The Best Games are Outdoors Layout

Can you believe just how super talented Altenew scrapbook design team is? Sometimes I find it a little terrifying putting my work beside theirs, but I always have an ace up my sleeve – I can rock a ‘boy style' layout like no other. Today's layout is no exception.

The inspiration came from my two teenage twin sisters – Olivia and Emily. The two of them could not be more different. Emily LOVES Minecraft and would play it all day, everyday. Olivia on the other hand, simply can't sit still long enough to really get in to it. Look away for just one second and she's up on a tree. Or in case of this photo: Mum, Emily and I stopped to read a map. Olivia chose instead to climb a massive sculpture. Honestly, what can you do, but take a photo?

I wanted to represent this dichotomy in my layout. So I decided to make my own embellishments with the cute controller stamp from the Best Dad stamp set. I used a water resistant ink to stamp them on a white cardstock. I coloured them in with a cheap watercolour set and water brush from my local craft store. Then I put them aside to dry while I matted my photo with a couple of sheets of 6×6 vintage Basic Grey paper. Love, love, love mixing new supplies with old. It didn't seem worth putting the little off cuts back in my stash, so I used them to built a little shelf at the bottom of the page for more embellishment later.

For the title, I ruled out three lines on a 15 degree angle to the left of my photo. I used the Calligraphy Alpha stamp set  to stamp out my title. Just a little tip: for a more polished title, try stamping each letter individually. I know it's time consuming, but you have much better control over the link between letters. I used Jet Black, Ruby Red, Crimson and Warm Sunshine inks because they were the best match to the matting papers. That being said though, I really like the emphasis on ‘best' ‘games' and ‘outdoors' it creates.

To ground the title to the page, I rubbed some of each ink on to an acrylic block and watered them down with a water brush. I then transferred the watered down ink on to the page and blew it out with a straw. I also did the a smaller version at the top of the page for balance.

Now we're in the home stretch. All that is left to do is embellish the layout. I fussy cut out all the painted controllers, but you could just as easily use the die. I spread them out on the layout in a way that I found pleasing to the eye, before sketching cords for them, in and around the layout. The original plan was to stitch all the cords, but when I had them all sketched out I was a little concerned about the lack of contrast. So instead I used a black sharpie to draw in all, but three. The remaining three I stitched in with threads that matched to the ink colors. The final touch was to attach the controllers with pop dots to create some height. Too easy! And you know what? I really love the final product. I hope you do too.

So until next we meet again happy scrappers – go forth and scrap with much love.

Aimee Xx