Wand Academy Collection – Potions and Possibilities - 3 Quarter Designs Design Team Reveal

 Today I’m sharing another 3Quarter Designs Design Team layout created with the fabulous Wand Academy Collection, and this time I wanted to show just how versatile this collection can be. At first glance, Wand Academy is perfect for all things magical, wizardry and fantasy, but when I started looking through all those gorgeous potion and apothecary bottles, I immediately thought of something completely different — cocktails.

These photos are from our trip through Vietnam and Cambodia, where we certainly sampled our fair share of delicious cocktails and drinks along the way. The potion bottles in Wand Academy were just too good not to use with them. They gave me the perfect excuse to turn the collection into my own little magical cocktail bar.

I built the centre of the layout with lots of torn and distressed paper layers, then arranged my photos across the top so they overlapped and felt like a collection of little holiday snapshots. I added some blue cardstock behind the photos to help separate all those bright drink colours from the background and to pick up the beautiful blue tones already running through the collection. I built the centre of the layout with lots of torn and distressed paper layers, then arranged my photos across the top so they overlapped and felt like a collection of little holiday snapshots. I added some blue cardstock behind the photos to help separate all those bright drink colours from the background and to pick up the beautiful blue tones already running through the collection.

Then came my favourite part — all the fussy cutting and layering. I used the potion bottles, florals, foliage, feathers and vintage-style elements to create large dimensional clusters around the photos. I especially love the bottles gathered together in the bottom right corner. Once they were layered with the flowers and feathers, they really did start to look like they belonged in a rather mysterious cocktail bar.

The collection phrases worked perfectly too. “Brewing Something Magical” became a fun feature at the top of the layout, while “Potions and Possibilities” was the perfect finishing touch down in the bottom corner.

Apart from the blue cardstock, I really didn’t need to add much from my own stash, and that is one of the things I love about 3Quarter Designs collections. There are papers, images, titles and so many elements to fussy cut that you can build a detailed, layered page without needing to search through piles of extra embellishments.

I also love taking a themed collection and using it in a way that perhaps wasn’t originally intended. Wand Academy may have been designed with magic and wizardry in mind, but for me those potion bottles were just waiting to become cocktails.

Sometimes you just have to look at a collection a little differently… and sometimes after a few cocktails the inspiration strikes.

Hugs.