Caleb & Zachary

My Favorite Boys in 2009

I take so many photos of each event that there is no way that I can fit them on an entire layout, or even two or three layouts! Especially when the pictures are fall or autumn themed! I had two, in my opinion, adorable pictures of the boys I wanted to highlight. So I enlarged them to 5x7's and gave them their own layout.

Although I made this layout a couple years ago and my style has definitely evolved over the years, there are some aspects of the page I really like:

• I gave my favorite photos prominent positions on the page. To give the two page spread balance I raised the placement of Caleb’s photo while lowering the placement of Zach.
• I stretched the main brown background piece across both pages to give them continuity. The colored bordered strips I staggered and overlapped to add visual interest.
• I attached photo corners to opposite corners of the photos, again to add balance.
• I placed the picture of Caleb on the left because he was looking to the right. And I placed Zach's picture on the right because he was looking to the left. Where you're photo subject is looking will actually draw your eyes to that area, and in this case it is the two smaller photos in the center of the page. If I had reversed the photo placement it would draw your eyes off the edge of the layout.

My favorite element of this page is the paper flowers I "doctored". The cream colored flowers looked a little too stark against the darker backdrop. So I took a small clear acrylic stamp and stamped in the center of the flower!  I think adding the brown ink to flowers gave the embellishments an aged / antique look that fit the page's color scheme. It helped “tone down” the flowers. I hesitate to use flowers on pages having to do with boys. Sometimes they just look girly, but the brown centers helped "man up" the paper blossoms. What supplies do you have that you can "doctor"?

Happy Scrapping!