English Country Garden

Isn't it exciting when a new Quirky kit arrives?
Perhaps like me you have been nose to screen at the previews but there is nothing like opening that paper bag to see the goodies in the flesh. And isn't this kit a treasure?
Ever since I first saw those Jillibean Soup photo frames I've been hoping to source them to try them out - and Leo has done the hard work for me. So I had to get down to using them right away.

I used the whole of the Glitz Design green paper as the background because I loved the colour and texture. In fact all of the papers used here are Glitz Design ones.

In my Picasa photo editing programme (it's free!) I cropped my photos to a square. After a while I noticed that it offered several options for cropping including some of these off centre shots which I loved. (I've only been using Picasa for about 7 years and never spotted this function before. In fairness I have often cropped using the manual setting but am now going to play around with their sizings a bit more to see what it suggests for other photos)

I printed the photos 2 per 4x6 print which was the perfect size for the frames once I had trimmed some of the spare white photo paper from top and bottom. Then it was a case of choosing placement and adhering them to the frame.
NB I only stuck them down top and bottom initially, which was fine before I adhered the whole set of six to the page but once I did that each of the thin side pieces began to buckle and it was awkward trying to add adhesive then.

I also stuck small pieces of the other two Glitz papers behind all the little cut outs - apart from "life".
I had done my outlining with a Sharpie thing and decided to do this to highlight the divisions between each of the white frames as well. This was a mistake as the Sharpie was too thick. So I covered it up (kind of) with some faux stitching using a thinner felt pen and echoed it with the outline around the whole page.

I added the lovely journalling spot, three strips of the washi tape and two of those fab cameras - I just added glue at their most opaque points. My love of things in threes was sorely tested but a third camera was just too heavy so I left it off in the end.

The title was cut on a Cameo machine and stuck down in an almost haphazard way reflecting the way the flowers grew in the cottage beds at the house we visited. (Or because I can't add such a long title and be sure of getting the thing straight. You decide)

The finishing touch was my Wink of Stella glitter pen which was used to highlight the bird (can't really see but it does sparkle in real life)

and all the little cut outs in the Jillibean Soup frames

Hope you are having fun with your kits - I'd love to see how you are using those frames!