The Story of the Winter Ball

This post first appeared on the Polly! blog earlier in the month. I was so honoured to be a Guest Designer there for the April/May kit. Here's what the kit looked like....

And here's what I created.....

I just adore the products in this month's kit. For a start, any kit that's called Candy Dreams just has to be filled with yumminess doesn't it?! And it didn't disappoint. I started my first layout with a teal, sky blue, hot pink and black colour scheme in mind because I knew it would match perfectly with this photo of me and my girls at last years Winter Ball.

When I crack open a kit I usually look for which patterned papers are subtle enough to be used as a background and I automatically fell upon the b-side of the Dear Lizzy red polka dot paper which has a light blue notepaper design. But I certainly couldn't deny the Fancy Pants star paper a feature too so I worked with both of them as the basis for this page. The only thing I've added to my background that's not from the kit is the pink cardstock edging.

I've found that working with a colour scheme helps me decide which products to focus on from the kit, and also prompts me to get a little creative. For example, once I decided on this colour scheme I knew the Woodgrain Thickers just wouldn't have the impact I was after for my title. So instead I handcut the letters out of the thick Glitter Ribbon from American Crafts. I quite like the 'imperfect' look of them.

Moving onto my embellishments now. I really wanted to make the most out of the amazing teal Corrugated Card by Amy Tangerine and had to spread it out amongst my 3 layouts. Here I've cut it into banners for a fun textural embellishment, and for continuity I also used it as my photo mat.

I always like to add journaling to my layouts and for this page I typed it out onto the Fancy Pants chevron paper and cut it into strips before sewing it down. I finished off my layout with a little bit of stamping, scattered some handcut stars and popped on one of the Basic Grey flags with foam tape.

So that's my first layout. Can't wait to share what else I've done with this kit with you too.
You can see my sneaks on Instagram if you follow me there (user name: natalieelph) ;-)

PS. This fabulously candid photo was taken by my friend and fellow creative Lisa from Loysh Photography. If you're in the Melbourne area and need some family, celebration or portrait shots taken then I highly recommend her.