Making a Great Page with Not So Great Pictures

The Echo Park This & That  papers are perfect for so many family pictures.  This month rather than using new pictures, I decided to tackle my boxes full of old pictures.  In trying to pick out pictures, I realized my pictures from the 80s are not nearly as good as those I take today.  Perhaps most importantly, I can’t fix them digitally.   I had several pictures (and none of them great) that document a major activity for my son.  I decided it was important to scrapbook them for the memories even if the pictures were not good.

Since they were dirt bike pictures, This & That Charming line full of great boy colors combined well with the Tim Holtz Cogs for just the right look.  I cut a large photo mat out of Numbers (green side) and placed it across the two pages of Vintage Fans (wood side).  I cut yardsticks from the Yardsticks Paper and a  “You Make the World Go Round”  strip (great for bicycle pictures of your son) from the Border Strip paper and used these to trim the photo mat on the right and bottom.   On the top of the photo mat on left, I used the Tim Holtz Sizzix On the Edge Steampunk Die to cut a border.  I then cut out lots of cogs in green (Numbers) and brown (Dots from the This & That Graceful Line) using the Sizzix Tim Holtz Gadget Gears die.  Most were affixed to the page.  In three, I used brads from the set in the center and raised them with pop dots.

I cut a base for my title from the Tim Holtz Baroque Movers & Shapers Dies and the Tim Holtz Movers & Shapers 3 Punches Die.  (As an aside, I kept now buying these because I couldn’t see paying over $10 for a die ot punch 3 holes when I had lots of ways to make holes.  Definitely, a mistake. The way these work is you put them wherever you want on a piece of paper in the Mover & Shaper tray and since they are magnetic, they stay in place and cut the holes exactly where you want.  I’m a convert.  They were in stock at ScrapbooksPlus last time I was there so pick up a set.)  I affixed the base with brads from the line and added a title cut using a Tim Holtz Vintage Market die. 

For my journaling, I printed on Instamatic (white side).  I inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and und using  the EK Binding Edge Edger  punch I punched the top edge. (I love this punch.)

My final embellishments were the new KaiserCraft  Wooden Flourishes Cogs.  They were a little too light for my page so I stamped them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to give them texture and to darken them so they matched the paper better. Where they were still too light, I rubbed a little extra ink on them.  I affixed these to circles of brown and green paper and put them at the three corners of my large photo mat to draw the eye to the picture.