Step It Up: One Layout, Three Levels of Difficulty

This month I wanted to change things up a bit, so I invited my friend Kristine Davidson of Creative Scrappers to share one of her amazing sketches with you. I love using sketches as a starting point, and this month is no exception.

Here is the sketch we will be using:

A little background:

For my layout I wanted to record my life right now. I am a firm believer in journaling in my scrapbooks. I want to record my life, the good, bad and ugly, so I can look back on this time and remember how things have changed and what has stayed the same. Right now I am facing some challenges and I want to look back on them some day, so I documented them. While I want to record them, I don't necessarily want them exposed for all the world to see, so I folded my white cardstock and adhered my 5" x 7" photo to it allowing a good-sized flap to write on. This is a great tip if you have some journaling you want to do, but don't necessarily want it read by everyone.

Supplies:

Step One:

• Teresa Collins Everyday Moments Collection
• EK Success Border Punch
• white cardstock
• Wood Chip Alphabet by Pink Paislee

Step Two:

• Teresa Collins Everyday Moments Collection
• Stamps: Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday: Saying Hello set, It's Ok set, Are We There Yet?, EK Success Border Punch

Step Three:

• Teresa Collins Everyday Moments Collection
• Hero Arts Stamp Set
• white cardstock
• circle punches

Step One: Just the Basics

How to:

1. I started with the navy background and built up from there.
   
2. I adhered the yellow patterned paper to the center of the layout and added the white scalloped edge to the top and bottom of the yellow paper.
   
3. I added the photo, adhered to a folded piece of white paper to allow for hidden journaling. I added a polka-dot scalloped border to the bottom of the photo.
   
4. I added the embellishments:

• journaling block (upper left) with the ‘live a full and meaningful life' sticker across the bottom
• ‘I am so lucky this is my life' circle to the bottom right of the journaling block
• ‘details' tab on the photo, ‘Noteworthy' title behind the details tab.
• ‘today' circle letters and ‘life is now' sticker
• ‘right now' title
• strip of phrase paper across the bottom of the title

Techniques:

• using one collection
• using border punches
• using stickers and paper embellishments
• layering
• using a sketch

Step Two: Cure Stamp Phobia

How To:

1. Take your journaling block and add stamped phrases to add focus to your layout.
   
   Stamps I used: Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday: Saying Hello set, It's Ok set, Are We There Yet? I stamped: ‘tell your story', ‘hello challenge', ‘moments', ‘this is life'.
2. Add the tabs: ‘memory' (top left) and ‘story' (on the photo bottom right).

Techniques:

• stamping
• using stamping to tell your story
• adding tabs and titles to further your story
• hiding journaling you don't want the world to read

Step Three: Now That You're Cured, Kick It up a Notch!

How to:

1. I took the Hero Arts Many Dots stamp set and stamped it on white cardstock.
2. I then punched out the circles with circle punches.
3. Next, I cut circles in half and layered them across the top and bottom.
4. I also added the hearts behind the ‘g' in "right" and ‘o' in "now."
5. I added the strip of navy and light blue patterned paper scallop punched across the bottom of the layout.
6. Last, I inked the edges of the layout with navy ink.

Techniques:

• using stamps as embellishments
• adding borders as embellishments
• tying a layout together with repeat elements

I hope you have enjoyed this month's installment of Step It Up and I'd love to see your work. If you use the sketch or any techniques here, come back and leave us a comment or link to your work.