Gorgeous is the word that came to mind when I first saw the Indian Summer range from Basic Grey. The papers are just beautiful and I couldn’t wait to get scrapping with them. The only problem was that the most spectacular designs like Milkweed and Gooseberry are quite busy, making it a challenge to showcase them in your layouts without detracting from your photos.
Click Here To View Our Basic Grey Papers
So I set myself another challenge – to make my favourite paper a key element of my layout’s design while still showing off my photos. And here is the result:
Materials Used: Basic Grey Indian Summer Milkweed paper, Basic Grey Indian Summer Dogwood paper, pink cardstock, brown and pink alphabet stickers, light brown cardstock, brown ink and a frog stamp from Imaginisce.
To recreate this scrapbook page idea, follow these steps:
1. Use the Basic Grey Indian Summer Milkweed paper as your background. Lightly ink around the edges with brown ink and allow it to dry.
2. This step is a little tricky. Using a craft knife or scissors, cut around the outline of the pink flowers up the left side of your Milkweed paper. You should start about 4.3cm from the bottom edge and continue up until you are about 4.7cm from the top edge. Do NOT cut all the way to the edges of your page.
If in doubt, please see the picture above and keep in mind you are cutting a slot to slide your brown Dogwood paper into.
3. Cut a square of Basic Grey Indian Summer Dogwood paper measuring 21.5cm by 21.5cm. Lightly ink the edges with brown ink. When dry, slide into the slot you made in the previous step to see what it looks like but do NOT glue in place.
4. Take note of the area covered by your brown paper and then set your brown paper aside. Cut out two leaves and a pink piece about 5cm by 6cm from the area that will later be covered. These will be used to create your frog embellishment.
5. Slide your brown paper into place again and glue. It should be about 1.9cm from the right edge and 4.3cm from the bottom edge.
6. Mat a vertical photo with pink cardstock. Glue in the bottom left corner of your brown paper, making sure you slide the edges underneath the pink flowers of your background paper, as shown above.
7. Mat a second vertical photo with pink cardstock. It should be slightly smaller than the previous one. Glue in the bottom right corner of your brown paper, making sure the top edge is inline with the top edge from the photo from step #6.
8. Mat a horizontal photo with pink cardstock. Glue in the top right corner of your brown paper, making sure the right edge is inline with the right edge from the photo from step #7.
9. Now it’s time to create your title in the top left corner of your page. I have used a combination of dark brown alphabet stickers from K&Company matted with light brown cardstock and pink and brown alphabet squares from DCWV. You can use whatever letters you like. The important thing is that they stand out.
10. Finally, stamp an image of a frog (or anything else) on the pink piece you set aside in step #4 and cut it out. Arrange it and your two leaves towards the bottom right corner of your page.
And there you have it – a layout that showcases not just your photos but a beautiful piece of Basic Grey Indian Summer paper. There is still a lot going on on this page, but the dark brown background for the photos creates a break between them and the patterned paper, allowing the photos to shine on their own.
Plus, you still get to see those gorgeous Basic Grey patterns.
Click Here To View Our Basic Grey Papers
I’d love to hear what you think of this Basic Grey scrapbooking challenge. Please leave a comment in the comments box below.
Thank you so much for sharing your technique for this layout Jen. I have several lovely papers that I want to showcase alongside my photos when I get around to turning them into layouts. You’ve given me a great idea in how I can do it. Now I just have to find the time for scrapping.
Hi Jen, This is beautiful! Love, Laura