Leaving Coventry

Hello, and welcome back to my blog! This month I have two double page layouts for the Stick It Down Blog. Here is the first one:

And this is the second one:

And here is the February 2021 double page sketch these layouts were based on:

I wanted to create two layouts this month: one that follows the original sketch closely (which is always a bit of a challenge for me, hence a good exercise to test my limits), and one that is modified to suit the photos I am working with. What was also a challenge this month is that I have been working with themed autumn and winter / Christmas layouts for so long, I found it quite difficult to just go for random papers and embellishments without any rhyme or reason behind my choices...

So here are the close-ups of the first layout:

I started with choosing the patterned papers. I chose a couple of generic inexpensive papers for the background. Next, I went through my stash, selecting papers that complemented the photos in colour. I pre-prepared a template for the diamond shape, which was just the right size to go behind the photos. I cut this out from white cardstock and I used it to cut the shape out of the patterned papers.

I went through my stash again, this time looking for embellishments that would go well with the layout. I didn't have any embellishments that would match the theme, therefore I used fairly generic pieces, such as hearts, flowers, stars and phrase stickers. I tried to position the embellishment clusters similarly to those on the sketch, but they ended up spreading out a bit. I went with the flow - I usually pack my embellishment clusters quite tightly, so it was a nice change to create something more scattered...

I was a bit stuck for alpha stickers, so I went with a rose gold alpha, which matched some of the smaller embellishments on the layout.

For the second layout I modified the diamond shape in the background on the right hand side, to facilitate the arrangement of the photos:

This layout is more themed, as the photos were taken in a garden, and are about flowers and plants. They were perfect to use my pack of floral embellishments from the Simple Vintage Garden collection from Simple Stories.

To create cohesion between the pages, I carried some of the floral embellishments over to the right hand side:

Initially they looked quite sparse, so I boosted the embellishment clusters with some Heidi Swapp stickers

As this double page is part of a larger story, I wasn't going to create a title. However, the page looked quite incomplete without one, so I ended up using a woodgrain alpha to make a title that makes sense on the double page on its own, as well as in the bigger story:

I hope you like my layouts. The process video here shows how they came together. And don't forget to check back to the Stick It Down blog for weekly inspirations! Thanks for visiting!