Beginner Scrapbooking Layouts: Family Day

 

The scrapbooking page featured in this post has a very simple layout, which any beginner scrapbooking enthusiast can easily reproduce.  Yet it is also very effective and well balanced, and showcases a lovely colour combination.

One of my favourite scrapbooking products to buy are papers.  I have literally thousands of them, and sometimes I hardly know what to do with the papers that are particularly pretty.  There are many 12×12″ papers that feature lovely whole-page designs that I can hardly bear to cover with photos or embellishments.  So how do we use them?

This project has utilised a page from Kaisercraft’s Great Southern Land collection.  Specifically the backside of P818 NSW.  The collection depicts Australiana bushland themes with native flowers, bird-life, sunburnt oranges, muted greens and a sketch map of Australia.  I have also used one of the perforated die cuts from PS199 TAS.

I chose to keep the embellishments to a minimum for a few reasons …. anyone who has read my previous blog posts would have noticed already that I take a slightly more minimalist approach to my pages, but I also chose to try and highlight a little the pattern on the paper itself.  The fact that it was one of my first completed pages quite likely played a significant role as well.

I took the following steps to complete this page:

1. I measured out the photo, cut a dark coloured piece of cardstock to size as a photo mat and glued the photograph to the mat.  The darker colour was necessary to make the photo stand out from the fairly busy background patterned paper.  I then placed the photo on the page and stuck it in place.
2. It looked to me as though the paper was just a bit too stark in its pattern.  I wanted to

   

   Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad and Blending Tool – image from http://www.timholtz.com

   give it a more earthy and natural feel.  So I took out my Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads for the very first time, and using my Distress Ink Blending Tool with a Walnut Stain shade of ink I blended the edges of the paper.  This is an extremely easy technique, even us beginners can handle it.  I recommend taking a look at the videos on Tim Holtz’s own website or otherwise there are many instructional videos available on You Tube.

3. I then sorted through all of my various embellishments and created a pile of possible items that could match my colour scheme and/or theme.  This is a really great way to “see” what you can use on a particular page.  You will always end up with way more than you need, but once you have your pile of potential embellishments you can sit down and try out different combinations until you’re happy.
4. I selected a variety of different flowers from Kaisercraft’s Paper Blooms (Honey,

   

   Kaisercraft’s Paper Blooms in “Honey”

   Sage, Seabreeze) and Mini Paper Blooms (Aubergine), focusing on muted earthy tones with a few blues to match in with my dress and my kids’ clothes in the picture.  Extracting colours from photographs is a great way to create harmony in your layout and to make certain colours pop from the page.  I also used a pink BoBunny Blossom in the centre for a pop of colour and some Kaisercraft Paper Leaves.

5. I arranged the flowers on the page and stuck them down, layering them just slightly and roughing up the edges a little as well.  I thought they looked too clean on this ‘dirty’, earthy page and so I took my Distress Ink pad and inked the edges of the flowers here and there as well.
6. To balance the page (and create a “Z” of embellishments) I arranged the perforated die-cut from the collection at the top right corner of the photo together with a torn piece of brown cardstock (which had a slight pearly sheen to it for texture on the page), some more Kaisercraft Paper Leaves, and some die-cut Butterfly  Collectables from the Botanical Odyssey Collection.  Again, I inked the edges of the die cuts to make them blend into the page.  I also chose a pink butterfly to balance

   

   Kaisercraft’s Paper Leaves embellishments (EM995)

   with the pop of pink in the BoBunny flower, and a large blue butterfly to again extract the blue colour from the photo and make it stand out.  The smaller orange butterfly balances with the bright orange shirt my husband was wearing in the photo and makes it part of the overall colour scheme instead of sticking out on its own quite so much.

7. I placed a Kaisercraft Rhinestone Flourish in the bottom right corner of the photo to complete the “Z” across the page and balance it out.
8. I’m not someone who is especially great with titles.  The title of “Family Day” could apply to just about any of my projects as they often tend to focus on our family day trips which we enjoy doing with our kids.  I just used Kaisercraft Chipboard Alphas 2 and some matching alpha stickers for the title and stuck them in place.
9. The page was finished off with a little more inking of the edges (where I had missed spots) and I also placed a few Kaisercraft Rhinestonesin Island Lagoon, and Kaisercraft Pearls.

 

This whole layout, while again being one of the first ones I have done, probably took about 2 hours … and that was while also entertaining 3 kids, googling the various techniques I wanted to use, googling how to use these patterned papers, and while running loads of laundry.  It is absolutely possible as a beginner to produce a lovely scrapbook page with minimal tools & embellishments to hand and with minimal time.  Scrapbooking pages like this allow us to incorporate our many loves into one love for crafts.

If you enjoy this blog and are looking for inspiration and discussion directed at beginners, please like this post, hit “Follow” for the blog, “Share” to Facebook (and find our Scrappy Mamma Facebook Page) and feel welcome to ask questions in the comments section!  I’m a beginner as well, but I have the benefit of having sold these products in my former online craft store for a number of years so I can do my best to steer you in the right direction.  I am also someone who is brimming with ideas, themes, and colour combinations so I would love to share those with anybody needing inspiration or guidance.  See my About page for more information.

A bundle of flowers on the page including Kaisercraft Paper Blooms, Mini Blooms, Paper Leaves, and BoBunny Blossom in the centre.

Kaisercraft Rhinestone Flourish and arrangement of die cuts and paper leaves complete the balanced “Z” across the page.

One Love