Today we are welcoming a new guest designer for the month of March, Melanie Blackburn! Her beautiful layouts and pocket page spreads are always full of color and pattern, with the perfect amount of white space balancing her projects. Today’s project is no exception, and she has paired the March Exclusive Kit with the perfect photos to create a gorgeous spread. Let’s take a look at what she created.
Hello crafty friends! I am so thrilled and honored to be guest designing for Elle’s Studio this month. I’ve been a longtime fan of Elle’s Studio, I was even part of her DT many years ago, and it’s great to be back for a month! I have always been amazed at the beautiful vibrant products she designs and the quality of the products. It’s an honor to be back here this month to share my life pages projects.
I had the privilege of working with the color-filled March kit, and it was just what I needed after a long cold winter! The bright and fun patterns definitely had me thinking about the spring and reaching for a pocket page spread that I hadn’t completed last year. Today I am sharing my process for my 2016 personal album. I like creating a personal album because it gives me a chance to include pictures that would not necessarily fit in our family life album. I’ll be honest, with three girls, our family album is mostly focused on them with the odd picture of my husband and I. So this personal album is another venue for me to document my story.
Last year I opted for a 6″ x 12″ format and I did enjoy working with this larger format, but this year I made the switch to 6″ x 8″. I rarely take 4″ x 6″ photos and the 6″ x 12″ format has 4 pockets dedicated to that size, which most of the time was filled with a 4″ x 6″ journaling tag or with two 3″ x 4″ pictures. I love the 4″ x 6″ tags in the March kit. Not only were they perfect for journaling but also for creating accent cards, which I did in this spread.
I was so excited to see that I was sent the new Date Stamp. I am in LOVE! This Date Stamp will make a recurrent appearance in my projects this year, I just love the font and the size. Honestly, this is a must-have item for any crafter. As you can see, I’ve used it to accent a 4″ x 6″ tag with a series of repeating stamps highlighting the year.
I must talk about one of my most favorite type of embellishments: wood veneers! I was so happy to see the lovely assortment of veneer I had to work with, but the hard part was picking what to use on my spread since I wanted to use everything! In order to create flow and balance to my spread I opted to use two wood veneers words on the center photos and one circle veneer on the top left journaling card. The small circle was the perfect highlight to the lovely yellow card and created a perfect design triangle with the other two wood veneers. I love that these wood veneers aren’t too thick, as I don’t like to use very thick embellishments on my life pages and I also love to adhere my wood veneer with my trusty tiny attacher.
As you can see, I created a fun and vibrant 6″ x 12″ pocket page life spread with the wonderful March kit. I mixed various elements of the kit along with the Date Stamp. I just love how this project turned out and I can’t wait to be back here on the blog soon with more projects. Happy crafting!
Supplies | March 2017 Exclusive Kit, Grow and Bloom Wood Veneer, Love Ya Wood Veneer Circles, File Under Stamp, Dated Stamp
Melanie Blackburn has been part of the scrapbook industry for over 10 years. Her love of paper started at a very young age when she started hoarding a collection of notepads and fruit scented pens. Her love of scrapbooking and memory keeping evolved when she became a mother.
Over the course of her creative career, Melanie has designed for various manufactures; she currently designs for Ali Edwards and Gossamer Blue. Melanie’s style is eclectic with a flair for mixing embellishments, creating layers and a love for white space. As of two years ago, Melanie has shifted her creative focus to documenting her family’s daily activities with Project Life. She is currently working on a 6″ x 8″ pocket page personal album and 9″ x 12″ pocket page family album.
When Melanie is not busy preserving her family’s memories, she enjoys decorating her home with antique market finds, going to gym, reading and spending time with her family. She lives in a quiet suburb in eastern Canada with her three daughters and her husband.
You can follow Melanie’s work on her Instagram account and her blog. Look out for another project featuring her beautiful work here on the blog next week!