Wild Thing

Isn’t a collage a fun way of sharing a series of your photos? It is also such a great way to utilize all your pictures on a page layout. This is such a perfect way to convey the story as you use most of your precious photos, and then you can keep your journaling to a minimum. This adorable layout was created by Melinda Spinks. She is one of the wonderful designers from Jillibean Soup.

To prepare your collage you can use the free on-line editing package PicMonkey. Print out the collage onto photo paper and then trim off the excess paper.

Place the upturned photo collage onto the reverse of the patterned paper and trace the size of the inner square and cut it out approximately 1/8″ inside the pencil line as you need to allow for a margin of space between the paper and the photo collage.

Using the reverse side of the patterned paper again, hand draw a heart shape and using a sharp craft knife cut the heart away from the paper. Don’t throw your heart away you will need it later.

Flip over the patterned paper and use a sharp craft knife cut it into horizontal strips removing approximately 1/8″ in between each strip to create the white space. Be sure not to get them out of order.

Next you will adhere the photo collage to the center of the background cardstock using a double sided tape and then adhere the heart strips in the center of the collage. Use foam pop up dots to give it a raised look.

To create the vellum heart, fold over a piece of vellum and trace the shape using the heart cut-out as your template. Use a paper piercer to add the stitching holes leaving a 3/8″ border.

Stitch around the heart with embroidery thread or yarn. Don’t forget to leave a reasonable size opening to pour in the confetti.

You can make your own confetti using a hand-held heart punch and patterned paper. Add a hand full of sequins and throw into the heart to build the heart up a little.

Once you have gently packed your confetti into your heart you can sew the remaining stitches to close off the opening.

Adhere the heart to the layout using double sided tape. Leave the ends of the thread attached to the heart for a whimsical finish.

To finish up your layout you will need to add your remaining choice of embellishments, words, and if desired a few splatters of ink.

This is such a fun and creative layout. A great BIG THANK YOU to Melinda Spinks for sharing this with us. Now it is time for you to pull out all those pictures and incorporate them into one layout!

Have a wonderful creative day!