Dealing with scary papers

Not Halloween, though why is it that there are so many lovely Halloween papers and practically no opportunity to use them?  Very annoying.

No, the papers I tend to find scary are the ones with pictures on them.  It's almost as if I am afraid to cut into them.  Websters Pages and Graphic 45 particularly.  I decided to challenge myself - not least because if I do decide to submit for the Scrapbook Express DT (I have my entries ready but am very aware of the huge level of commitment I have already until the end of October), Graphic 45 is one of the paper lines they stock.  So, I ordered some sheets of the new school-based line from A Trip Down Memory Lane - always such good fast service, and free lengths of ribbon.

I decided to scrap a picture of my mum and her sister when at school - we are talking mid 1950s here.  I wanted to achieve a vaguely random layered look.  Before I did anything else I cut up the sheet printed up with tags, snipped off or rounded corners, punched holes and liberally inked edges with fluid chalk ink.  I also dug some very old 7 Gypsies reinforcers and applied to the punched tags. 

I decided I was, quite frankly terrified at overwhelming my poor little picture, so next went to my paper stash and found a sheet of My Mind's Eye paper, from the first lot of Lost & Found - the red/cream ones.  I cut this down to fit inside the natural border provided by one of the sheets of Graphic 45, hence toning it down nicely.  Was this a cop-out?  Quite possibly!  I punched some borders from offcuts and inked those too - then placed them at an angle on the page.  Then I placed the snapshot, and then I arranged the tags.  I used only a minimum of adhesive on this layout - I wanted it to look almost as if someone had disturbed a pile of ephemera.  Then I punched holes through the whole thing and used some lovely MME brads to fasten the whole thing a bit more securely and add a bit of interest.  I also used a deep red Petaloo flower with a game token as a centre.  On a strip of patterned paper that featured clocks I affixed a little clock I received in a kit, just because it was cute!

Last came the title.  I have been devoted to woodgrain Thickers and small alphas lately, so took a radical approach and from the depths of a drawer dragged out some little scrabble tiles.  These I reduced in bulk by removing the adhesive pads from the back, inked them up a bit and stuck them on one of the plainer tags I had reserved earlier.  The title was stuck in the top right, diagonal to the photo.

So, here it is - with a not-very-good photo I'm afraid.  And some closeups - just a bit better!  Hurray - I made Graphic 45 papers work for me!  Just another three sheets to brave!