Going Postal: 'Beauty In the Garden' layout

Good morning/afternoon/evening. How's the world treating you today?

After having it sitting staring at me for a few days, daring me to open it and attempt to set it up successfully ... I've finally unpacked my new printer.

And now it's staring at me from inside the plastic packaging ... where I might just leave it until I can face the inevitable battle with cables and unexpected inches of dust lurking quietly behind the old printer which will begin when I swap them over.

For they must be swapped over as I have finally run out of both patience with and expletives at the deteriorating photo-quality of the old one. 

Scrapbookers need photos.And photos I shall have ... just as soon as I can face that instruction manual.

So, until then here's one I made earlier ...

When it comes to using postal-related supplies in your crafting, it doesn't mean that the project itself should be postal-themed. [Unless you want to make a scrapbook page dedicated to your postman ... an event which I'm not entirely ruling out ...]

So, my example today is a page not about postmen, travel, correspondence, or stamp-colllecting ... but about some flowers in my front garden.

 

In my use of postage-stamps I took a similar approach to the cards I shared here + here last week in choosing stamps mainly for their colour qualities and the way those colours combined with the papers I was using.

With scrapbooking you get the added dimension of being able to use the stamps to draw out the colours from your photograph:

Also, these particualr stamps have a quite old, faded and worn feel to them which helps with the romantic, old-fashioned, homey, domestic feel I adding to my page.

This same philospohy explains the use of a spray-inked doily and a vintage milk bottle cap ... in colours which co-ordinated with my photo and stamps ... naturally:

Likewise, the image of the thatched cottage and the little girl at the well [torn from a vintage comic book] again backed up the 'English Country Garden' feel I was building up on the page.

Iadded snippets of femininity with faded pink binding tape and trimmings I found at a collector's fair and some new crochet trimming which I stapled to the page. And a few colourful stitches held the Pink Paislee twine in place:

My title was equally faded, soft and worn-looking with one chipboard heart left bare while the other was given a swipe of with gesso and a quick stamp with an ornate border stamp:

Maybe you'd have taken longer to spot the postage stamps on the finished page if I hadn't pointed them out so directly. And maybe that's the point. As with many existing embellishments and supplies in your stash - stamps don't need to be the main focus of every page you use them on.

What they can be is an interesting adornment, a 'top note' to the main body of the page and a great support act to the colours and textures in your photograph and patterned papers.

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If you combine postage stamps in a scrapbook page in the coming weeks don't forget to send me the link so I can pin it to the Going Postal Pinterest board, which has already had it's first submission!

And it's not just for scrapbooking, remember: the only criteria is that your post is new, has a postal theme somewhere in it and mentions 'Gpoing Postal' [as briefly as you want!] with a link. Check my inroductory post here if you need more info.

If you signed up for Beth Nicholls' postcard swap from yesterday's post you could simply blog the postcard you make and link me to that for example.

How are the rest of of you getting on with your postal-projects? I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do.

I'll be back tomorrow with a postal-themed giveaway from a very special guest!

Who knew postage-stamps could be so very exciting?

See you tomorrow!

Julie



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Supplies: I made this using elements from my 3DJean Design Team items, including:
Backing paper, 'Constellation - 12' by Studio2Mers;
Smaller papers - 'Noir et Creme' by Collections Elements.
Vintage comic book pages;
Vintage milk bottle caps;
Chipboard hearts;
Rose cabochon;
Lost Coast Designs Flower border stamp;
Kraft alphabets.