How to use embellishments to tell your story

 

We might not always be able to capture detailed photos to tell our stories because we were of course, busy living that life moment. *winks* Here are some ways to use embellishments to tell your story. Enjoy! :)

1. Create a whimsical "scene".

On this layout, the Gangster Gang boys (aka nephews) were very excited about going to the fish farm to catch fishes for my fish tank. Since I was busy ensuring that the kids did not "kill or injure any fishes" while they were catching them with nets, I only managed to get some photos after we bought the fishes. 

Since they were consecutive photos, I decided to break them apart to help tell my story.

I silhouetted one photo to create a whimsical "scene" with their happy faces. They were standing on "netted" grass with a pig posing with them, next to a lamp post with a bird nearby. *LOL*

The smaller photo at the bottom right was another photo with the actual background of the fish farm.

I also used a circle punch to showcase their  happy faces as part of my title work. 

2. Showcase joy with your chosen embellishments.

Let's get real. It's hard to get good food photos when you are dining out because

1. The lighting conditions need to be in your favour.

2. You need to angle your phone so that you capture what you want (food) instead of other diners in the eatery.

3. You need to work fast because your eating companion may not be so patient as to wait for you to take "that perfect shot".

4. The food may be "languishing" as time passes..eg. ice-cream melting, crispy chicken getting soggy...etc.

All conditions that hinder the taking of the perfect food shot. *hehehe*

Anyway, on this particular layout, I went with a "party" theme to convey the joy from eating the yummy food. I incorporated the party critters jumping for joy, the banners at the top of the page and the strip of "lucky" text to express the emotion. Can you feel the joy? *winks*

3. Incorporate elements/replicas in your actual photo as embellishments.

This one is probably quite easy to incorporate with diecuts or stickers eg...animal stickers on a zoo layout or paper flowers on an outdoor garden photo. On the Bandage Buddies layout, nephew #3 and the niece were "attacked" by mosquitos and since we didn't want them to scratch the bites, we covered them with bandages! *hehehe* I incorporated a strip of bandage and a pair of travel scissors as part of my title work. :) This is also a great way to reimagine found ephemera and use it on your projects. 

4. Creatively insert your photo in the background design of your layout.

Now I really wanted to document my first visit to Marini's on 57, a really hip bar on the 57th floor in one of the towers of the iconic Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. But I only took a photo of the cocktails when I was there. So, the next day, I took a photo of one of the towers from the ground floor and incorporated in my skyscraper "scene" as a way to highlight the spot when we had our drinks. Can you spot the actual building? ;)

5. Use your patterned paper to tell your story.

Sometimes you find THE perfect piece of pre-designed patterned paper that helps you tell your story. So just use it. :) Here, on this layout, we were in the mountains of Alishan in Taiwan surrounded by tea plantations. All I did was add some trees, flowers and cute critters to create a newspaper article style layout for a bit of fun. ;)

There you have it, 5 ways to use embellishments to tell your story. Have you used any?

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