Hello Maja fans!

I’m happy to be in today to share a layout of my boys, using papers from the Vintage Summer Basics collection and working with a different color palette.

Here is the layout:

Sometimes when I’m out of ideas for what colors to use, the photo I have chosen helps to give me a clue. In this case, the turquoise, blue and grey in the photo were a lovely combination and I managed to match the papers from Summer Vintage Basics perfectly with it.

I made my background by dabbing on paint with a sponge to create a sort of triangular shape – this will be my visual line for the whole page. Then I spread some modeling paste, layered on pieces of patterned papers, and did my stamping to further accent that visual line. The idea of keeping this consistent is to create a flow that will capture your attention and draw your eyes to the main subject, which is the photo.

My embellishments are usually very simple items – chipboards, flowers, little tags and maybe sometimes a resin or two as I like to spend more time on my background. Embellishments have a tendency of stealing the thunder from the photo (who can resist pretty flowers!) but the background sets the mood for the entire project. In this background, I have different sized micro-beads and distress glitter, with some paint splatters to create more interesting small textural details that will both contrast and complement the bigger but simpler photo. I also made my background more intensely colored as I desaturated my photo colors slightly when editing it to enhance that contrast.

Chipboards are a favourite to add to my projects. I have used a variety of techniques here – heat embossing, stamping, painting and sealing with crackle paint to achieve different effects.

That’s all I have for today. Hope you find the tips here useful!

Maja Design papers used:

1914, 1934, 1946

Other supplies:

Chipboards – Blue Fern Studios
Mediums – 13@rts (gesso, paints, mists, microbeads, modeling paste, gel medium), Faber Castell (gelato)