Epic Legend | Legendary Collection | Melissa Vining
Hello again, it’s Melissa here and I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of April!! I hope you’re all well and finding some time to be creative.
I have another layout to share with the amazing ‘Legendary’ collection today, and its the toughest photo I’ve ever scrapped! This photo is of my brother in law Blair and our youngest daughter Ava a week after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2018. Blair passed away in October 2019, and I’ve held off documenting any photos from his journey until now, mostly because I felt that I couldn’t do his memory justice. But the Legendary collection speaks to me, and is perfect for documenting this special photo.
I knew that I wanted to fussy cut some of the stars from the ALL STAR paper and make a wreath to represent what a star Blair was during his nearly 1 year battle with cancer. I used a cut file from Paige Evans, and backed the stars with several papers from the collection (including WILD ONE, TOTAL LEGEND and Brave Heart) that had small repeating patterns. I also added some velum from my stash for some lightness. I matted my photo with ALL STAR and EPIC TALES and distressed the edges.
The OFFBEAT paper was perfect for my background as it helps direct the eye towards the centre of my page, and of course towards the photo. I did some subtle machine stitching in white thread, and just drew a circle with pencil and stitched around it abut 5 times. Its always easier to machine stitch when it doesn’t have to be perfect!!
I didn’t do much embellishing on this layout, mostly because all of the stars are embellishment! But I did add a tab sticker, word sticker, die cut ephemera tab, and some of the clear stickers. My title was easily made with two of the die cut words which I popped up on foam.
I will admit that I found this layout hard to make emotionally, but I’m so happy I finally managed to start scrapbooking Blair’s Epic Journey. Blair was an amazing bother in law who was able to present to the New Zealand Government the largest cancer petition in history, and made significant changes to cancer care in my country before he passed away. I’m so grateful for our wonderful memory keeping hobby, and I hope I’ve inspired you to scrapbook the photos and memories you find difficult too.
You can watch my process video for this layout here.
Much love
Melissa xx