Watercolor Fringe Background Layout

I've finished up with my assignments for awhile so now I'm making layouts just for fun! Check out this new page featuring a watercolor fringe background:

Here is a process video to show how to create this fun and unique background:

I started by trimming two entire sheets of smooth white cardstock into wavy strips with a pair of regular scissors. Then I grabbed two of my favorite watercolor sets by Prima: Pastel Dreams and Tropicals, and lightly painted all of the borders. I set the strips aside to dry, which they did quickly. Using a pair of fringe scissors, I fringed all the painted, wavy cardstock strips. I quickly layered them, starting at the bottom and overlapping them all the way up, over another sheet of smooth white cardstock. I didn't rearrange any of them, I just went with it. Another option would have been to cascade them in an ombre rainbow order. But this time I chose a random order.

I slid all of the paper strips off, grabbed the bottom piece, added a little bit of temporary adhesive across the back of it, then machine stitched it in place using a Brother sewing machine and white thread by Coats & Clark. I worked my way up the layout, piece by piece, stitching each one in place. Everything so far has been very repetitive and a bit time consuming (I'd say all-in-all this layout took 3 hours), but I find it SO FUN. Scrapbooking is my jam :)

I found a family photo of us at Universal Studios in Florida, photoshopped it a bit to make the colors more pastel to match the background, printed it with my Canon Pro-100 on Canon photo paper, and then trimmed it out leaving a white border for contrast and to help it stand out from the busy background. I tucked the photo into the center of the page. I grabbed the Whimsical Foam Mini Thickers and made the title using colors found on the background.

I grabbed a floral paper from Turn the Page and fussy cut a few matching colored flowers, tucked them into the background, and placed a coordinating button (these are from my very first and second collections called Fancy Free and Take Me Away) on top of the flowers. I trimmed a chipboard butterfly sticker in half then layered it under the photo to become a scalloped border. I trimmed the floral journaling card from Paper 01 in my Bloom Street collection, cut three pieces of the floral border, and tucked them into the background for a final finishing detail.

For journaling, I trimmed a piece of a mint journaling card found in the Bloom Street Ephemera Die Cuts and tucked it under the left side of the photo. And I called the layout good!

I had so much fun creating this watercolor fringe background and think it would look great even without all the added embellishments. I hope you are inspired to give this technique a go and I would LOVE to see your versions! Thanks so much for stopping by!