by Ethan Johnson
August 30, 2007

I'm on the board, again! I put our new crop room to good use with my third 12x12 layout. I uploaded the finished product to scrapbook.com, and it's included here with bonus commentary:

As told in the layout, despite the high temperatures here in North Dallas in August (the cruelest month) I am craving hot, spicy foods. I ate two stuffed jalepeno peppers last night with dinner to satisfy my quota. Sure, it's a beating to some extent while eating them, but minutes later I physically feel like the experience never happened. Historically spice-bomb flavors would stick with me for hours afterward and require bread or milk to mitigate the tongue burn. Now? Meh, a sip of [drink] now and then, or use scoops of other foods to smooth things out.

Techniques:

I decided to stop my clichéd practice of photo matting in favor of being a bit more "raw" with my photo placement. Our photo printer is able to print multiple images on a single sheet of photo paper. Rather than trim them apart, I decided to leave the dual image sheet "as is" and make a mini collage in the center of the page. The strip of shiny patterned paper (with the Sun pattern) serves as a buffer between the photo grouping and the cardstock foundation.

Speaking of photos, I used Photoshop Elements to convert the thermometer photo to black and white, then used the paint bucket tool to highlight the "100" and the mercury strip in bright red. The colors of the undoctored photo weren't going to jive with the red/orange/yellow color scheme otherwise. I can't believe I had the presence of mind to try that out!

The title lettering is a particular stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. (I probably do say that, myself.) I bought some wacky metal letter sets from a clearance bin sale (regular price = $13 per set, got them for $4) but couldn't seem to work them into anything I had in my WIP pile. They seemed to work well with this layout, but then I had a flash of brilliance. I held each letter with some padded tweezers and burned them with a match, creating the scorching effect. I gingerly patted the excess soot off of each letter before mounting them. I'm getting better at seeing beyond the default options, I think!

Marlena critiqued my nearly finished layout and noted that the journaling needed "punch". I added offset strips of bright red paper to make the text lines "pop". Plus it ties in with my usual practice of photo matting, sort of.

I decided to fully embrace what is surely clichéus maximus and used chipboard curly brackets. Since the layout is about heat and spicy foods, I decided that less = more, and the brackets would reinforce the central theme. This is also a sop of sorts to one of my inspirations, Have He{ART}, Will Travel. I used acrylic paint to finish the chipboard elements using a foam brush.

Finally, I decided to cut out the flames from some patterned paper I found locally to dress up the lower left-hand corner, and tie into the thermometer photo. The flames coincidentally followed the curve of the humidity dial, as well as the Sun-patterned paper. Neat-o.

Lessons learned:

• Just because you have a photo available doesn't mean you have to use it. I had one that I really wanted to work into the layout but it just was clutter. I removed it from consideration and pressed on. (Yes, this is verbatim from the last layout I posted, and is still true.)
• See beyond the "default options". Convert photos to black and white or use other tinting tricks to make them more sympatico with your color scheme. Use paint to change the color of elements completely. (The chipboard arrow I used was fluoro green before getting slathered with paint.) Distress metal elements using sandpaper or matches (be careful). Experiment on scrap (non-essential) elements to try out new ideas.
• Have a point, and stick to it. The central thesis drove the layout, not the other way around. (Another repeat that held true again.) Keep asking yourself, "what message am I trying to convey?" If whatever you're doing doesn't factor in to that message, save it for another project.
• Determine your color scheme and go with it. I don't normally use these colors, but the photos pretty much dictated what would be compatible. Use paint or other methods to convert clashing elements, or again, save them for something else.
• I was going to throw away my unused or unwanted photos from this project, and then I remembered the way-cool yet bare "art lines" in the crop room. I hung up the photos, and will add more as the spirit moves me or as the opportunity arises. Neat! Thanks again, Amber.

Supply list:

Cardstock: DCWV 12x12 neutrals stack
Paper: (Patterned) Reminisce, Junkitz
Paper: (Solid) Paper Reflections
Lettering: (Chipboard) Basic Grey Mini Monos
Lettering: (Computer) Fonts: Melba (Chatterbox)
Lettering: (Metal) Ki Memories
Chipboard Arrow: American Crafts
Paint: Delta Ceramcoat Acrylics

Nothing like that fleeting sense of accomplishment before attacking the WIP pile, huh? <EM>

(Want more scrapbooking articles? The full list may be found here.)