Scrapbooking: When I Look Up

Hi you.

So, did you catch yesterday's post? It was just a quick one where I pointed you towards the giveaway happening over at the 3DJean Design Team blog where you can win a set of 'Envie de fraicheur' scrapbooking papers and alphas from Les Editions InfoCrea.

While we were away on our long crafting-weekend last month, the 3DJean Design Team [and several other friends] worked with those same paper and so we're sharing the pages we made, to give examples of how they can be used.  Over the duration of the giveaway I'll be sharing - [here on my blog] :

• 3 layouts of my own - all made using the papers from the giveaway;
• and 2 cards made from some of the leftover scraps;
• plus the sketch I created which I, and the Design Team, used as a starting point for our layouts [the sketch is at the end of this post]. 

So, now the businessy bit is out of the way ... let's just get on to the scrapbooking bit shall we?

------------------------------------

Here's my first layout ... one of those general 'I like this photo and I like you and so I made a page' kind of pages I seem to make a lot of:

With this page design I wanted to use a small photo with lots of layers of paper and 'bits' beneath.

I used:

• 2 layers of different patterned paper;
• a Lotta Jansdotter sticker;
• a postage label [for my journaling];
• a small corrugated card tag - with the date - pinned to the photo using a coloured hairgrip [if you received some of these in your Interesting Bits kits, there's one way you can use them!].

I also wanted to make use of the mini-alphas [also in the giveaway] to create a small title - just for a change, a move away from large alphabets and focal titles.

The circle sticker beneath the wording is another design from the Lotta Jansdotter pack [from Chronicle Books] which I was excited to find matched this paper range so closely:

As a way to balance out the page design and just pull the eye around from photo, to titling and then across again, I added a tiny strip of paper bunting and twine:

To repeat the lovely soft green of the bunting I used smudges of green paint in several places around the page. It's at the top left of the photo, then there's a tiny smear of it on the 'Hello' of the file tab on the right of the journaling and then lastly it's inside the heart aperture below:

I love using the leftover apertures you get when you're die-cutting other shapes [in fact, I've jsut finished a magazine article using some] and this one was a leftover from cutting a scrap of cork sheeting with the 'Homespun Heart' X-Cut die. I liked how its shape mirrored that of one of the leaf shapes I'd cut from the paper, so I layered them up together.

And that's it ... not a very complicated design really, its more about balancing patterns, textures and colours. And using that photo. Because I liked it.

----------------------------------------

So, now you've seen my version you might like to:

• enter the giveaway [simply by leaving your name in the link box on the 3DJean blog] to get your hands on the papers I've used;
• and/or use the sketch as a kick-start to a page/card etc of your own [this is NOT related to the giveaway - it's just for inspiration] and here it is:

If you do use the sketch I'm happy to pin any projects which credit the sketch as their starting point to my Pinterest board which is home to projects other people have made based on projects I've made!

Right then, I'll let you go and enter that giveaway and I'll be back soon with a new layout which takes a slight twist on the sketch.

Julie :-)