Family Is Forever Reunion Layout

The September stamp of the month, Family Is Forever, is a great stamp set to pair with family reunion photos!  We made this layout at my recent scrapbooking class, and pictures from our annual July family reunion were a great match.

Using a sketch, like this one from Cherish, makes scrapbooking so simple.  Just choose your papers, cut, and adhere.  Of course, we had to get a little fancy...  You'll notice that I used Chocolate ink to distress most of my paper pieces and then distressed the photos with Desert Sand ink to soften them up a bit.

To stamp this gorgeous tree, we tried a couple of techniques.

1. Ink up entire stamp in Desert Sand ink.  Rub the stamp across the pad to get the streaked, bark-like effect.
2. Ink up the leaves (or at least most of them) by pressing them into Olive ink.*
3. Use a sponge dauber to pull ink off of the hearts.
4. Huff (breathe) onto the stamp to activate the ink, and stamp onto Colonial White card stock.
5. Use a (retired) Barn Red marker to color in the hearts.

To add the family names, I just used one of our new Shin-Han Touch Twin markers to write them.

*During our class, my friend Peg wanted autumn-colored leaves (and I unfortunately forget to snap a picture), but she used a sponge dauber to pull ink off of the leaves, then pressed them into Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta, and Barn Red inks (in that order, lightest to darkest) to create beautiful fall foliage.

We stamped the "Family is Forever" sentiment by inking it up in Goldrush, then Autumn Terracotta, and then Barn Red ink, moving progressively across the stamp to create the fall/rainbow effect. I absolutely love doing this technique!  Finally, we used pieces of the Pathfinding embellishments assortment, gold shimmer trim, and gold sequins to embellish our layout.  I really love how it turned out!

I am linking up my layout to the Lasting Memories challenge #109 209, Autumn Colors.  Thanks for letting me share the highlights of this year's family reunion with you!