Evoking Winter Childhood Memories with Susan Brochu

We hear all of the time that the sayings on our tags help spark a story, but maybe sometimes we need to reach further back into our past to document a special memory? That’s what Susan Brochu is doing today using our Snow Day Journaling Tags, and the layout that she created could not be more perfect. Let’s check it out:
 
Hello everyone! Do you ever have a product spark a very specific memory? The “wintertime magic” 3″ x 4″ tag from the Snow Day Journaling Tags immediately brought to mind a vivid memory of a very magical night from my childhood, and today I’m sharing how I documented that memory.
 

 
Supplies | Snow Day Journaling Tags, Everyday Puffy Labels, Winter Puffy Stickers, Acrylic Christmas Trees, Let It Snow stamp, Noteworthy 12 x 12 paper collection
 
I used the Let It Snow stamp to evoke that magical feeling on my page background. I really wanted a little winter atmosphere on my layout, so I heat-embossed a mini blizzard on white cardstock using all of the snowflake stamps in the set. To add a little more color to the background, I then scattered some of the colorful asterisk puffy stickers from the Winter Puffy Stickers among the embossed snowflakes.
 

 
I grouped two 3″ x 4″ and one 4″ x 6″ tag (all from the Snow Day Journaling Tags) with my photo and placed them all about 2/3 of the way down the page. I wanted to make sure not to cover up too much of that “snowstorm” on the background since that was an important part of my story. Beneath that cluster I added layers of “snow” using torn strips of white cardstock. These “snowdrifts” also support my story. I started my journaling on the 3″ x 4″ tag to the left of the photo, and finished it on the 3″ x 4″ “wintertime magic” tag that inspired the page. It was really important to me that I used my handwriting for this particular story, but I was a little concerned that I’d make a mistake if I just started writing right on the cards. So I wrote a draft of my story on a scrap of white copy paper, then cut it apart and placed the strips on the cards. I had to do a little editing, but eventually was happy with how everything fit. I then carefully wrote my story directly onto the tags.
 

 
The colored background of the right pocket tag had my layout looking a little too heavy on that side so I needed to balance things out. The Everyday Puffy Labels had three sentiments that really complemented my story and I placed them on the left side of my photo, along with a couple of the sweet and colorful puffy hearts from the Winter Puffy Stickers. The puffy stickers added some weight to the left side of the page and they spread a little more color to that side as well.
 

 
The snowy, wintertime scene just wouldn’t be complete without a few pine trees, so I added the Acrylic Christmas Trees to the left and right edges. My final step was to trim off a small amount of the white cardstock background from two adjacent sides and add the teal and white patterned paper from the Noteworthy 12 x 12 paper collection to frame the layout. That extra paper helps give my page a little more stability (the embossing had warped it just a bit) and the pattern reminded me of falling snow which helps connect it to my theme.
 

 
I love how all those products came together to set the scene for this story, and how that one journaling card inspired me to record this special memory!