A busy time of year means that you may have less creative time, so why not check out our Design Team Inspiration category here on the blog to help you create a beautifully-designed project in no time by gaining inspiration from one of our DT members? That’s what Tracey Fox did with the newest layout she’s sharing, and using different products made it all her own! Let’s take a look!
Scrap lifting an inspiring project is one of my favorite things to do—especially when I find a layout I LOVE like Melissa Mann’s, You Are My Sunshine layout, created with the July kit and add-ons. The nine-square grid is such a versatile design that you can use over and over again with a combination of patterned papers and tags to tell all sorts of different stories in your scrapbooks!
For my take on Melissa’s awesome grid layout, I chose four photos from a day when I went to watch my 10-year old nephew Simon play hockey. I loved how Melissa created a grid of squares on her page, yet she still kept her photos in a vertical orientation. Since I primarily use my iPhone to take photos, I often have portrait-style photos that I don’t always want to crop down when I scrap, so I am always on the lookout for page designs that feature vertical photos.
Supplies | August 2019 Kit, Be Yourself Phrase Stickers, Back to School Puffy Stickers, Notebook Puffy Alphabet Stickers, TGIF Wood Veneers, Makes Me Smile Cork Circles, Back to School Stamp, Large Jane Alphabet Stamp – Outline, Large Jane Alphabet Stamp — Stars, Sunshine 6″ x 6″ Paper Stack, Noteworthy 12″ x 12″ Paper Collection
I couldn’t resist using the exact same background patterned paper from the Noteworthy 12″ x 12″ Paper Collection that Melissa used for her layout, because I felt like the number pattern worked well for a hockey page about my nephew scoring points. Like Melissa, I also decided to back my entire layout on a sheet of cardstock. I chose a dark royal blue background to bring out the blues in some of the embellishments.
Since I used the August kit and extras for the rest of my page, this is where I departed from Melissa’s original and started to play.
One of the most fun things about using different products to scraplift a layout is working with the supplies you have and letting them guide you into making different decisions with your title, journaling, and embellishments. For example, I used a tag from the August Kit with a printed label on it to house my title, “#1 Hockey Star,” which I built using the Back to School Puffy Stickers and the new Notebook Puffy Alphabet Stickers. I also clustered and tiled various embellishments onto my photos and the patterned squares I had cut from tags in the August Kit and papers from the Sunshine 6″ x 6″ Paper Stack. Die cuts from the August kit, along with elements from the Back to School Puffy Stickers, Makes Me Smile Cork Circles, TGIF Wood Veneers, Be Yourself Phrase Stickers and the Back to School Stamp were great for scattering around the page, adding interest, and supporting my story.
Elle’s Studio products are always full of words, phrases, and imagery that you can make work in so many different ways. The combination of learning and encouragement themes in the “back to school” themed products in the August kit and add-ons were actually perfect to help me illustrate the memories I was documenting here: I wanted to capture Simon’s love for and dedication to playing hockey, and because I’m the one learning by being exposed to a sport I know very little about. I chose the tag with the “my favorite part of,” prompt for my journaling to shortly and sweetly capture how awesome he is at hockey and how he’s teaching me about the game.
Thanks for checking out my layout and reading about my process today! Do you ever take direct inspiration from other designers’ layouts when you scrapbook? It’s such a great way to get those creative juices flowing and to get straight to the business of telling your stories on your pages! I hope you’ll accept the challenge, and I hope you’ll come hang out in the Elle’s Studio Facebook group and show us what you’re making!
