Back to School: First Day Layout by Melinda

Hello and happy Thursday! It's Melinda with you today and I am going to stand on my soap box and admit that school photos are usually the last pics I choose to scrap. I don't know why... I think it's because I can never come up with fun designs and I struggle with the primary colours... where's the pastels!!! Well Cynthea must have been listening because she has designed THE most gorgeous 'Back to School' collection that actually ticks all the boxes. Fun theme, primary colours with a hint of pastels and measuring tape washi! Yes you read that correctly!

My son is now in grade three so it truly has taken me a while to drag these photos out.

Now I know I've done a few of these collages as I love to play around with lots and lots of ephemera... I just can't help myself. So, if you would like to have a go yourself then I'll briefly explain my process and give you a few tips that I've learnt along the way.

Step 1: I found an apple shape on the internet and printed it out to the size I required then placed it onto my cardstock and using a hand-held embossing tool I marked the outline. I usually find it best to place my cardstock on top of a cork mat so the indentation comes through. You could use pencil but it becomes a bit tricky to erase it afterwards.

Step 2: I always start laying down the largest embellishments first so I have them balanced across the shape and I place my photo temporarily on the layout so I don't have to worry about putting pieces behind it.

Step 3: Next I fill in the rest of the shape with smaller pieces being careful to really watch my colours so I don't overdo the one colour too much in the one place.

Step 4: Finally I use Epoxy Sprinkles to fill all the small gaps and to complete the outline. The more gapes you fill the crisper the shape becomes.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope I have given you some ideas in how to get the most out of all your stickers, brads, buttons and epoxies and a way that perhaps you hadn't thought about or just hadn't attempted yet.