Gone Troppo with KaiserCraft

Hi there and welcome to the last of my KaiserCraft posts.

I've got to say, I'm so loving these new KaiserCraft Collections! Each collection has such a variety of papers that you really can use them for just about any subject. The ones I'm using this week are the Tropicana Collection. Although all the papers coordinate, some are a very vintage style while others are bright and bold. You can have a look at the range here.

I opted to go for the more subtle, vintage papers. I don't have any unscrapped pics of exotic tropical holidays (unfortunately!) but I had this lovely shot of the boats anchored in the Apollo Bay harbour. I really wanted to use some of the vintage postcards as I think they're adorable!

Here's my layout:

The page is an unusual size. It's probably around 12 x 10 inches but it's not cut to a particular measurement, just to whatever size I needed to fit in what I wanted. I don't believe that layouts should always be 12 x 12 or A4. Just make them whatever size works! Then just put them in your album as usual. All the pages in your album don't need to be the same size. I think this size works really well with the vintage theme as it helps it to look older.

The orchid flowers on the Tropicana papers are a gorgeous red but, not one to do things in a straightforward manner, I decided I wanted to use the orange, black and white bakers' twine and therefore I wanted orange orchids instead! KaiserCraft have a matching set of stamps for this range so I used the orchid stamp and stamped it onto an orange section of a KaiserCraft's Secret Admirer Collection paper.  I then cut out the orchids and they worked beautifully.

I then took the cross-KaiserCraft collection concept (try saying that fast!) one step further and used some die-cuts from KaiserCraft's Pickled Pear Collection to add some leaves to the flower cluster. The stamped leaves at the back of the cluster and in the top left hand corner are from the Tropicana range. Here's a close up of the cluster:

After I put my cluster together I finally got to put in the twine that I planned at the start. In keeping with the nautical theme, I knotted the twine as well as added a few loops to soften it a bit. I then topped it all with a gorgeous Manor House Creations orchid.

Here's my journalling:

It's important when creating a vintage layout like this to ink the edges of everything you can. Normally I would use a brown ink but the black outline behind the photo was already on the paper so I stuck with the black. To get that faded look I applied the ink with a make-up sponge that I bought at Priceline but you can also buy one made for the job from your scrapping store. They give a much softer finish than if you ink the papers directly with your ink pad. Another tip for vintage layouts is to keep the design fairly simple. Designs weren't complicated in those times so keep your layouts that way and they will look true to the theme.

I hope you've enjoyed my post and that you find some scrapping time over the Christmas break.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Heather