It's about the Mini Photographs using Crate Paper – Notes & Things

Hi everyone, it Jackie, and this months I’m using the lovely collection by Crate Paper – Notes & Things. I love the colour tones of this collection, even though its muted it still gives a fresh look to my layouts.  For this month I decided to use mini photographs on my layouts, each photograph measures approximately 3×2 and was printed with my InstaxPrinter, but you can get the same results using a normal printer.
For my first layout – Selfie Love – I added 3 mini photographs of me and my son taken over the summer, we just love to take selfles at any given opportunity – but who doesn’t right ..  I wanted the background to have some extra  depth, so decided to add some textured paste and ink splatter details to the background cardstock, then I trimmed it down to 11 x 11 and layered it onto to this background paper   I used a selection of papers from Crate Paper – Notes & Things 6×6 Pad, which I distressed the edges, before adding to my layout.

I love the frames that came with this collection, some printed with words, others with patterns and a few just plain, as you can see I off-set the frames over two of the mini photographs, to add added interest.

 
I also added some of the tags, and well as some enamel dots, and wood veneer sequins, you can see a closer look at the textured pasted details.
 

 
My 2nd layout, ‘Just be You’ I stamped the background with various stamps from my collection and using a mask I added further detail of the patterned background.  For this layout I only used one mini photograph and a selection of pattern papers from Crate Paper – Notes & Things  6×6 pad cut into a banner – The background does look a little messy, not too much but I like how it turned out.
 

 
Here’s a closer look at the stamp and distress details.  The stamped arrow word is this set from Technique Tuesday, which I stamped onto cork and cut out.

 
We don’t live far from the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham,  its a lovely place to have a wonder round, or even just sit and relax a while.  I love that fact that we are in the middle of the City and it so tranquil and just full of great beauty and they even have a cafe that sells Costa coffees – so result all round, anyway I digress – this year they have introduce a Butterfly House, well a large greenhouse really full of butterflies – I managed to get James to pose with one on his hand for this layout.
I love the pattern of this paper, and  I wanted it to be a main feature of the page and pull everything together, I took my colour combination from it, kraft and white, and used some of the frames that came in the collection in kraft and white, and layered the mini photographs on top just to add extra detail.

This paper called Noted  looks like a index cards so using the same paper out of the 6×6 pad I cut these tabs out, which again added extra details.  I also punched some butterflies out and scattered them over the page.

 
For my final layout I want to show you how well this collection works with another lovely collection – Shimelle 
You & Me – I started with this paper – Noted – but used the ‘b’ side, which already has a ink splatter  printed on the paper, I added some extra splatters to the top and bottom of the page.
Again this photo was taken at Botanical Gardens, of me and James just relaxing in the summer sun, using a single mini photograph.  I only used two papers from the Shimelle Collection, Granville – aqua; and Rubin  – the cut-a-part sheet, and the hearts from the wood veneer shapes.  I’m really pleased with how it has turned out.

A close up of one of the tags from the Crate Paper – Notes & Things Collection, which I backed with a scrap from the 6×6 paper pad.

 
Well thats me for this month, I hope you like how I’ve used this collection, especially added a few bits from another collection to compliment it.  It a fun collection that can be used in so many different ways.
Happy scrapping!