Not all boy pages, but there seems to be a multitude of brown in boy type photos. And let's face it, brown is not always all that fun to work with. And this was my eldest grandson's birthday! To make matters worse, I actually created my own problem--cuz I bought him the crazy how to pick up chicks t-shirt and it was--brown! So much for Nana trying to be funny.
This was a perfect opportunity to raid my stash and I did! Used a partial sheet of an old, old old Basic Grey dotted paper, a leftover strips of the black and white print, a gray and white plus sign print (from a kit) and a piece from that older Heidi Swapp travel pad again for the herringbone background sheet.
Now, if you notice: there are no true browns in any of these papers to coordinate with the brown in my photo, gasp! I chose a print with neutral grays, khaki, grayish blue, black and tan. Straight neutrals don't drag you into blah brown, but also doesn't fight with it either.
The edge of the gray print pieces got distressed lightly (just used my finger nail) and I tore a strip of washi tape for a softer edge to create a border at the bottom of the page and at the top repeated the papers and just tucked the washi up under one edge of the dotted paper. Since the black and white print strips were hanging out there on my desk--well what the heck---threw those on too. Why not, right?!
Once the papers were selected, the photo got layered using scraps that literally fell out of the travel pad from past layouts and a piece or two of whatever was out on my desk! Tucked a few tabs in and about the photo; two of those came from a pack of ephemera from a Christmas kit and the so happy thing was from a Simple Stories pad. Then I just happened upon the golden colored today acrylic and while I did have to muck about finding the right home for it, I think it feels right lying across the bottom edge of the photo.
The addition of a black arrow ephemera piece at the top of the page helps direct the eye and I really liked the look of the wood veneer arrow with it. But once I used one piece of wood veneer, I wanted to repeat the wood veneer look in two other places (trying to work in threes). A wood veneer heart to the right side of the photo and another arrow under the photo accomplished that.
I wanted another pop of black and I didn't want the randomness of ink splatters, so I used a few black puffy dot stickers. Those I can put exactly where I want them (well, unless they are awfully sticky and fall off my fingers, landing exactly where I did not want them--don't laugh, it's happened, but not today!)
For the title, I just decided to go with "today" and that, as they say, was that.
So for boy page Tip #1: when working with a lot of brown in your photo(s) look for a print that is full of neutral colors that do not compete. Look for a basic print pattern, i.e., stripes, dots, checks or simple plaids. Tip #2: Dig into your stash of wood veneer(s) to use for embellishment. Wood is perfect for a more masculine look.
All in all, I crashed my stash, broke through the brown barrier, and got my weird Nana's version of humor documented: I'm good with it!
best to all!
Cheryl
These boy pages are awesome!!!! Loving this series of posts you are doing ❤️
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