scrapbooking2angels: Kaiser Class Act

Kaisercraft Class Act

now in store

Calling all parents who have children in school! With the new school year not that far off - we have a "back to school range" you will love. Kaisercraft have just released a great range called

Class Act

to help make the start of school fun. Bright primary colours make up this collection,

which features rulers, pennants and encouraging statements that are sure to make

scrapping those school achievements oh-so easy.

Ngaire here today

Hmmm - interesting way to spend the post-Xmas euphoria period - scrapping a range outside your comfort zone - with photos you wouldn't normally use in a pink fit. Tracy needed someone to work with the new Kaiser release - Class Act - so I put up my hand. Now primary colours are not my usual thing and cutesy themed ranges are generally outside my personal preferences zone - but I am fairly happy with what I managed to put together. Lol - especially since it meant using REAL photos rather than my preferred arty ones. You know, casual snaps - the ones with chaotic backgrounds, mis-matched clothes and messy hair - that don't make picture perfect photos, but capture the nitty-gritty of everyday life.

Kaiser's new range is bright and funky and very school-themed in appearace. Bright red, yellow and turquoise dominate the papers, with patches of orange, black and creamy white (think writing and grid pad patterns) and the odd bit of green and brown. To embellish, there are lots of rulers (some in almost glow-in-the-dark colours), pennants and small funky patterns - but most importantly - there are 3 wonderful pages of journalling blocks that cover all the year levels and almost all the possible school activities that you could think of.

My children's school has a Grand-Parent's Day every year and it is the highlight of my daughter's school year. To record this day, (since parents are not allowed to attend), I usually end up with some happy-snaps that are slightly out-of-focus, poorly composed and which feature backgrounds that are a photographer's nightmare. Still - they are cherished memories and need to be recorded in a layout.

Left page

Both pages in the double are based on the same general structure and the majority of the paper edges have been inked with black ink (Black Soot) to help make them stand out.

For the base page I used the bright turquoise (chevron) pattern on the reverse side of Accomplish. Rather than lose the entire page (and thus all those lovely ruler bits on the other side) - I trimmed out the middle section first and then popped a piece of the reverse side of Complete (the writing pad pattern) over it, as the centre section of the layout. It already has a notebook edge along one side - but I chose to punch over this with my EK Success Notebook Punch to emphasis this pattern.

There's this really interesting funky pattern on the edge of Perform - so I chose to cut this in a way I could make a feature of this edge piece. I flipped the remaining piece over and used it reverse-side up (the yellow with orange writing bit) under the photos.

Under the main photo of my daughter and her grandmother - I tucked in one of the journalling panels from the Superstar paper. Not only does it make a nice journalling spot - but the large "1" on it also stands for the year level she was in at the time of the photo.

The numerals for the year section of the title come from my Itty Bitty Alphabet (ALPHA005B) by Twiddleybitz. They're the perfect size for that space and being already black - I didn't need to do anything to them. DO YOU WANT MY2ANGELS TO STOCK THESE ALPHAS? LET TRACY KNOW

Here you can see the funky patterned bit along the edge of Perform - I've cut under 2 of the edges of the pattern and tucked the photo under them to try and hide some of the messy background in the photo. Then I cut out some of the ruler bits from the cut-out section of the base Accomplish paper. Overlaid over them, is a section hand-cut from one of the journalling panels on Personal Best. To embellish this corner - I added a paper-clip from my stationary collection and 3 silver charms from my2angels: the ruler, abc book and little boy (which in this case is just a 'little person' charm).

Finding a 'dark contrast' colour in this range is a little difficult (other than the Finish paper - which isn't really that dark and I didn't have it anyway). The Threading Water punched edge section you can see tucked under the edge of the Perform paper, is actually created from the black ruler design. Luckily, that ruler bit is pretty wide - so I cut it up and have used it in several spots around the layout.

Underneath this larger photo is a smaller one, which, along with the ruler 'bits,' is held together with a stationary metal clip - which I pop-dotted to the layout.

Under the smaller of the two photos, I popped some twine that was just randomly twisted here and there to make interesting loops. At the end of the twine I glued on a little bow and a small silver apple charm. Behind these bits, you can see another section of the Threading Water punched length of black ruler from the Perform paper.

On this section of the random twine embellishment, I added a silver handmade charm to represent the 'hand activity' that is shown in the smaller photo.

And that's the left side of the double done.

Right Side

For the right side, I pretty much started off with the same composition of papers, but flipped the page so that that yellow edge pattern (on Accomplish) was diagonally opposite to the left side of the double; and the funky edge section of Perform is now at the bottom, left edge of the page and not the top.

The rest of the title has more of my favourite Itty Bitty Alphabet (ALPHA005B) by Twiddleybitz - though the larger text is one of the Kaiser chipboard alphas I have left-over bits of in my stash.

All the left over (and 'not so' good) photos will go with more journalling on a series of tags -which I have/will pop under the larger photo on this page. The tags are/will be made from odd bits of Class Act papers - I've still got a few to make - and I will share these later down the track, when I get enough paper to finish them all off.

The photo (of Madame reading to her Grandfather) is still tucked under the funky edge section of Perform and I used the same combination of ruler 'bits', but this time I popped on a different hand-cut journalling element from the Superstar paper. A bit more twine and a pair of silver scissors charm finishes it all off perfectly.

Above the photo I looped some twine to make random circles and then embellished this with a silver artist paint tray charm.

For the photo of them sharing lunch together - I matted it with another journalling panel from the Superstar paper. I needed something to provide some visual interest and contrast; and having just the edges of the journalling panel showing was perfect (though the whole panel is very pretty in itself.)

The actual journalling is written on the left-over section of the Personal Best journalling panel (used on the left page) - since I didn't want to waste it. I also popped bits of twine here and there on this layout, rather than making a long senction like the previous page - and here I simply made some loose circles and then topped these with a bow.

Under the larger photo I popped another of the twine circle and loops embellishments and finished it off with an abc silver block charm.

So there it is - my venture into the raw reality of candid photos. The whole thing is still way too fussy and cluttered for me - but Madame adores it and that's all that counts.

So if you have school photos from past years - particularly primary or prep photos - check out the Class Act collection at my2angels. The range of colours in the papers will suit most school uniforms; and the huge selection of journalling panel prompts, cover pretty much anything your kid will do at school. And then get scrapping - you have about a month before the new lot of school photos start rolling in ... ;)

Ngaire