THE THOUGHT BEHIND THE PROCESS

We gather information everywhere and store it in our head space for use later down the track. We call on it each time we set about to create a layout, Off the page item or mixed media project. Inspiration comes from looking at each others work, through magazines, movies & tv, a color scheme that you have seen on a paint chip, a department store display - there are so many.

"One Cool Dude" is a layout that I created after seeing something similar from an American artist online a few years ago. I wanted to create a type of retro color scheme so i found inspiration from the early seventies for this part of the layout.

The layout that I admired used round circles of the same size. I decided to use squares in varying sizes instead. The photo they had used was a lot smaller and this was such a cute photo I really wanted to accentuate that so I had it enlarged.

My background paper was a brown tone so that it would tie in with the color of the skin and to keep the focus on all the little squares of patterned paper & their beautiful hues. I chose around 6 printed papers and two plain papers, some prints were double sided. I then cut them into varying strips in readiness to be cut into different sized squares.

The photo was prepped by cutting the excess background away... this gave it a kind of 'three' dimensional look on the page. I chose three different chipboard fonts and prepared them by giving them an undercoat and then two coats of paint. once they were dry I used my black pen to outline the outer edges to help give definition to their shape.

So all the prep work had been done - now to start adhering the elements to the page. I started with my photograph. I then placed different shaped squares across the page, slowly going up the page and around the face. I did not stick them down until i was happy with their color placement. I tried to use some small solid colour blocks to balance out all the prints. Once I was happy i then adhered them to the layout. I then accented all the boxes with a black outline.

I added the title by staggering it across the page and added some small tags from the Heidi Swapp range and the Making Memories range. The outer edge was painted with black paint to help give the layout a border.

This is a great layout for you to use up all your scraps. I tend to have lots of left over strips - organising them in color groups is great if you are looking to put together a quick and simple, stand out layout with a large photo that you can cut out.

I hope you have fun creating this layout - I can see myself making a few more of these maybe even with some other shapes.

Have a great week
tracey