All About Boys!! -- One Fish Two Fish

This photo has been in my to-do pile for y-e-a-r-s!!!  I either just did not find any papers that motivated me to use it, or the themed papers were all the wrong shades of blue... But today, today, my friends, I think I got it!!!  Don't ya just love it, when you wait and wait for something to  work and it finally does!! 

The thing is... none of these papers is new.  Not one of 'em.  I used an old Basic Grey stone washed blue background sheet and pulled other papers from an older Heidi Swapp travel related pad.  I think it was called No Limits. 

First things, first.  Cropped my 4x6 photo to a 4x4 size and layered it with various pieces of paper from the No Limits pad -- oh, yeah, I also used an old BINGO card between some of the layers!  Then cut a longer rectangular piece of notebook-y looking paper and tore one edge to place across the page under the layered photo.  Leaving more of this longer rectangle visible on one side made a perfect place for my title.  It would also make a nice place for an embellishment cluster, if you were so inclined. 

After the photo got layered up and was placed atop the crosswise paper rectangle, the top and bottom edges of the blue background sheet got chopped a bit, distressed and then red grid paper strips (the same red grid paper that appears under the photo) were tucked under the distressed edges and glued into place. 

I punched a few pieces from the remaining scrap of red paper and used those to aid in directing the eye to the photo and for another touch of red.  I also wanted a little black for some additional pop and crispness, so out came the washi tape! 

Still felt that the photo area needed some more definition, so I started drawing non-structured rectangles or boxes around it and while my pen was out, I added some more lines at the sides and at the top and did my journaling. 

I wound up some black thread (kind of thought it might look appropriate --- like a tangled fishing line, maybe) and added a couple light blue/gray printed hearts, tucked in a tab and a printed  arrow embellishment.   The title (a Pink Paislee puffy alpha) was placed on the longer side of that notebook paper looking rectangle  (the title came about because it was Dr. Suess' birthday this past week and it was just way cuter than "gone fishing").  Finally splattered some black ink and added a few puffy sticker dots and plus signs to finish it off. 

Now for boy pages...Tip #1:  Yes, you can use hearts on boy pages, just keep the colors of the page in mind and when in doubt go for a more muted color.  Tip #2:  Use angular lines and shapes. Here I  used penned line work and punches to create angular embellishments, like this large photo corner punch. 

I don't always love my pages... some I think ok, it's done, it's alright, some I think oh, I'm in love!, and some I am just plain happy with.  This is one of those, just plain happy types! 

have a happy, scrappy day!
Cheryl