Waldport Beach 2005
By LeNae Gerig

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For this 8”x8” beach-themed layout, LeNae chose a solid brown paper for in the background and patterned papers to use as accents. She created a border along the left side of the page with a strip of torn patterned paper, then layered ribbon, a tag and artwork cut-outs on top of it for dimension. After double matting the photo, LeNae finally added a coordinating patterned paper strip along the bottom of the photo to create visual balance.

LeNae shares her designer tip: "I love to use strips of ribbon on my pages, but sometimes I can’t seem to find the perfect ribbon to coordinate with the rest of my layout. My solution: Cut a thin strip of coordinating paper (1/4”-3/8” wide) and place that over my background paper or photos. This way, I’m guaranteed to find something that I know will go with the rest of the colors and the theme of my layout. When gluing the paper over a photo, remember to glue it just to the edges of the photo mat or wrap the ends of the paper strip around the sides of the photo and glue them on the back–this prevents glue from getting directly on your photograph, which can be damaging."

Supplies:

• patterned Paper Pizazz® 8”x8” Vacation Papers: Solid brown, tan and blue stripe, seashell tag and cut-outs
• Paper Pizazz® 8”x8” Vacation Cardstock: light blue and white
• Cardmaker’s™ Earth Tone Ribbons: 12” of 3/8” wide brown grosgrain ribbon
• Scotch® Brand Foam Mounting Tape
• Glue Dots™
• glue stick
• fine point black pen

Instructions:

1. Use the solid brown paper as the background paper. Cut a 2”x8” strip of tan and blue stripe paper and tear along one long side. Align the straight edge of the torn paper strip with the left side of the background paper, as shown, and glue down using a glue stick. Cut a 9” ribbon length and lay it down the center of the paper strip. Wrap the ends of the ribbon around the top and bottom edges of the background paper and use Glue Dots™ to secure the ends to the back of the paper.
2. Cut out the seashell tag and circular cut-outs. Journal on the tag using a fine point black pen and glue the tag over the ribbon as shown. Knot the remaining ribbon length and trim the tails to 3/4” long. Glue the knot to the top of the tag using a Glue Dot™. Using foam mounting tape, attach the circular cut-outs down the ribbon as shown.
3. Mat the photo on white cardstock and trim the border to 1/16”. Mat again on light blue cardstock and trim the border to 1/8”. Cut a 3/8” wide strip of striped paper and attach it across the bottom of the photo, applying glue only to the mat edges. Trim the paper evenly against the sides of the mat. Glue the matted photo to the page as shown.