Hi guys! I'm here today to share a layout I made for Hip Kit Club using the August kits! My assignment for this layout was to create a layout based on this week's sketch using punches and a monochromatic color scheme...phew, that was a lot of parameters to keep track of. 😅
As a challenge to myself, I chose to use the tones of purple in this month's kit for my monochromatic color scheme. I'm normally not a big fan of purple, but these dusty purple tones are just so freaking gorgeous! I wanted to use all of them immediately.
I started with some mixed media. This month's color kit came with a purple shade of Magical Powders from Lindy's Stamp Gang, so I knew I had to give that a try. I tested the color on a piece of scrap paper, and decided to mix it with the pink tone in the kit to get a better match to the purples in the kit.
I kept the mixed media towards the center of the page, just as it is in the sketch. I actually stuck really close to the sketch for the entire layout this time. It makes it so easy to put a page together! I used one of the Vicki Boutin stencils from the color kit along with some gel medium to add an additional layer of color and texture to the background. I love how it turned out!
Once my mixed media had dried, I pulled out everything from the kit that was purple and just started playing! I printed my photos in black and white so that they wouldn't compete with the color on the page, and added several layers behind them using paper and journal cards from the pocket life kit.
I used a notebook edge punch on the layers at the top of the page and one of the stamps from the color kit to add additional texture to the page. I also used lots of foam adhesive to give the elements on my page dimension.
And that's it! You can see the entire process in the video below.
Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy crafting!
I'm over on the Hip Kit Club Blog today sharing a layout I made with a Mother's Day theme using this week's sketch (which I also happened to design 😊). Here's a little sneak...
I'm back with another spread in my 2018 Highlights traveler's notebook. It's taking for FOREVER to get this notebook finished, but I'm determined to get it done.
September's page is about our trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I have a photo of the beach on the left side of the page. I had intended to make this a full-page photo, but my computer was giving me fits, and I already had the 4x6 photo printed, so I decided just to go with it.
I had a lot of fun playing around with the embellishments for this page. I chose pieces in shades of blue and teal as well as the coral-pink that's in the Pinkfresh Studio Joyful Day collection. There are also bits of gold here and there, which I think works really well with the sand in the photo.
I'm back with another spread in my 2019 Project Life album.
Before I share the details of this particular spread, I wanted to talk a little bit about my format for the year and how things are going so far. I've been feeling lately like dividing my months into "parts" instead of weeks is just a bit awkward. I wondered if I shouldn't revert back to a weekly spread format instead. I don't want to leave my 6x8 album, but I thought maybe I would prefer weekly spreads.
I think this mostly came from seeing everyone else's weekly posts and knowing this is a comfortable way for me to approach this project, which was really appealing since I've been a bit overwhelmed by my new methods and am feeling WAYY behind.
So this weekend I spent some time getting caught up on the photo printing part of my process, and as I was doing so I totally remembered why I wanted to switch to a story-focused approach. It just makes sense for how our lives are structured. Nothing fits neatly into a week. I overflows and overlaps and makes much more sense in a story-focused spread than it does in a weekly layout.
I needed to take a step back from January, where very few real stories happened and my spreads all feel like they're the same. Going forward in my album, I know this is the right move. So I'm sticking with my original idea and staying story-focused within the monthly format. We'll both just have to put up with the awkwardness of breaking down my months into parts instead of weeks for the purposes of sharing. :)
So on to the current spread (or "part"). I used the Hip Kit Club February Pocket Life Kit, which I actually bought because it wasn't included in my design team packet and I couldn't resist the gorgeousness that is this kit.
The kit has tons of bits from the Pinkfresh Studio Joyful Day collection, and that's mostly what I used for this spread, with the addition of a couple papers from the February Main Kit, including an exclusive paper that I absolutely fell in love with.
I stuck with a limited color palette (as I'm wont to do) of blues and yellows. It's a pretty simple spread overall, and I like it that way. The only extra little bit I added was the pocket on the left side of the spread to hold some hidden journaling. It wasn't so much that I had journaling I wanted to hide as I needed something interesting to do with the 6x8 pocket on that side of the spread.
So let me start by saying that this layout was a labor of love. The original footage was well over an hour long and that doesn't include the times I had to just walk away and let my brain contemplate things for a bit. I had so much trouble putting it all together and made quite a few missteps, but in the end I really like how it turned out. And it's grown on me. I like it more today than the day I finished it...or the day after that.
It all started with the "Blissful" paper from Maggie Holmes Sunny Days. I'll be honest and say that when I saw that paper in the kit, I was like, "how the hell am I gonna use this?!" I knew I could fussy cut the butterflies, but I had two full sheets of this paper. I don't like butterflies that much.
But the B-side totally reminded me of vintage postcards or photos you might find at an antique store. The kind with handwritten notes on them about where they were taken. I knew I could do something with that.
My next step was finding a photo to work with. I knew I wanted a beach photo, because, well obvs, and I wanted a landscape, something that had that same kind of postcard feel as that photos in that paper. I started searching through iPhoto, but then I remembered that I had this old print in my box of photos. It was perfect.
Once I got to that point I could actually start focusing on my Design Team assignment, which was to use the March cut files. I knew I wanted to use the camera, and the title was another easy choice. I'd also been wanting to do an offset layered title for like, months, so again decision made.
Then basically all that was left to do was to embellish. Ha! I say that like it was the easy part. Nope. It took me so long and so many tries to get the embellishing right, but if you want to see how that went down, you'll just have to watch the video.
Have I mentioned here how much I love the March kits from Hip Kit Club? Cuz I do. Like, a lot. The mix of Maggie Holmes's Sunny Days and Heidi Swapp's Color Fresh is on point. I cannot get enough. I'm a little sad that I'm going to have to put them aside when my April kits come....sigh.
Happy Crafting!
*As a member of their Design Team, Hip Kit Club sends me their kits for free in exchange for using them in my projects.
So, clearly I've gotten a late start on my Project Life album this year. Here it is, March 4th, and I'm just now creating my first spread. I was feeling pretty bad about my lack of progress, and then I looked back at previous years and realized I had done the exact. same. thing.
Both in 2017 and in 2018 I didn't create a single thing in my PL albums until March. In last year's plan video I mentioned how it doesn't even feel like the year starts until around March and how I've mostly been hibernating, just trying to survive the winter until then. I guess habits are hard to break.
Anywho... I'm jumping right into this year's album with a spread to kick off February. That's right. I'm not even bothering to start at the beginning. Honestly, I couldn't get myself excited to document the first few weeks, so I decided to start with something I was anxious to get into my album. Who says I have to go in chronological order? I have no problems going back and filling in previous weeks when I feel like doing so. Remember, there are no rules!
So here's the spread I created for the first part of February. I made it as my very first Hip Kit Club Design Team project! Yay! I used the Febraury Main Kit, which is 100% gorgeous. It includes some bits a pieces from the new Pinkfresh Studio collections, so obviously it was love at first sight.
If you'd like to see my entire process, you can watch the video below.
Thanks so much for stopping by, and as always...Happy Crafting!
