Hello and Happy Monday! Misty @Mommyofkidz here with you today sharing my newest layout using the Candy Cane Collection. I know I know...Candy Cane Collection?? WHAT? IN JULY?? Yes, I definitely could have gone all "Christmas in July" since I pulled out this gorgeous collection.  It is July and it IS trending! However, I chose to go completely opposite.  I did a fun summery layout using the bright colors and trying my best to hide as much of the wintery and holiday patterns as possible.  I started with the 12x12 Holiday Tradition page and went from there.
My photos are all from a summer BBQ family gathering...and all of them are of me with people that I love. I wanted to keep the page light and whimsical, and still be able to add ALL of these photos...so I decided to shrink them down and do "photo strips" like we used to get out of the photo booths at the mall. HA! I loved those things!! They usually give the photos in strips of three and you had to be super quick to get a good shot! And I don't care how quick you were to pose...it STILL caught you with some crazy facial expression! That is the effect I wanted to create with these photos. I mounted them in strips of 3 onto black card stock and began creating my background.

I hand cut each square from the page and folded it into an elongated diamond. I assembled them all creating pinwheel shapes to emphasize my summer story. Before securing each piece into place, I did add watercolors to help make it POP from the white background. I used a heating element to dry the surface of the layout before gluing each piece down, and then I added the doodled stitching with a black paint marker. Notice the banner at the top? It is pieces from the Oh What Fun Banner Punch outs that I cut down and covered up some of the Christmas elements.  I had so much fun creating this fun layout...and I think I did a pretty good job of covering up most of the Christmas holiday elements! I mean...is it super obvious to the naked unknowing eye that this is a holiday collection??  I don't think it is! YAY ME!
Thanks for stopping by today to see the close ups of my new layout.
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