More beautiful Paper

When I really don't have an end product in mind, but I want to use some specific paper I've purchased, or pictures I found, I really start by just doodling. I take a piece of paper and draw 4" boxes and just doodle pictures inside of them until I hit on something interesting. With the LO here I wanted to use multiple patterned pieces of coordinating paper in a single LO and I didn't necessarily want to layer them. So I started drawing pictures that I thought would allow the viewer to see a good example of each paper. When I decided on my design, I transferred by small drawing to a piece of white card stock. I numbered the sections in the drawing. Then I cut the card stock along the lines of my drawing to create a template for each of the patterned papers.

I placed each template on the back side of the patterned papper and traced around the edge. Then I cut the patterned paper carefully along my traced lines. Once I had each piece cut out I mounted them in the correct order on a piece of card stock. Now I had an interesting background. With this LO I wanted to do some stamping and I really wanted a crisp white stamped image. So, I used ColorBox white pigment ink and stamped the swirls. While the ink was still wet (this ink drys slow) I sprinkled some "detail white" embossing powder on top of the stamped images and heated. The result was a clean clear design. That just left placing my iris pictures which I matted to improve definition against the busy background. I added a title using Quickutz alphabet dies and that finished the layout.