Lots of Patterns

Happy Friday! I'm on the tail end of vacation, but wanted to share a quick layout. I really love mixing and matching patterned papers. Today I thought I share a layout that has lots of patterns in it, and talk a little bit about my thought process and why I think they all work together.

I never want the important stuff (like my photos and journaling) to get swallowed up by all the busy patterns. I've found one of the best ways to make your photo pop on a layout is to make sure the mat the photo. For this layout, I chose a bright color to help the photo stand out. Clustering embellishments around the photo also helps draw the eye to the photo.

I started this layout with the fun, bright striped paper from Elle's Studio. It has a lot of colors going on, so I wanted one of my other patterned papers to be more neutral. The grey star paper is still patterned, but reads a bit more like a neutral since it's light grey on dark grey.

All of the embellishments also pull their color palette from the stripped paper. To keep things looking cohesive, I chose to mirror the stars from the grey paper in some of the papers (like the strip below).

I love working with lots of patterns with scrapbooking. What's your style?

Adding Foiled Words to a Layout

Adding foiled words to a layout is a great way to add an extra pop of color and fun to a layout. Today I have a 2 page layout that uses custom foiled words on both sides of the layout.

I want to start by saying that I just don't think you can have too much of a good thing, and I love both Heidi Swapp's Minc foil (and all the fabulous embellishments she has for foiling) and Therm O Web's Deco Foil. I have lots of both, and they both work great.

I used words from Heidi Swapp's Die Cut Jumbo Words, and a 3 x 3 "fabulous" card from Heidi Swapp's Minc 3 x 3 Card Set.

It's a little tough to tell from this photo, but the "fabulous" card is covered in green Minc Foil, while "hello sunshine" is covered in pumpkin Therm O Web Foil. I chose orange and green foils to pick up the color from the Elle's Studio patterned paper I used for the layout.

Since the right hand page of my layout is a bit plain, so the foiled "love" adds a lot pizazz to a page that might otherwise be a bit dull.

 Adding foiled words to a layout is a really simple way to add some customized color. Have you tired out either the Heidi Swapp Minc foil of the Therm O Web Deco foil yet? It's really a lot of fun!

12 Years Anniversary Layout

Every year my husband and I do something for our anniversary. Sometimes it's just dinner and a movie, sometimes it's something bigger, but every year I make sure we take a photo to mark the celebration. All of these photos get scrapped and live in an album just for our anniversary layouts. I can't help but think how fun it will be to go back and look at an album full of anniversaries when we celebrate 25 or 40 or 50 years together. Today I'm sharing our 12 Years anniversary layout.

We don't actually celebrate 12 years together until June, but we had the opportunity to go to St. Simon's Island, Georgia. We decided to turn it into a bit of an anniversary trip.

I love the bright colors and watercolored feel Bella Blvd's Illustrated Faith collection. I used a mix of papers and heart shaped enamel dots from the collection.

I used some journaling cards and tags from Elle's Studio for my journaling and to add a few extra layers of embellishments to my layout.

I so love going through life with this guy! I can't get enough of spending time with him, and I am so thankful to be able to put our years together down on paper like I did with this 12 years anniversary layout.