edges. The paper flowers are also by Prima.

Butterfly Kisses

This beautiful glittered flourish paper was simply inspiring. I fussy cut out the flourishes and used 3-D foam to pop them off the page. The glittered paper butterflies were cut from paper by DCWV, the large epoxy butterflies are by Prima. The shimmery metallic lacy ribbons are by May Arts. I made slits in the ribbon using an exacto knife and wove a contrasting ribbon through the slits. The brown gems at the bottom are adhesive bling by Zva.

Country Garden

These papers by Websters Pages are stunning. The pink/cream script in the background is by Graphic 45. I fussy cut out groups of the flowers and gazebo. The lace border punch is Martha Stewart. I cut the bird & cage out of grungeboard using a Tim Holtz die cut. The bird is embossed with gold, the cage is stained with Ranger distress stain then I used crackle accents over the entire cage. I used a Sizzix die to cut the pink flowers out of the paper and then layered them to create the flowers and used gold embossing powder on the edges of the flowers.  The stamps are by Pink Paislee, I used gold embossing power on cream cardstock and fussy cut out the designs. The gold ribbon on the top & bottom of the page are by May Arts.

I hope you enjoyed looking at and reading about some of my designs as much as I enjoyed creating them.  

Thanks for stopping by, happy scrappin' !!!