Unifying photo and paper

One thing I really like about digital scrapbooking is that you can "blend" your photo into your layout - creating a seamless look. However, I spend enought time on my computer during my day job that I really don't want to be spending more time on my computer for my hobby as well. Therefore, this past weekend I experimented on how to recreate this look on paper scrapbooking. I found that painting seams between the photo and the paper gives me the best results. After you adhere your photograph to the card stock, pick a shade of paint ( I used Claudine Hellmuth's Studio paint) that is somewhat close to your photo and the card stock and paint liberally on the seam. Blend out away from the seam to create a gradient/seamless look.

Here's a layout I did using this technique:




In the 3rd photo you can really see how the paint kind of "morphs" the photo in to the paper.