Tag: Pretty Little Studio

Sunny Memories Layout

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I am absolutely in love with the Sunny Memories collection by Zinia Amoiridou for Pretty Little Studio which I ordered to add to my kit box with my July Clique Kits. It pays to be a subscriber because there are always new products coming in to purchase at a discount and you also save on shipping when adding to your kit box.

To create this bright, cheerful layout I backed the negative of the dragonfly cut file I used in the layout posted here with 6×6 papers from the Sunny Memories 6×6 paper pack. Using both the positive and negative spaces from a cut is one way to stretch both the cut file design and your supplies.

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This layout is about my daughter having her first sleepover in her new room of her own. It is a really big deal to her that she no longer has to share a room as she has grown up sharing rooms with sisters all of her life until now!

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The rainbow die cut is from one of the Clique Kits digitals which you can find here to download and print at home- you get so many cute pieces in this set for only $1.50 and the colors work really well with so many other kits and popular paper collections.

 

You can download my dragonfly cut file here for your personal use! There is a png. and an svg. file available.

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Thanks for stopping by and please share your project with me if you decide to use this file! Enjoy!

-xGia

 

Take 5 Challenge for Traveler’s Notebook Layouts

Hi everybody! Today I am channeling my inner minimalist in my traveler’s notebook and wanted to share with you my take on a challenge I saw online somewhere-only instead of using it for full size layouts I am applying it to my recent traveler’s notebook spreads. You are probably familiar with some variation of the concept of selecting a handful of things from a list and limiting yourself to just those items in a layout. Yeah…that’s the one. Here are the 5 items I chose!

  1. Ephemera
  2. Washi Tape
  3. Stickers
  4. Stamp Sets
  5. Patterned paper pads

I did not “count” things that I consider to be staple supplies like something to write with, adhesive, and ink for the stamp sets, but otherwise I was fully compliant!

So first up I have a “divider” spread where I used washi tape to add a vellum page to serve as my marker for a new section ( and also because of its general prettiness.)

 

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I tend to be all over the spectrum from minimalist to maximalist in style depending on the day and the mood on my layouts but it never ceases to amaze me that when I do the simplest things to just get the memory documented I realize how much time is spent adding extra stuff to the essentials- a great photo, a caption or title, and a little bit of color to make it pop.

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This spread is shown pre- handwritten journaling- and did not end up quite this sparse but almost.

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And this last one only uses paper and one sticker, and yet I still love how it looks and how it conveys the memory perfectly. I mean, I will always know who, what, and when this memory happened. And that is the truly the essential part of scrapbooking.

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My overall assessment of this challenge and what I learned:

I love to strip back to the essentials sometimes because it gives me a chance to really focus on the overall design of the layout. You know those elements and principles of design we use all the time but sometimes we are not as intentional about?  Thinking about things like unity, rhythm, balance, proportion, variety, emphasis, and movement. Simple exercises like this help to practice, practice practice design.

I learned that sometimes I am so focused on how a page looks that I forget to record the crucial little details that will prompt the memory 10 or 20 years from now. (Trust me, I thought I would not need those things until I started looking back at layouts from 20 years ago and really wanted to kick myself!)

So what’s the down side? At this rate I will never go through even a tiny fraction of my stash by the end of the year. How will I possibly justify buying all the new pretty stuff that comes out? First world problems, I know.

-xGia