Hi everyone Kim here…I have a question to ask you.

“How many ephemera is too many?” I am sure you’ve also asked yourself this a hundred times right? Today, I thought I’d experiment a little. I am going to try adding  A LOT of ephemera to a page, making sure I don’t lose it’s cohesion, & that it remains uncluttered.

So here goes nothing LOL!!

These Things Remind Me of Home by Kim Watson 

Using the fantastic October 2016 kits, I created this page. I admit is was inspired by the super cute pack of die-cut ephemera by WRM found in the October 2016 Embellishment kit add-on & the diagonal stripe paper, ‘Pure Joy’ by Crate Paper. Being laid out in a kinda ombre fashion…I knew exactly what I was going to do; create a kinda ombre flow of die-cuts complementing whichever stripe they ended up on.

You will notice that even though there is a lot going on there are little things that help create structure:

• The rows are justified left.
• There rows of x3 enamel dots in similar positions on the different stripes.
• The x3 big flag flowers create a visual triangle within the design.
• Machine stitching helps draw ones eye from left to right.
• The placement of the various elements according to color creates visual symmetry.

The blue stripe got blue Simple Stories alpha stickers found in the October 2016 Project Life kit & blue accents…there weren’t enough blue to fill the whole stripe, so I started adding aqua & green…creating a further ombre vibe.

I used the darker stripe to position more of the title, the Exclusive Hip Kits Club puffy alpha stickers, were the perfect match.

Then I repeated the same idea with the pale pink stripe, placing a mixture of die-cuts until the strips was full. I love how the machine stitching added interest & subtle texture to the diagonal page design.

Even though this page could have lived without a photo, I decided to add a one that is typical of our family. A funny photo bomb selfie with the kids in the back of the car LOL. Everything about this page reminds me of the goodness of home, I love how it is a reminder of how the small stuff we fill our lives are actually the important things. A page like this is perfect with Thanksgiving around the corner for my American friends!!

So I ended up using 25 ephemera pieces excluding the flag flowers & alpha stickers…good going right!! And I was able to keep the page unclutter. I’d say my experiment worked!

I appreciate you stopping by today, I hope you have found this inspiring & plan on trying an exercise for yourself soon?

PLEASE NOTE: If you are interested in finding out how to make the flag flowers, be sure to stop by the Hip Kit Club Instagram account later to watch the process video.