I had several photos sitting around that I have been looking forward to scrapbooking. One photo is of my Dad skydiving and the others are of my oldest son Jared (at 3 years of age) attempting to "FLY like Granddad" The shot of my Dad is crisp and clear with a beautiful blue sky in the background. The shots of my son- although very sweet- were taken at dusk in Winter and they aren't perfectly focussed due to the movement of the swing. To "tell the story" they really needed to appear on the same page. To get them to "work together" I decided it would be best not to overwhelm the page with lots of colour but rather stick with mainly neutral colours. I used "whisper white" and "kraft" and a touch of "night of navy" and "baja breeze" because the blues seemed to work best with the colours in the different photos. Here is the finished product
You will notice that I made a feature of the photo of my Dad by "framing" it in a piece of Night of navy cardstock. I will explain in a moment how I made the frame....but first more about the layout.
The chipboard letters have been inked in Baja Breeze. I then stamped the smallest image from the "Circle Circus" stamp set over the top using "night of navy" Under the title I have used a small strip of patterned paper from the "Walk in the Park" Designer series paper pack (from the Spring Mini) I also used the whisper white Jumbo brads that are also from the Spring Mini (Don't forget that the spring mini catalogue finishes at the end of November- don't miss out on your chance to order items from this mini catalogue!)
Here is a close up of the journalling. I have stamped the journalling block from the stamp set known as "From the Kitchen of" (pg 93) It had the word 'recipe' on it- which I simply omitted by inking up the main image and then using a cotton tip to remove the ink on the word "recipe" I have hand-written the journalling using a night of navy marker. The '05' is from the "Calendar alphabet and numbers" stamp set.
Here is a close up of the featured quote from the "Dreams du Jour" stamp set. The image has been stamped on Kraft but then adhered to chipboard accents that have been decorated in the same manner as the title and also with a touch of patterned paper
Now back to the explanation about creating a frame. The concept is really very simple- but I think that sometimes we forget how the basic tools like a paper cutter can be used in a variety of ways.
For the purposes of this demonstration I will cut a piece of cardstock to 10cm x 15cm
You line the cardstock up at the 10cm mark. The place where the orange blade is marks the zero point. When you move the orange blade across the tracking it slices the cardstock and you will have a piece of cardstock that is 10cm wide.
The same is repeated to cut the 15cm side, however you need to ensure that you swing the arm out from underneath the paper cutter to reveal the 15cm mark.
To cut a frame that is 2cm thick you will need to place your cardstock into the paper trimmer so that it sits on the 2cm marking on the right hand side. You will need to start cutting at the 2cm mark that you will find on the blue strip/ cutting guide. Ensure that the arrows on the orange cutting blade point to the 2cm mark
You slice down until you reach the 8cm mark on the blue strip
You turn your cardstock 90 degrees. Again you line the cardstock up on the 2cm mark on the right hand side. In the following photo I have lifted up the blue cutting guide so that you get a better idea of what I mean.
Lower the blue strip/ cutting guide and as you did previously- line up the orange blade with the 2cm mark that you will see on the blue strip/ cutting guide
and stop slicing when you reach the 13cm mark on the blue cutting guide.
Repeat the steps above for the remaining two sides.
You will then have a rectangle that you can pop out of the centre
Revealing your 2cm wide frame

Of course- you could make your frame as thick or as thin as you like.
I actually used this same technique for my featured layout. I wanted there to be a strip of whisper white appearing around the edge but didn't want to use an entire sheet of whisper white cardstock - especially when the majority of it would be covered by photos and the journalling block. I created a "frame" of whisper white which was then adhered to baja breeze cardstock. I was then able to use the piece of whisper white taken out from the centre to create a card.
If you don't own one of the paper cutters available through Stampin' Up! be sure to get in touch with your SU demonstrator who will happily have one shipped to you. If you do not have a SU demonstrator I would be more than happy to help you with your ordering needs (or contact your nearest demo on the right hand side)
Cheers!
Miriam Thomas