April Lilli Design Team: Two layouts with Flora No. 1

Yes, I actually made two layouts about boys with the florally, girly collection "Flora No. 1" by Carta Bella. And I really love how they turned out! They are both similar in the way I use the papers: rough edges, different layers and some kind of mixed media.

This is the first one I made: I used white cardstock as a background and stamped the botanical background stamp with three or four different shades of purple and green. Then I started creating a photo mat using patterned papers and and pieces of the ephemera pack.

I was very inspired by a layout by Zoe Guest where she took one of the photo mats and completely crinkled the paper up and then flattened it back out. I really wanted to try that and I love the awesome texture it created. I then took ephemera pieces from the ephemera pack: I just cut them so that they would fit in as layers. There were several flags in the pack as well, but none of the patterns and colors fit the layout, so I just cut my own flags using one as a template.

I had my layers, I knew what the title was going to be but I realized that my whole design was too far to the right and too far down. The latter was easily solved by moving the complete photo mat up a bit. To balance the lopsided design I added two strips of the main papers and a border sticker from the sticker sheet. After I had added the journaling I felt that I needed a bit more black so I stamped the heart from the Simply Stated stamp set in three places on the layout.

The second layout started with a gessoed square on the Peony Posy Bunch pattern paper, for iNSD Beth Soler challenged us to create a layout that used paint in bold strokes and that's what I wanted to try. After the gesso had dried, I applied green acrylic paint and then I did not like the way the green paint looked against the brown background. Now what?

I tried all kinds of different things, until I finally came to the conclusion that this wasn't going to work, so I cut the brown background off (yes, I wasted a piece where I could have fussy cut those beautiful peonies, sigh). It still didn't look right, then my friend Anna suggested ripping the edges instead of cutting and that did the trick. I assume (no, I know now) that the rough strokes of the acrylic paint just didn't go well with clear cut, straight edges. Then I went into my paper stash and found the striped background paper by Maggie Holmes (it is from her Open Book collection), I really liked the way both pieces looked together. But it needed more: rough edges call for layers, so I layered several papers behind the center mat.

To make the green photos pop from the green background, I added the bold black stripes as layers behind as well as some of the ephemera pieces. I used the alpha stickers from the sticker sheet to create my title and then journaled directly on the paint using a Sharpie permanent marker pen. I'm really happy how this layout turned out because I really struggled with it for quite a while.

iNSD challenge: S T R E T C H your sketch

I am hosting a challenge for (inter) National Scrapbooking Day over on the Scrap Gals Community facebook group today. There is lots to participate: challenges every hour from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM CDT, lots of chit chat and scrapbooking and fun. Come over and join us! I love using sketches as a starting point for my layouts and so I thought it would be fun to use sketches for the challenge. Here is what I came up with!

Challenge: S T R E T C H your sketch

My challenge for you is to take a sketch and use it to create a layout in your Traveler's Notebook! That's all there is to it. Now, I know not everyone is as obsessed with Traveler's Notebooks as I am and that is why I challenge you to stretch your sketch in other ways:
In case you are a very literal scrapbooker stretching a sketch might simply mean to turn the sketch 90° to the left or the right or even flipping it upside down. Stretching your sketch could mean to transfer a rectangular 8.5x11 sketch to a 12x12 format or stretching it out onto a double page layout. It could also mean to use a sketch to create a journaling card or a greeting card. But what do you do if you find the perfect sketch in the perfect size and there is nothing to stretch? Well, then I invite you to stretch your sketch by limiting your supplies: use only journaling cards to create all the elements on the page, for example. Or do not use scissors and a paper trimmer if you are obsessed about straight edges and right angles. Add a challenging stretch to your sketch!

I hope this sounds like fun for you! I was so excited to create my very first Traveler's Notebook layout based on this sketch. And I even managed to create a card based on the same sketch. I filmed a video so if you want to scrap with me, let's do this together! I will be out at my sons' Baseball games today, but I hope to come back later this afternoon and try my hand at one or two of the ideas mentioned above.

Ressources: Where do I find sketches?

There are several ways to find sketches on the internet: pinterest is a great souce, then there are specific sketch websites that publish sketches. Kitclubs also often post sketches for their customers as well as online stores. I have gathered several websites for you to check out. Please note! This is not a complete list, just the sites I know from the top of my head.

• Pinterest: here is my Layout Sketches board
• Sketch Websites: Sketches in Thyme, Creative Scrappers, Stuck?!Sketches
• Kit Clubs: Cocoa Daisy, Citrus Twist Kits, Hip Kit Club
• Online Stores: April Lilli, Elle's Studio

I hope you join me in this fun challenge and play along! Please share your creations! I would love to see what you create and cheer you on along the way! There will be a special share thread in the Scrap Gals Community facebook group. But if you share elsewhere, leave a comment here with a link to your video or blogpost or tag me on instagram! Happy scrapping!

April Lilli Design Team: Decorating a Traveler's Notebook insert

Yesterday Odessa showed her week in the life project on the April Lilli blog where she created a traveler's notebook insert using the Carta Bella collection Flora No. 1. If making a whole insert from scratch is intimidating to you, my idea might be just what you need.

I simply took a plain traveler's notebook insert and covered it with the Petunia Patch Garland paper, used a journaling card from the Rose Garden Journal Cards and some die cuts from the Ephemera Pack to decorate the cover. When I cover my inserts I usually cut two pieces of paper that are slightly smaller than the insert's width in order to leave a flexible spine. Then I glue the papers to the front and back and cover the gap at the spine with some washi tape. I have filmed a video where I show you my creative process:



I then went on to add some personality to the first page of my insert. It had the title "Bullet Journal" already printed inside and could definitely use a bit more decoration. So I used the Botanical A2 Background Stamp, inked it up partially and stamped it right underneath the title. It turned out exactly the way I had hoped for: no sharp edges, some parts darker and some parts lighter. I then added a little washi from my stash to layer one of the flower circles from the Ephemera Pack.

And voilà - I have my personalized insert that looks much more like me than the plain kraft cover and white title page.