Something I never do...

But I did it with this layout.

I wanted to make a page about my son's penchant for riding his bike up to the water tower. He calls it his "Quiet Place." Lately, he's also started climbing a tree in our backyard, calling it his "Happy Place." With that, I took photos of the water tower, then of him in the tree, printed them, and made a page. This was the page that killed my January Studio Calico kit County Fair, the 18th page from the kit. (I got a few add-ons with that kit. I loved it.)

Inspired by the cute tree paper by Jillibean Soup, I cut the photos into circles. Here's the finished page:

 

Only...look at it. It doesn't really look right, does it?

I struggled to figure out what was wrong, finally settling on the photos. Was it the color? Should I print them in black and white? No, that wasn't it. The problem was the photos themselves, especially the left one. It looks great as a 4x6, but cut like it is, you don't get the real place that is Rowan's quiet place, right at the foot of the tower. I also had issues with the one on the right too. Too much tree, not enough yard. (And a clear idea of how high up he was!)

So here's what I did that I've never done before: I replaced the photos on this page. I went out again, took photos again, this time with more of the surroundings visible, reprinted them at National Camera Exchange with what was doubtless their smallest order of the day, and made this, the real finished page:

Doesn't it look so much better? Here's some details:

 

I misted the January kit's wood veneer letters with Mister Huey Sunshine. Can I tell you how happy I was to use a Q?

  

A close up of the new photos. I sanded the edge of them, something I like to do when photos are sitting on busy paper. It's like a thin, rough white photo mat. I used my ancient Coluzzle to cut the circles.

The journaling spot I cut from the sticky notes that came with the kit. I mounted it on white cardstock to make it less transparent.

 

The bottom map paper was cut with a punch that I may well have used up. It always gives me a rough edge, no matter if I use my punch sharpening kit or not. To mask the roughness, I use my distressing tool on it to make it worse. 

Thanks for taking the time to look at my process and my page! What's something you've never done when scrapbooking?