It’s June, which for a lot of us, means the start of summer! This month’s kit is packed with bright, beautiful colors to document those summer memories, and we wanted to choose a guest designer who wasn’t afraid to use them! If you’ve seen Emily Spahn’s work, or her home photos, you know that she is a fan of ROY G BIV, so let’s give her a big welcome to the Elle’s Studio blog!


Hi everyone!  I’m so happy to be here as the Elle’s Studio guest for June. I had a blast playing with the brand new Sunny Days collection, as well as the exclusive June kit!  When I opened my box of goodies, I was blown away by all the fun, bright, summery colors! I am totally motivated by color and fun color combinations, so these products are right up my alley!  For my first project this month, I created a single page 8.5” x 11” layout. I love the 8.5” x 11” size because it’s big enough to include lots of embellishments and elements with just enough white space!

I took some adorable photos of my youngest son last weekend at a family wedding held at a farm. I asked him to smile in front of the barn and he went crazy as I snapped away. I ended up with about 10 sweet photos, but I found three I liked best to include on the layout. I printed out small, bordered photos on my home printer. The photos feature both blue and red, so I knew I wanted blue and red to be prominent in my layout, however I also didn’t want it to seem patriotic, so I added my favorite color, yellow, and after putting it all together, I decided it also needed some aqua… because really, what layout doesn’t need aqua?!

I overlapped four patterned papers from the Sunny Days 6” x 6” paper stack to create a large mat behind my photos. I am not a neat and orderly person, and neither are my layouts! I don’t like things clean and measured, so I just kind of pieced the photo mat all together without much concern for perfection! The wonkier, the better in my book!

Next I attached my three photos to the page. At first, I was going to raise all three photos off the page with foam dots, but I decided instead to leave the center photo lower than the others to create more variation in dimension.  I added lots of other smaller embellishments from the June exclusive kit and the Sunny Days bits and pieces.  I kept changing and adding- in fact, I even added that little “the best” die cut after I had photographed my layout, so I had to go back and photograph it again!

I used the dot stamp from the Sunny Days stamp set to create some journaling lines beneath my photos. I wanted a clean, simple title, so I chose to use the word “awesome” from the Sunny Days wood veneers. I loved the big star die cuts in the Sunny Days bits and pieces and added one next to the title.

I am very particular about cohesiveness on my layouts. Everything has to appear at least twice – so when I used the wood title, I needed to make sure there was wood somewhere else on the layout.  And, when I chose to use stars next to the title, it meant there would need to be stars on other parts of the layout.  Luckily, I was able to find tons of stars in the June exclusive kit,  Sunny Days wood veneers, Sunny Days puffy stickers, patriotic acrylic stars, and even the stars in the Sunny Days stamp.

To finish my layout, I just added even more small elements, like the stripe along the bottom, which was actually the label strip from the Sunny Days Sunglasses patterned paper, the blue “details” card and yellow label from the June exclusive kit and the aqua puffy star from the Sunny Days puffy stickers. Finally, I included a few splatters of black mist and some staples.

One of my favorite things about Elle’s Studio products is how well they all coordinate with each other without being too matchy. I love all the colors, patterns, and textures in this layout!

Hi! I’m Emily Spahn and I’m so happy to be the June guest designer here at Elle’s Studio! I live in the great state of Wisconsin with my husband and three children. I have a background in music education, but I’m presently taking a short break from teaching to stay at home with my kids. I began scrapbooking in about fifth grade, when I made my first meticulously crafted page using white typing paper and a hand-drawn crayon title.  It was spectacular.  I’ve been hooked every since!  I’ve been scrapping more seriously since about 2008.  Since then I’ve had the pleasure of being on a number of design teams and having my work published in various magazines. My style is colorful and fun with a focus on the little details. In addition to scrapbooking, I also enjoy spending time with my family, reading, music, the outdoors, and my newest hobby – decorating and updating our “new” 90+ year old home! I’m slightly addicted to Instagram (@justemscraps), so follow me there to find out what’s up with my life and my scrapbooking!

You can find more of Emily’s work on Instagram and Facebook. Thanks so much for sharing your awesome layout with us, Emily!