my youngest, chris, was in kinder last year and he got his first “official” school photo at the end of the year. since it was his first BIG school photo, i was kinda looking forward to doing something special with it. but, i wasn’t all that excited with it when i actually got it. they had put a cutesy little border around it. i’m sure they thought it would be nice, but as a scrapbooker, i want to make my OWN little designs, and the way the border crossed into the photo, you couldn’t even cut it off! so, i kept taking it out to scrap it, then sticking it back in my stack to do later, i just couldn’t figure out how to get around that border. i’m sure some of you have had the same problem with school or sport photos that come “pre-decorated”!
well, we got the new COSMO CRICKET “Hello Sunshine” line in at my lss. i LOVE the line, the colors are great – just a “shade” off primary! i wanted to do a layout with it, but didn’t really have any photos that i thought would go with it. then, i remembered the kinder photo, didn’t that border have some of the same colors in it? i pulled it out and it was a pretty close match to most of the colors in the papers. so, instead of fighting with the border, i pulled elements out of it to embellish my layout with. i pieced together a butterfly and tree and then cut a star to use, all inspired by the designs on the border. The rest of the layout came together pretty easily after that. A simple strip of cardstock gave me a place to jot down all the names of the students in the class. I did add a bit of G.C.D. paper for some contrast and to accent the blue in the kid’s school uniforms.
so, if you find yourself with a “pre-decorated” photo, try working with it instead of fighting with it! you might just like the results!
tami sanders * paper crafter 