Layouts Within a Layout

I'm working feverishly on my son's senior album (even if I probably won't get it done before graduation next week), and was seriously stuck on homecoming.  His high school has a week of events, and I had some seemingly unrelated pictures from those events.  And I had only a couple of pictures related to the dance (only from before they left).  I finally decided to treat each photo as its own mini layout.  Here's what I came up with.

It was a interesting chance to apply some of the lessons from Pop Off The Page 2 to a two page layout. 

The first page included two mini layouts.

 I used small alphas to label each picture and Martha Stewart tags from the office supply store to number the pictures.  The journaling block on that page used those numbers to link the journaling to the picture.  And it gave me the chance to document an event without a picture.  I simply added a piece labeled "Not Pictured."

The second page was about the dance - I had a few more pictures, so I treated that page as a full page layout.

 I added my layers along the border of the page at the top and in the block at the bottom of the page that included that round tag.  The journaling again referenced the number.

The embellishments on this layout were really simple - I had a small package of mixed stars from Jolee, cut a few more about scraps of POW paper with my cricut and mixed in the asterisks from my thickers pack.

Hope you enjoy your Memorial Day.  I'm looking forward to a quiet day at home with my family, but will certainly spend some time reflecting on the sacrifice the men and women in our armed forces make for us. Now that my children are older, I have watched many of them join our military with a sense of pride, and it has made it much more personal. 

Have a great day!

Boys Sparkle Too!

I have two sons and one daughter - and none of them like sparkly, glittery things.  (I have to say it seems totally unfair that my daughter doesn't like sparkly things.)  But I get the urge to make sparkly layouts once in  while.  The American Crafts POW paper fascinates me.  It has such a great look and texture - and glitter doesn't get everywhere when you touch it.  So I decided to make a sparkly layout for my oldest son.

I used POW denim paper, a scrap of the Dear Lizzy gold dot vellum and assorted sparkly embellishments.  I added super sparkly Dear Lizzy thickers  and one of those big sequins from SC kits to finish it off.

In order to keep it "manly,"  here are some things I considered.

• Chose your colors carefully - black, blue and gold combine for a masculine feel.  Pink and lavender would have sent my son over the edge.
• Use a simple design.  A clean look is much more likely to have a masculine feel.
• Play with texture for interest.  I used this great black embossed paper from Creative Memories and used the Texture Boutique on the POW paper to add interest.  The vellum and large sequin also added textural variety.

Boys can be sparkly - they just don't want to admit it.  Try making the men in your life sparkle today.

Have a great Sunday!