Reading Changed My Life

This layout was inspired by the April challenge over at Once Upon a Sketch. (Yes, I am getting this in under the wire.)

Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on it:

I loved the sketch and the journaling challenge was the perfect starting point for what I wanted to say about these photos. Reading did change my life - and it continues to change it. Watching my daughter read with her grandpa also changed my life.

I liked the busy band across the middle of the layout and the restful white space above and below. I used buttons, ribbon, stamping, chipboard and brads to embellish around the photos.

Because my title was a long one, I moved the journaling onto the white space below the photos. This helped balance the title and made it easy to ready my story.

Thanks for the challenge! It was a fun layout to create!

Play

My school spring break is just finishing up. I took some time to play this week and one thing I created was a layout based on sketch challenge at Scrapping Everyday Miracles this month. Here is the sketch:

And here is my layout, called Play:

I chose to use two very similar photos instead of just one to show more of what all three kids were doing as they played.

I used a playful font for my stamped title, and embellished with velvet-textured rub ons.

I really liked that the journaling wrapped around the circular element in the sketch. I added a journaling block but kept the wrap-around feeling with the punch out.


















Thanks for the challenge! It was fun to play with!

Letting the photos tell the story

I create pages to tell stories. Sometimes the story comes through in the journaling, but sometimes the photos do a good job of speaking for themselves. In those instances, I work to keep my products and design from getting in the way!

I captured these moments on a weekend getaway for a friend's wedding. Once I had the photos arranged to showcase the beautiful location, I didn't want my design to distract from that. I decided to go with simple products: some green B&T paper from the Ivy Lane pack, Gold Polka Dot Washi tape, one fussy cut flower and a bit of subtle stamping.

The stamps I used were from a variety of sets. All similar size and all sentiments that fit with the story although the styles are very different. This fit well with my style of using words as embellishments. 


Fussy cutting is not usually one of my favorite techniques, but this flower was perfect for it! It is from the other side of the paper I used as my photo mats.




What about you? What are your tricks for emphasizing photos on your layouts?

Project Inspiration: Transform Your Stamps

Ariana on the Paper Trail!

Welcome to this stop on the Paper Trail Blog Hop! You've likely arrived here from Inky Fingers, Karen's blog.  If not, never fear. As always, our hop is circular so you can start anywhere! 

I love the Ariana paper pack! The patterns are elegant and include my favorite color ever: Outdoor Denim. True confession, Outdoor Denim is one of the few ink pads I have worn out past the point of re-inking. I

This elegant floral paper was perfect to record an elegant birthday celebration. Ariana features kit exclusive colors Ariana Coral, Ariana Green and Ariana Grey. I didn't have enough Ariana Coral for my design, so I went into my stash to see what I could find. I came up with Blush cardstock which worked well for my project. Here is how my two page layout turned out.

The left page:

The right page:

 

I used the stamp set from the Ariana Workshop on the Go to create these flower embellishments using the rock and roll technique. Since I had used Blush cardstock, I used that as a base for my stamping and rock and rolled with Hollyhock.    

Workshops on the Go are a good bargain and they come with products that already coordinate perfectly including an exclusive stamp set!    

I also used a new favorite stamp - Banner Wishes - to create the title for my page.  A few sparkles including one small flourish add some elegant details.

 

I decorated the edge of the Outdoor Denim cardstock using the Scallop Border Punch. The border is a strip of Blush cardstock embellished with another sentiment from Banner Wishes.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope elegant Ariana has inspired you. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think before you continue on the Paper Trail to Mary's blog, The Road to Peace of Mind or Escape?