Love Is All You Need

Scrapbook Layout  - Love Is All You Need -

After my sister's kidlets visit, I was left with lots of pictures to add to my Project Life album.  Only the favorites make it to scrapbook layouts.  We all love this picture of the little ones with my daughter playing on the iPad.  So it was only fitting to create a layout around it.

The "Hello Love" paper collection from Crate Paper worked perfectly for this layout.  I used the black and white striped patterned paper, as my nephew is wearing a striped shirt in the picture.  Since I wanted to add color to the page, a thin layer of gesso was added to the paper (the colors show better, and it reduces the buckling of the paper).

A light coat of gesso was added with a credit card only to the planned
location of the picture and cut file.

Since most of the paper in this collection has accents of various shades of pink and teal, color shine -in the respective colors was added to the gesso covered paper.  I used a combination of methods when adding the color, small details with a brush, and the rest using a plastic packaging bag and a bit of water.  A few splatters of color shine were also added to match the original vibrant pink ink splatters -original to the design-.

Darker tones of color shine were added to the outer corners of the gesso prepped area.

Using a newly release cut file from The Cut Shoppe (Happy Hearts) a few cut-out hearts were created. Using the paper from the same Crate Paper collection, the cut-out hearts were backed; this highlighted the linear qualities inside each of the hearts.

The Cut-out hearts were stitched  in a staggered form to the left side
 of layout.  They were stitched along the vertical center line of the cut-out.

A few strips (0.75 inches wide) were attached to the top of the page with the sewing machine.  However, black sewing thread was used to continue the look of the black horizontal stripes of the page.

Some of the thread has been left long on the layout to add to the distress look of the page

For added balance of color, the picture was matted and layered with various size papers from the collection. The title of the layout, Love Is All You Need, comes from The Cut Shoppe's " Love Struck" cut file.  In addition, the arrows were created using  the cut file, "Arrow Titles", from Juliana Michaels' blog -17turtles.com-.   Both the title and the arrows were cut out of toner paper, so they could be foiled after using Heidi Swapp's MInc (love that little machine!).

The pieces after the foiling process.

To carry out the distress look through the page,  cut-outs for the title and ephemera were filed a bit in places and along the edges.  Once the foil was applied,  the filed edges did not catch much of the foil and show the black toner instead.

Most of the edges of the cuts were filed -with a soft nail file-  to achieve a distressed look.

To create a visual triangle to the piece a few pieces of ephemera were added to the top right corner of the picture.  Most of the ephemera I used comes from cut-outs from different pages (as chipboard is hard to find in Canada, unless you order it on-line).  Once again,  a few pieces of foiled cut-outs were attached to create a coherent look to the piece.

A closer look to the small ephemera collection on the picture.

Finally, the date was added with a roller stamp, and a few lines of journaling were added to the bottom of the page, along the white lines of the paper.  

Even though this page took 2 days to construct, as the mixed media needs time to dry completely.  I really love the final result, and I hope you like it, too...

The completed layout

Materials Used:

• Patterned paper,  Crate Paper "Hello Love" collection
• Cut File - hearts -, The Cut Shoppe, "Happy Hearts"
• Cut File - title-,  The Cut Shoppe,  "Love Struck"
• Cut File  -arrow-,  Juliana Michaels (17 turtles.com), "Arrow Titles"
• Pink Tag,  Recollections, Michaels
• Mint Tag,  Craft Smith, Mint Collection (Michaels)
• Ephemera, word cut-outs,  Teresa Collins, "Family Stories) collection
• Toner paper for title and ephemera,  Heidi Swapp MInc collection
• Foil in Gold, Mint, Soft Pink, Heidi Swapp MInc foil collection.