Well as long as you aren’t expecting gory details of my personal life … Which are quite frankly (said in a Miranda way in my head) out of the question … You may find this quite an informative post!

I am of course talking about scrapbooking!

Everyone has their way of scrapbooking… And each one is right! I have friends who have very minimal pages, friends who alter stuff to make layouts, friends who use a lot of products and friends who use kits. All of these are fab in their own way! I wouldn’t say my style stays the same … I notice the different kinds of pages I create, depend on the mood I am in, the time I have to dedicate to a page, and the materials/tools I have on hand. But my process remains fairly similar. Although I have developed a new part of the process thanks to my friend Helen which is “don’t stick things down!”

I was always sticking things down and then deciding on an extra layer, or an embellishment poking out from a layer etc, which I then couldn’t do as I had already stuck it down! Helen taught me to not stick down until I have everything ready and placed as if it is for real, and then, and only then, get the adhesive out!

Anyways I digress. This is a page I started working on 11th March.

I started with a picture. I always choose the photo first (unless I am following a sketch challenge where the sketch is obviously the first starting point) before I choose anything else. If there is a prompt I want to follow (like my Thursday treasures prompts) then I am looking for a photo that speaks to me in relation to that prompt. Otherwise I am just looking at the pictures I have printed off ready to scrap and pull out the ones that I want to scrap at that point. Sometimes this can be months/weeks ahead of actually finishing a page. But for me the picture comes first, as this is the starting point of telling the story. So in this example I chose this picture of the princess, at Arley Hall, Spring 2013 posing with her fingers forming the heart shape (not brilliantly but not bad for a 7year old!).

So the photo chosen now to decide on the papers and colour of the background. As the beautiful rhododendron flowers rather dominate with the grass in the foreground I decided on using Gingham garden dsp. One sheet has a Melon Mambo background with the flower relief which has brightly coloured flowers inside. On the other side a gingham pattern in Island Indigo. The great thing about double sided paper is you instantly get two patterns to use on a page without cutting into another piece of 12×12!

I decided to cut a wide panel and two thin panels. I chose the width of the large panel based on the pattern on the paper and to try and make the cut point even with where the design had gone up to on the paper. The thin strips were cut to 1″ wide as this seemed right for the gingham pattern. I always start with a linear layout (even if it doesn’t end up like that) and so laid one panel going one direction and the strips going the other. At this point I chose Pear Pizazz as the base. This is a beauty of using SU products I must admit as you know what colour cardstock goes with the dsp! Makes life easier!

Now as you can probably see I have already moved on the page because I have decided and made some embellishments as a feature! How and why?

Well flowers seem the obvious choice for this page as embellishments and so the Petite Petals with the coordinating punch were the easy choice this time. I wanted something small and didn’t go for a big flower partly because the princess is small on the image and I didn’t want the flowers to take over, partly because the flowers on the dsp are small and again I wanted to keep the balance looking right.

So I stamped and punched a host of flowers from the stamp set. I kept to the one flower type as I thought this suited the paper and layout best. I used the coordinating colours (again SU at its best) and then decided that to mirror the heart shape the princess is making, I would place the flowers into a heart shape.

Now what happens next is a fairly new development for me since I had a craft desk and proper space for my stash … I went shopping! Of course I went shopping before, but rarely in my own stash! Now I have everything to hand it is easier to grabs embellishments or stickers or even inks and tools. As a result layouts are getting busier with more bits. Previously I might have been happy with the above, a title and some journalling. But now I want more!

So I start shopping my stash! I cut out stickers that work with the layout and theme, And grab letters for the title and some rub ons too … This is how it now looks at the end of stage one of shopping the stash. And where I finished for session one on my layout!

Now I started session two on 16th March … So not many days later! I have been known to leave a layout several years … But usually it’s within a fortnight!

So I started by placing all of the stash into place, and adding some softer bits too like ribbon and the mesh.

Once I am happy with this and don’t think I need anything else, I clear the page completely, and with this photo in mind I start the sticking things down phase. If at the end of the placing stage I decide I need to ink things, I usually do it all in one go.

Anyways … With the sticking I usually forget halfway through where things should have been I also start making it up. It isn’t usually miles away from where I started, but sometimes I change my mind about placement!

So here it is … My final page!

The main thing that I changed was the position and use of the rub ons… And I didn’t end up using bakers twine at all. The position and choice of the title came mainly from the letters I had in that set of stickers! Oh and the card candi ended up being used differently, and less of it in the end.

Love my final page and it was fun showing my process as I went through it! Might do one of these again another time to see if my process changes!

Happy crafting!

Catherine