Travel Template Album #3 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/Travel-Template-Album-No.-3.htmlm
FotoBlendz Overlays #13 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/FotoBlendz-Overlays-No.-13.html
Background left: Gather in Peace Solid #3 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Gather-In-Peace.html
Background right: Magic Rabbit Solid #3 (2x on exclusion blending mode) over Autumn Romance Solid #5 (linear burn blending mode) https://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Magic-Rabbit.html
Artsy Stains #7 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtsyStains-No.-7.html
Embellishments: Word label (recolored), Florence Artplay Palette https://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Florence.html , Antiquity Artplay Palette; copper bead, Festal Artplay Palette https://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Florence.html
Multimedia Daisies #2 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/MultiMedia-Daisies-No.-1.html

Journaling: To me, the automaton peacock clock in the Hermitage Museum sums up the indescribable opulence of Imperial Russia, and though it was my favorite thing in the entire museum complex, it really helped me to understand the Russian Revolution. People were frustrated with being poor and hungry while the aristocrats pranced around their luxurious gilded palaces adorned with over-the-top trinkets. (The peacock clock has three life-size golden mechanical birds, an owl, rooster, and the peacock, who sing and move their bodies.) The Hermitage is an overwhelming place, once the winter palace of Catherine the Great and the home of all Russian monarchs. In fact, Catherine started the art collection that is now exhibited here, acquiring the peacock clock in 1781. The big photo above is the square outside the palace, where Czar Nicholas II addressed a discontented Russian public in 1905, though he would not be overthrown until 1917. And to the right is the museum complex viewed across the water. The Hermitage contains over three million works of art and cultural artifacts; Im not sure which category the marquetry and parquet floors fall into, but I loved them, too. Elena kept us on a fast track, but we did get a good sense of the highlights of this remarkable collection. The Rembrandt paintings were mesmerizing, so easy to get lost in the details of the fabrics. And we were all blown away right as we entered, with that fantastic main staircase shown on the opposite page--what an extravagant cacophony of gilded frescoes, columns, and ornamentation! 7-4-2018

Photoshop Elements 14
My one big change to the template was layering in the FotoBlendz Overlay and clipping a photo to it to create a centerfold. The hardest part of this design was the background...since the spread is about Russian aristocracy, and I wanted the color of the Hermitage to pop, I settled on a two-tone background of teal and gray papers, then used a gradient fill layer at 118 degrees to fade them together. I recolored most of the stains to a teal color and then added a burgundy stain to bring the color across the page.