All Landscape 3 - Angle it Gold

Today we continue our look at avoiding boredom with horizontal photos in a layout.

For this layout I wanted the energy of the fountain to come through.  This would have been difficult with all horizontal lines.  In fact, I chose vertical lines and enhanced them further with a strongly colored vertical border, because, as I've mentioned before, vertical lines help create energy in a page.

However, despite the energy of the fountains, this park is also a peaceful place so I wanted to strike the right balance between a serene and an energizing feel.   Thus you'll notice that I also placed the title horizontally.

While green can be a very peaceful color, it also can carry the vibrancy of growing plants, and I think it does both here - enhancing the energy I wanted for the page.

A photo at a jaunty angle also adds energy, but notice that all the lines in the photo itself are still horizontal - once again working toward that balance of energies.

Further interest is brought to the page with little touches of gold - which also highlight the metal in the fountain.

More Purchased Focals

Today I have a couple of generic note cards.  They were made quick and easy with purchased supplies.  This first came from a scrapbooking set that included the two patterned papers you see here as well as the butterfly embellishment.  All I had to do was find the right color green cardstock .  As you can see I triple matted the butterfly - and I was done!

This next uses scrapbook paper scraps with a pre-printed tag and piece of artwork for another quick and easy card.

Thank You

Today's theme is Thank You.  I go through a lot of thank you cards and don't always have time to make one up when I need one, so having some made ahead is important. 

One way to quickly pull papers together for a card like this is to pick a single patterned paper and then choose plain colored cardstock in a variety of colors that coordinate with the paper. 

The embellishments are all cut with my Silhouette.  The greeting was also cut with my Silhouette - from sticky-backed vinyl.

Pergamano Stencil - Bracket Flower

Coming up with an idea for creating the card focal is often the hardest part of card making for me.  I love playing with new tools because they give me new ideas for my focals.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be showing several different pergamano examples that have been made with pergamano templates using dry embossing and paper piercing.

Today's focal uses a Bracket Flower template.  After embossing and piercing the parchment paper, I cut close to the embossed edge.  Then I cut a purple mat and placed the parchment on top of it. Using the original piercings as a guide, I pierced through the purple mat.  Then I took gold metallic thread and stitched through the edge piercings, sewing the parchment to the mat.  I then pierced the center of the center flower and added a little stitch there as well. This then made a nice card topper for the front of the card.  I finished it off with a border and sentiment of outline stickers.