Create a Best Friends layout with a timeline twist!

Hello Pebbles Friends! It’s Leanne here today sharing a Best Friends layout with a timeline twist! What’s that? I hear you ask, well think of it as a layout with a hidden photo journey element. And just like a Best Friend, this layout is full of fun surprises!

Gather your supplies..

To recreate this page, gather supplies that have a similar colour tone palette. I am using the gorgeous Jen Hadfield Heart of Home collection. The idea to use this type of colour scheme is to allow and build intricate layers to provide a patterned paper story to compliment the photos. This layout will require the use of two photos. To recreate a timeline, print an early photo of your subject along with a later one. The photos I have used are of my two eldest children. The photo that is visible is one of them at ages three & five. The hidden photo was taken when they were thirteen & fifteen.

step 1. This patterned paper collection has been brought together and grounded with a simple white cardstock background. Trim the cardstock to size and select any die cut ephemera you wish to include.

step 2. Take note of the photo measurement and create a banner flag, slightly larger than the photo, with patterned paper. Machine stitch the banner directly to the cardstock for some textural dimension. Leave the ends of the thread slightly long.

Layering patterned paper..

step 3. A paper strip has been added to the top of the Best Friends layout page. Continue adding patterned paper and die cut elements overlapping the banner. I’ve also included Heart of Home Gold Foil accent label stickers for extra interest.

step 4. Place the first photo, the one that will be hidden from immediate view, onto the built up patterned paper layers. Machine stitch another row of white thread across the top to help secure it in place.

step 5. Next, I have taken inspiration from the Heart of Home Love at Home patterned paper and trimmed the 2″x2″ squares from the sheet.

step 6. These squares, especially the “brother”/”sister” paper pieces were layered between the existing patterned papers already on the cardstock.

Title work and journaling..

step 7. Add a title using coordinating Printed Foil Letter Stickers. Place the alphas to create a visual triangle across the page. Using words such as Best Friends or Forever, can clearly help relay the story message.

step 8. Before adding journaling strips, splash some Heidi Swapp color shine in coordinating colours directly to the layout and allow to dry. More splashes at the bottom of the page helps balance the white space within the layout format.

step 9. Type your journaling, cut into strips and adhere at the bottom of the layout.

Timeline twist..

If you wanted to, your Best Friends layout would be perfectly fine if you made the last step your final one. However, for a more interactive and sensational layout, securing another photo to the top of first one, creates a special surprise!

step 10. Choose a black and white photo, the same size as the original photo. The black and white photo will help blend in with the existing patterned papers.

step 11. Trim a piece of patterned paper, the same as the banner flag created at the beginning of this tutorial, to the same width as the photo. Allow the length of the patterned paper to extend slightly past the top of the image. Adhere the patterned paper to the photo.

step 12. Score a fold line along the top edge of the photo and patterned paper to create a tab. Using double sided adhesive, secure to the top of the photo already on the layout.