Start with a photo that tells the story

I always start with the photo when I scrapbook. I take the pack of photos and look through them to decide if I want to use a series of photos or just one to tell the story. Sometimes I find I have to use the worst one photographically as it captures the story I want to tell the best! For me the story is more important than the beauty of the photo. However, with the volume of photos we now take I have so much more choice!

Here’s the story

Emily asked if she could hand paint the downstairs loo as a project over the summer holidays. We spent lots of time searching pinterest for ideas and decided on a selection of leaves. Our house has sloping ceilings so it is always tricky to know where the wall stops and the ceiling begins – a bonus for this project as the leaves gently slide into the ceiling.

It was a massive project and took her so many weeks to complete but it looks completely amazing now and is so unique!

Materials for this layout

As I start with the photo I then choose my colours by looking at it. The perfect patterned paper to add a splash of colour is the Lily Impressions pack – free during sale-a-bration. I choose two strips to give a pop of colour behind the photo and a couple thin ones in the top right hand corner. The circle accent is drawn on using my Garden Green stampin’ marker and a dinner plate. I drew around the plate with a pencil and then went over it with the marker a couple of times.

To create the paint splatters I used a stamp in the Geared Up Garage set using Granny Apple Green and Lovely Lipstick ink. Check out your stamp sets as we have a few with splatters if you don’t own this one.

The paint brush pot seemed an obvious choice as a accent! It is in the Crafting Forever stamp set and I really enjoyed colouring it in with matching stampin’ blends. Remember to ground it on the page with a table top!

The title and circles sprinkled around are cut from foil. The strip along the bottom is designed to look like a film strip and was easy to make using the foil and Be Mine Stitched Frameliets. You might not have spotted the die to cut strips and just seen the beautiful hearts in the set. I cut two lengths and then some small strips to make the film strip. I also added two hearts from that set – one behind the paint brushes and the other as an accent in Granny Apple Green cardstock at the top.