Review by Heidi Dillon

If you’re a clean and simple scrapper, probably one of the last things you tend to think about for your pages are embellishments. After all, what does a clean page need with embellishments? Well, I’d like to challenge that notion and suggest that even the cleanest, most simple pages can benefit from embellishments... especially ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates.

These templates are so versatile; you can use them in almost any way imaginable. You can make them as simple or as complicated as you want. I know you’ve seen layout after layout using these templates to create fun and unique embellishments, but I want to show you how simple, yet elegant they can be too.

For this layout, I wanted to portray the grandeur and serenity of my husband’s and my experience in the Redwoods. The feeling of being surrounded by a grove of redwood trees is something that’s difficult to capture, so I wanted to keep it simple. To keep with the earthy feeling, I chose three subdued papers from Brandy’s Persian Breeze Collection and got to work.

The first thing I needed was a way to show off my photo. I wanted to keep the tallness of it, but also have some ruggedness, to reflect the naturalness of the trees. Syndee’s Delight Frames were perfect. I chose one with leaves at the bottom, and dragged it on to my layout, along with my photo. I clipped my photo to the frame using a clipping mask, and then used the Transform controls to resize the frame until it fit my photo the way I wanted it. Using the Transform controls while the photo is already clipped to the frame lets me see exactly what is showing where, and what I need to move around more.

I took note of the final dimensions of my frame before I finalized the Transform. The dimensions are found in the Options Bar at the top of Photoshop CS3. Keeping these dimensions handy will allow me to use the frame base later.

I merged my photo to the Delight Frame, and reduced the Opacity of the layer to 70%. This allowed the texture of the Brown Crackle paper to show through, and also helped push the notion forward that my husband is just a visitor in time, just passing through in the blink of an eye... almost too transient to notice.

Next, I wanted some kind of borders along my bottom and left edges to emphasize the fact that my husband is looking up and to the right. So, I decided on Mandy’s Marginal Two borders for the bottom... her “Live” border really summed up how this photo felt to me.

I placed the border along the bottom and clipped the Brown Wash paper from Persian Breeze to it. I dragged over the frame base from Syndee’s Delight Frames, and using the dimensions I had recorded earlier, resized the base and placed it under my photo. By Ctrl+Clicking on the frame base’s thumbnail in the Layers Palette, I was able to select the entire frame base. Then, making sure the “Live” border’s layer was selected, I hit my Delete key. This deleted the part of the “Live” border that would have been underneath my photo, and helped to emphasize the photo’s unique edges.

Finally, I added one of Jan’s Curled Edge Templates along the left side of my layout. The pulled back feeling that the Curled Edge gives was perfect for the feel of my layout, again emphasizing the idea that we were peeking in on something bigger than ourselves, something we would never completely comprehend.

I duplicated the Curled Edge and created a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and clipped it to the duplicated Curled Edge. I made sure the “Colorize” box was checked and colored the element a dark greenish-brown. Then, selecting the duplicated layer, I changed its Blend Mode to "Multiply." This helps accent the nuances in shading and definition in the original piece that simply recoloring can’t do.

After changing the Blend Mode, I went back to my Adjustment Layer and fiddled with the color until I had it just right. Changing the Blend Mode of a layer will affect the final color of the piece, so be prepared to make adjustments!

I finished the layout by adding a paper to the left edge of the layout, underneath the Curled Edge, adding shadows to the Curled Edge and a quick journaling caption underneath my title.

I’m so pleased with how the final layout came out. It really conveys a lot of the experience we had. Remember, you don’t need to feel overwhelmed by Embellishment Templates. Make them work for you!

Layout by Heidi Dillon
larger view

	Note: Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Marginal Two, ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Curled Edges, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Curled Edges Shadows 3201 and Lettering Delights Dear Diary Font are also available.