Scrapbooking School Photos (Part 2) - School Photo Hop 2015 (Stuck?! Sketches)

Hello!  I'm finally  back again with Part 2 of my Scrapbooking School Photos series on my blog (you can find Part 1 here).  Today I'm also contributing to a School Photo Hop organised by the fabulous Megan Blethen (Crafty Meggy on YouTube).  Its time to go back to school in the States, but here in New Zealand it's nearly the end of term 3 of 4.  But I always have school photos waiting to be scrapped so I was super keen to join in!  The Facebook page for the hop is here and you can join any time and share your school photo pages.

I used my August Hip Kit, and decided to scrap Sam's official 2015 photo.  Because I've been struggling with my creative flow I used the latest sketch over at Stuck Sketches.  This layout is made of Pink Fresh Studio's Happy Things collection (papers, cut parts, and puffy stickers), and Crate Paper's Wonder collection (specifically the ephemera).  The Thickers and chipboard balloon are from Dear Lizzy.

I especially love my title on this page!  The sketch showed three photos, but as I only had the one photo I used the two cut aparts which were perfect for Sam's personality. 

Our dear sweet boy at age 8, in year 4 of school!

I built this cluster totally around the Crate Paper camera.

Here is the fantastic sketch:

Here is my video, you can also watch it on YouTube here.  

Make sure you check out the layouts made by the other talented and lovely ladies that are playing along:

Megan Blethen

Blog: www.craftymeggy.com

YouTube: (craftymeggy) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt3wJx4jIOfIuqITbht7jPQ

Hannah Lemieux

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsFOS-ppvPeFoExVzo-mO8Q

Katty Miranda

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVTHwKrwq8LO9_FTaAXsVg

Christy Harriman

YouTube (Christy's Beautiful Life) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4zHSberz5_f79YhdVIIUWQ

Alyssa Hurzeler

Blog: http://justmeandmyasdf.com

YouTube: (Alyssa H) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Qx8CDiMDJZFvtiw0-7ZdQ

Jennifer Cambridge 

YouTube: https://youtu.be/oNBaAw2Fr1k

Kelly Wells Barron 

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCiMbKy8p0ib5wug27fd9v1Q

Thanks for watching!  Happy school photo scrapping :)

Scrapbooking School Photos (Part 1)

Good afternoon!  Earlier this year our oldest two kids had their annual school photos taken.  I though I'd do a series on how I scrap these photos, because I read in one of the Facebook Groups I'm in that people often find them hard to scrap. 

One of the reasons given was that school photos are often "awful".  This may be for a number of reasons, such as difficult colours of uniform or backdrop, bad poses, or just plain difficult photos.  I've found the opposite for school photos, and I think thats due to the uniform being navy, grey (for boys), blue and white - very easy colours for the scrapbooking Mum to embellish!  It also helps that our photos are taken outside.  (All credit of these photos goes to Des Ellery Photography).

For this photo of Azaria I used my March Hip Kit, and started with the beautiful Crate Paper (Craft Market I think) floral, which was begging to be watercoloured.  Being a beginner painter, I chose a small number of the flowers to paint with watercolours.  Of course I had to use my new notebook edge punch on the vellum, then layered another paper under my photo.

I kept my embellishment very simple and to a minimum to let the water colouring feature and let Azaria's photo shine.  The cluster below includes an exclusive flair badge, exclusive die cut ampersand and a cork heart.

I layered some paper under the "Beautiful" wood veneer to help it stand out.  The "^" shapes are made with a punch I've been neglecting.  

I absolutely love the Crate Paper Craft Market mini words - yes you heard me say that after I've been struggling with word stickers for months!

So the rules I've applied on this school photo layout are the following:

• Keep it simple.
• A non-themed selection of products works well for a non-themed scrapper like me.
• Use one main beautiful piece of paper to assist in keeping it simple.
• Keep embellishments to a minimum.
• Gold accents in three places help provide continuity.
• Vellum helps soften the paper layers, and assists in integrating the photo with the page.
• The notebook edge from the punch adds a "school" feel.
• The doily provides some relief from the very liner square cuts of paper and horizontal design.
• A kraft cardstock helps tie in the natural feel of the photo - being shot outside.

Thanks for looking, I'll be back again with another school photo layout soon!