School Days

I mentioned working on this layout a while back and finally got a chance to scan and stitch these 12x12 pages. I lost a little bit of the border in this process, but you get the idea. It was a challenge for me to come up with a nice way to use all of my sons school photos, in the sizes that I already had on hand. Of course it also had to be a masculine layout...another challenge since I like to use flowers and cutesy stuff.

When organizing the photos I noticed that he seemed to be wearing either red or blue in most of the photos so that is how I came up with the color scheme. I used Bazzill textured card stock for the background. (I'm excited to see the new SU! textured card stock they are offering in the new catalog!) I matted all the photos in black since a lot of the blues in the photos were of different shades.

After I got done matting the photos and cutting out the title I arranged the photos, but it looked so plain and boring. That's when I thought of adding the circles. I'm so glad I did! It turned into a more fun and whimsical page than I originally envisioned, but I really was happy with the way it turned out. After cutting out the circle shapes with my Coluzzel, I was thinking that I wish I had some textured card stock in the red. That's when I pulled out my poor retired Houndstooth background that has been sitting so lonely on my shelf lately. That was just the touch I was looking for.

Adding the grades to each photo was a breeze using the Round Tab punch...plus it was perfect for a school themed layout. I just printed each grade using my black journaler pen. I wish I could have thought of a better title than "School Days" but other than that I was happy with it...and most importantly so was my son! Well, except for his 10th grade photo...but there's no changing that now! (he admits he should have listened to mom and gotten a hair cut! hehehe)

Stamps: Big Deal Alphabet, Typeset Alphabet, Tassel Time & Houndstooth background

Card stock: Bazzill textured 12x12, Real Red, Basic Black & Brocade Blue

Ink: Night of Navy, Real Red, White Craft (on the diploma)

Accessories: Coluzzel, Round Tab Punch & Basic Black Journaler