Joy 25 Reasons by Louise Nelson

Hello Hello
Today I would like to share with you a step-out for my easy and fun ‘Selfie’ layout. I have called it ‘Joy 25 Reasons’, but in reality I haven’t used that many word stickers; the title is a just fun play on words because I really wanted to focus on making the fabulous 7 Dots Studio word stickers the rock stars of this layout.

Step-By-Step
I first began by trimming the 12 x 12 background paper to approximately A4 size however that is a personal choice; otherwise leave it as a 12 x 12.

Select desire ‘Selfie’ photo and 3 tags from the tag sheet, I have used 1 large and 2 small. Ink the edges of the photo, tags and background paper with black ink.

I clustered and layered my photo and tags as depicted in above photo. I adhered this to background but with a small piece of double-sided tape, as I will need to remove it in a later step.

Select an assortment of die-cuts and ink the edges with black ink.

Protect photo with some scraps of paper and apply some random black paint splats over the top half of the layout, then allow to dry.

I then adhered an assortment of word stickers to the layout background, around the photo. I selected word stickers that had a personal meaning to me. I also tried to alternate the colouring of the word stickers; white, grey and black.

Once the word stickers are in place, then arrange and adhere selected die-cut elements, as depicted in above photo. Some of the elements are adhered using adhesive dimensional foam to add interest and dimension.

Gently peel off photo/tags, artfully arrange some cotton thread so that loops peek out from the edges. Add extra double sided tape or glue to back of photo/tags and then place back in position, over cotton thread.

Also arrange a small amount of looped cotton thread under die-cut element on left had side of photo.

I had some rejected chipboard flower shapes from another project on my desk that had been painted gold with a black pearl in the middle, so I used these on my layout.

To make the word stickers stand out a little more I outlined them using a fine black felt tip pen.

I thought I had finished but when I looked at my layout it looked a little bland so added a flair button to the centre of the large chipboard flower LOL