Friday Fun Day Challenge -- Inside-out paper and a photo collage

Hi Lucky Girls! Thanks for joining us for the final March
FRIDAY FUN DAY CHALLENGE
Where imitation is the highest form of flattery!

To participate in the FFD challenge, you must create your own project inspired by any of the following from the March Friday Fun Day projects:

Overall Design

Color Combination

Title of the Project

Use of Embellies

Be sure to post your project to InLinkz gallery at the end of this post no later than April 2nd!

You can post any kind of project (layout, card, altered item, home decor, etc.) that has been inspired by any of the March Friday Fun Day Challenges - either this project, Ana's Tussie Mussie, Sabrina's Baby Album, or Emily's Home Sweet Home Banner

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Hi everyone! Natalie here again...

It's Friday, and you know what that means-- Lucky Girls Friday Fun Day!

Aren't the colors in the March kit rich and sumptuous? They inspired me to make a layout using photos I had just taken (believe me, I have never scrapbooked anything this quickly after the fact!). I took these photos on a Thursday night and started working on my project the next evening!

First, let's talk about the way I used the paper from the March kit. I loved the Stamp of Approval patterned paper, but I felt like my photos looked funny on the otherwise wonderful creamy grid. By chance, the paper got flipped over while I was working, and I saw my photos with that wonderful red tone-on-tone B-side. The color accentuated the dim,warm light in the photos from the restaurant, but I still loved that border, so I decided to take a risk and cut out the center of the paper and flip it so that the red was framed by the black stamp edge...

I think it came out pretty well!

I also want to talk about the collage photo.

I had a lot of photos from our date night at a French restaurant. It was our first time eating "real" French cuisine, and I was excited about all the wonderful dishes we had. When I started making my layout, I decided the best way to include all my photos was to make a collage.

Now, you can have collage photos printed through a lot of online photo printing places, and their software makes arranging the photos really easy. But I wanted a little more control (and the instant gratification of having the print in my hands within minutes of finishing it, haha)!

Want to make your own collage layout, too? I used Photoshop Elements for mine, and here's a quickie tutorial...I'm not an expert, but these 6 steps worked for me:

1. I sketched my collage layout on a piece of scrap paper (yes, nerd that I am, it is to scale! 1 cm = 1") to plan where each photo would go.

2. I opened all my photos in Photoshop Elements Editor (I made sure to adjust the color, etc. on each one individually).

3. I created a new canvas of the size I wanted (in this case, 8"x10"), specifying a resolution of 300 pixels/inch.

4. I cropped each photo to the size I wanted (using my diagram), again specifying a resolution of 300 pixels/inch.

5. I dragged and dropped into position each cropped photo onto the large canvas, and used Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection... for each photo layer to create a black border.

6. I saved the finished canvas as a .jpg and printed it with my photo printer!

I think the longest part of the whole process was deciding how to arrange my photos!

I added some journaling (including our selections from the menu!) on cards tucked into a pocket behind the photo...

...and embellished with those fabulous Prima Damsels, a strip from the Borders patterned paper, and a few bits of Ephemera.

I hope this project inspires you to use your Lucky Girl kit in a new way! I can't wait to see what you create. Be sure to link up your projects to this post for your chance to win!

Lucky Girl Supplies:
patterned paper: Echo Park "For the Record" (Stamp of Approval, Borders)
embellishments: Prima Damsels, K & Co. ephemera, corrugated cardboard

other supplies:
scrap cardstock for journaling pull-outs
foam adhesive
black pen

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Thanks for playing along with the March Friday Fun Day Challenge! Link your projects here: