It's All About Embellishment Clusters

I'll admit it - I love embellishments.  I love buying them, sorting them, and using them.  Sometimes my husband says my layouts are more about the embellishments than the photos (and sometimes he might be right).  They just might be my favorite thing about scrapbooking.  After all, embellishments provide so many opportunities for mixing and matching, for creating a mood  or bringing back a feeling and just making a layout my own. 

So when I saw the April 1 sketch at Stuck?!, I was super excited.  It just cried out for embellishment clusters.

I started by pulling supplies from the March kits at Studio Calico (Homespun and the add ons).  One of the add-ons included the die cuts from the Maggie Holmes Bloom collection so I had lots to play with.  Then I dug through some old pictures and found a photo that inspired me and seemed to go with the papers and embellishments I'd set out.

And I'll be honest - I didn't start with the photo block or the focal point of the layout.  Instead I started with my favorite part of the sketch - the embellishment cluster at the bottom of the page.

 I added some extra die cuts, wood veneer, enamel dots and washi from my stash.  And I made some decisions.  I knew I didn't want everything to be perfectly square so I used a long narrow acetate diecut to anchor the cluster and arranged embellishments in a bit of a topsy-turvy way to try and keep a bit of a fun feel to the layout.

Then I got to work and used the patterned papers I pulled to create the photo block and the focal point of the layout.  The photo block included another large embellishment cluster - this one built mostly from floral pieces from that Maggie Holmes die cut pack.  I used foam squares under some of the pieces to add dimension.  I also layered some of  the die cuts under the paper layouts for added interest.

I did add a few wood veneer hearts and some enamel dots to link this cluster to the embellishments at the bottom of the page.  I also repeated the sparkly "XO" but layered it on top of my photo in some dead space.

I thought I was done at this point, but I let the layout sit for about 30 minutes and came back to give it a second look.  I decided I needed something to balance the floral cluster on the other side of the photo.  I went back to the Maggie Homes die-cuts and some paper scraps.  Another wood heart and some more enamel dots finished it off.

I used the "E" for my daughter's initial - I can't spell "LOVE" anymore but it worked perfectly here.  And I used a scrap of floral vellum under the tag with the heart cut-out.  I used foam dots under the die cut to make the most out of the airy feel of the vellum.

After that I was just about done.  I added the title (I'm seriously addicted to those black rubber alphas from the kit) and some gold ink splatters.  And I made sure some splatters fell on top of the die cuts to help bring everything together.    Here's what I ended up with.

I have to admit that I lvoe everything about this one.  All those flowers are a bit out of the norm for me but they were so much fun to play with!

Thanks for stopping by - hope you have a great Sunday.