Autumn at Attingham Park

It’s finally, finally Autumn time! To celebrate the arrival of the season of change, I created this layout for the Stick It Down blog. I worked with the November double page sketch - it was such an easy and fun sketch to follow, and ideal for lots and lots of journaling...

I decided to do a bit of stash busting as well as using some stock from this year’s Autumn lines... I chose the leaf print papers for the background from the new Echo Park 'A Perfect Autumn' collection. I like that it’s one of those continuous patterns, so that the print matches seamlessly when you put two of the same paper together.

I decided not to go with a plain background, even though it meant that the layout might get very busy. To try and prevent this, I’ve used simple patterns and blocks of colours for the paper strips that were layered on top.

Instead of using card stock or another patterned paper for the smaller rectangle, I decided to use a 12” x12” circular die-cut in the shape of a wood slice. I cut this in half and placed the two pieces on top of the paper strips.

Following the sketch, I used the left side for my photos. I used the empty space on the right for the journaling...

I found that the layout was getting quite confusing for the eye at this point, as the wood slices weren’t standing out from the background as much as anticipated. To remedy this, I have placed an A4 size vellum under each half, which softened the colours and intensivity of the background and made all the difference. The eye could now focus on the photos, the title and the journaling, without the background competing for the attention.

With all the business going on, I opted for simple embellishing... Three clusters, with very similar components, guiding the eye across the pages.

If you’d like to see how the layout came together (and want to have a good laugh about my rookie mistake), you can find the process video here.

To see what the rest of the design team created with the same sketch, please visit the Stick It Down blog..

Many thanks for visiting my blog!