The Story of One

Following on from my post about the extremely yellow page I did the other day, I must have subconsciously continued on with the monochrome idea when I whipped up this layout on a whim soon after. It's not truly monochrome though, there are lots of other colours in here, but certainly pink is the dominant colour.

I tried to balance it out a little with some cream colours, and I ended up using the pop-out letters from the Fancy Pants stencil that was in my original yellow page. I didn't consciously plan that similarity either!

What I did have in mind when I thought about the design of this page was the idea that I should cluster cluster cluster everything in the bottom half, and then leave the top fairly plain. After I had layered up my papers (Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection) I started hunting through my embellishment box for anything and everything I thought would work. So there's quite a mish-mash of older product here which I just love because it means it's finally getting used!

Another fun moment came when I stood back at the end and looked at my finished page and decided the original white stickers that spelled "one" weren't as prominent as I needed them to be considering it was the key word for my layout. The little photo collage here on this page is from my niece's first birthday party last year, so I wanted the "one" to be rather obvious. After thinking red might be a better choice I wanted to try it out first before I committed so I lightly stuck them over the top so I could see how it looked. Happy with the result I then figured why bother with the fiddly task of trying to remove the original stickers and I just mooshed the red ones down over the top! 

I was also still feeling very glittery following my glitter binge as the American Crafts Guest Designer and the letters got a bit of a sprinkling to finish off! Speaking of which, I really must be back here soon to share all those projects I made. Can't wait to show you.. and there's also the countdown for the next Studio Calico reveal so that'll be coming real soon too :-)

The Story of My Monochrome Fear

I'm sharing this layout today over on the Jenni Bowlin Studio blog. You can see it here! But meanwhile I thought I would share some different thoughts about it here on my blog too.

Do you think this counts as a monochrome layout? Ignoring the pops of red of course. But the rest is pretty much all white, cream and yellow. I'm pretty sure most monochrome 'rules' allow you to include neutrals like the black and white too right? I only ask because the idea of creating a monochrome layout scares me, and if I had sat down to scrap with the intention of monochrome then this layout never would have been born. The panic would have set in and this would probably end up a jumbled mess that wouldn't make it to my blog (let alone the JBS blog!)

I think the fear originates from my early scrapping days where I attempted monochrome before I was ready. I didn't understand the 'rules'! Dull and boring layouts were the result! I still don't think I know good principles for their design (something about small, medium and large patterns perhaps?) although I do know that you need to include a lot of texture, and that's something I like to do anyway.

So what I did sit down and have in mind when I created this layout was the brief for the JBS blog this month which is to create something about your Love Lists (reasonably obvious for February right?!) Share something about the people you love, the things you love, the activities you love etc etc. Now that's a brief that I can get on board with! And it's only because the August Papercrafting Kit and August Artisan Kit (these are on massive sale at the moment by the way!) that I decided to use were absolutely packed full of fabulous yellow and white heart motifs that this layout almost assembled itself ;-)

I particularly fell in love with the Fancy Pants Stencils from the Artisan Kit and decided it would make a great title just as it was. I popped out the letters though and you're going to see them on an upcoming layout too! No way they were going to waste, so stay tuned for that. And guess what? That layout is almost monochrome too when I come to think of it. Pink though, not yellow. Oh my... I guess I've just conquered my fear!