Designing a Layout from a May Moodboard
A monthly moodboard gives you a starting point when you sit down to scrap – a color scheme, a vibe, a handful of patterns to pull from. Ashley used the May moodboard here to land on black-and-white polka dots paired with soft pink, then built everything around that combination.
A May mood board is the bridge between spring pastels and summer brights – polka dots, soft pinks, garden greens, white space, and a touch of black for contrast. It’s the palette that handles graduation photos, mother’s day pages, end-of-school spreads, garden parties, and early-summer vacations all at once. Designer Ashley Horton breaks down a polka-dot-and-pink layout below using May 2019 kits and a black-white-and-pink mood board. There’s a complete May palette breakdown, a materials list with the dies and stickers that make this style work, more layout ideas to copy, and the supplies that turn a May mood board into a finished page.
What Is a May Mood Board?
A mood board is a visual collage of colors, textures, and references that share an emotional tone. A May-specific mood board pulls together the visual language of late spring sliding into summer – graphic black-and-white pattern (polka dots, stripes), soft pinks and pale florals, fresh white space, and one or two saturated pops of color. The contrast between graphic pattern and soft color is what makes May palettes work where pure-spring palettes might feel too sweet.
Want to create layouts like this? Our monthly kits include coordinated papers, embellishments, and supplies to bring your scrapbook pages to life.
Ashley was working from this May mood board. The dominant cues are black-and-white polka dots, soft pink, and clean white space – all of which show up in her finished layout below.
The May Mood Board Palette You Can Steal
If you want to skip the color-decision work, here is the standard May palette. Pick one dominant graphic, one supporting color, and one accent and the layout is almost designed before you start:
Dominant graphic: Black-and-white polka dots, stripes, or grid pattern. The high-contrast pattern that grounds the layout.
Supporting color: Soft pink, blush, or pale coral. The warm color that softens the graphic punch.
Accent: Floral fussy-cut pieces or a small pop of green for leaves. Adds organic shape against the geometric pattern.
Negative space: White cardstock, generous margins, or one large empty area on the layout. May palettes need breathing room or the polka dots take over.
Skip dark saturated colors (navy, burgundy, forest green) for May layouts – they push the palette into autumn or winter. The May palette’s charm is in the contrast between crisp graphic and soft warmth.
Materials You’ll Need for a May Mood-Board Layout
The layout below uses polka-dot patterned paper, light pink cardstock, a cut-file title, fussy-cut sticker embellishments, and floral clusters. Here is what gets used across most May layouts:
Polka-dot patterned paper: A black-and-white polka dot 12×12 paper is the workhorse. Buy a small pad rather than a single sheet so you have backup dots for variations.
Pink cardstock: Light pink cardstock for the title cut and matting. Heavyweight (110 lb or higher) cuts cleaner with dies and electronic cutters.
Sticker books with clear stickers: Ashley used Crate Paper All Heart stickers and fussy-cut around each one. Floral and word sticker books give you a year of sticker supply for under $20 and the fussy-cut technique works on any of them.
Patterned paper for fussy-cutting: Floral patterned paper – Ashley fussy-cut flowers from Crate Paper Wallflower. Any 12×12 floral with bold blooms works for cluster building.
Foam squares for dimension: 3D foam squares lift fussy-cut flowers and stickers off the page so the layered embellishment clusters cast real shadow. Without dimension, fussy-cut clusters look flat.
Cut files or letter dies: Ashley used a kit cut file for her enlarged “Go Girl” title. If you have an electronic cutter, search for free SVG titles. If you don’t, chipboard letter stickers get the same impact at a smaller scale.
Optional: dies for floral cuts. If you’d rather cut your own flowers than fussy-cut from patterned paper, floral metal dies are a one-time purchase that pays back over many layouts.
Ashley’s May Layout Walkthrough
Hey friends! It’s Ashley, and I’m here today with a layout based on the May Moodboard. I love finding inspiration from the monthly Moodboards and finding fun ways to use the products in my Hip Kits. For this layout, I used several stickers from a Crate Paper sticker book that came in the Embellishment Kit. For pre-coordinated kits in this style, check the current monthly Hip Kit Club kits.
The inspiration for my layout started with the black and white polka dots and soft pink color from the May Moodboard. I knew I wanted to use the polka dot patterned paper from Crate Paper as the background of my layout. Since I planned not to use any mixed media over the patterned paper, I needed a way to make all of the other elements on my layout stand out.
I decided to use a cut file for my title because I knew I could enlarge it, which would help it stand out from the background. I cut the title from light pink cardstock and backed it with foam to give it dimension on the layout. Foam squares are my go-to for that lift.
My photo area was where I decided to bring in lots of stickers from the All Heart Sticker Book. These are clear stickers, but I didn’t want to use them that way against a busy background. Instead, I placed the stickers on a piece of white paper and then fussy cut around each one. This basically gave me new embellishments that I could use on my layout. And I love the way they look clustered around my photo. A small pair of detail scissors makes this so much faster than trying with regular scissors.
I wanted to balance the design of my layout with three floral clusters, so I fussy cut some flowers from the Crate Paper Wallflower patterned paper. I like to add dimension in my clusters, so I used some foam behind several of the flowers. Then I added some leaf design stickers from the All Heart Sticker Book to the flowers. The flower clusters create a great visual triangle to help the eye travel around the layout. If you don’t want to fussy-cut, pre-made paper flowers work just as well for cluster building.
Once all of the fussy-cut flowers were in place, I used some stickers in each cluster to add interest. I like to have different types of embellishments in my clusters – some flat, some lifted, some patterned, some solid – so the clusters read as designed rather than dumped.
I hope you’ve found some inspiration today. Don’t forget about the awesome monthly Moodboards as a starting point.
5 More May / Spring-Summer Mood-Board Layout Ideas
Polka-dot-and-pink isn’t the only way to use a May palette. Here are five more approaches that work the same color story differently:
1. The Stripe Background Layout. Swap polka dots for black-and-white stripes. Works particularly well with portrait photos and graduation pages because the vertical stripes draw the eye up.
2. The Floral Half-Page. Top half of the layout: dense fussy-cut floral cluster on white background. Bottom half: photo, title, journaling. Splits the page so the busy florals don’t overwhelm.
3. The Black-and-White Photo Layout. Shoot or convert your photos to black-and-white, then build the layout in the May palette. The B&W photo “rhymes” with the black-and-white pattern; the pink and floral pop reads as the only color in the page.
4. The Garden Party Spread. Two pages, hero photo on one side, smaller photos on the other, fussy-cut floral border running diagonally between the two pages. Mother’s day, baby showers, or wedding showers.
5. The Graduation Photo Layout. Single graduation portrait, polka-dot or grid background, hand-lettered graduation year as the title, soft pink and white embellishments. May palettes were practically designed for graduation pages.
Tips for May Mood-Board Layouts That Stay Crisp
Limit the polka dot to one element. A polka-dot background OR polka-dot accent stickers – not both. Two polka-dot elements competes with itself.
Use white space as a design tool. Leave at least 30% of the page empty. May palettes are visual-busy; the white space is what keeps them from looking cluttered.
Stick to soft pink, not hot pink. Hot pink fights the black-and-white pattern. Blush, dusty rose, and pale coral all play nicely with high-contrast graphics.
Build clusters with three elements minimum. Ashley’s clusters mix fussy-cut flowers, foam-lifted leaves, and small stickers. Single-item embellishments look like leftovers; clusters look intentional.
Use a foam-square hierarchy. Different cluster heights (one flat, one one-foam-square lifted, one two-foam-squares lifted) create a 3D landscape that photographs beautifully.
May Mood Board FAQ
What colors are in a May mood board?
Black-and-white graphic pattern (polka dots, stripes, or grid), soft pink (blush, dusty rose, pale coral), white negative space, and small accents of green or floral. The defining feature is the contrast between high-contrast graphic pattern and soft warm color.
How do I fussy cut stickers for a layout?
Place clear stickers onto a piece of white paper or cardstock. Use small detail scissors to cut around each sticker, leaving a thin white border. The result is a sticker that reads as an opaque embellishment instead of a clear overlay – useful when your background is too busy for clear stickers.
What kit categories work for May layouts?
Polka-dot or striped patterned paper, soft-pink cardstock, floral patterned paper for fussy-cutting, sticker books with mixed clear and opaque stickers, and either chipboard letters or a cut file for the title. Skip dark saturated cardstock and heavy embossing.
Can I use a May mood board for a graduation layout?
Yes – May palettes work beautifully for graduations because the timing matches and the contrast between graphic pattern and soft pink suits both portrait photos and ceremony photos. Substitute school colors for one of the pinks if you want a personalized variant.
How is a May mood board different from a June or July mood board?
May still leans spring (soft, floral, polka-dot graphic). June pushes into early summer with brighter saturation. July is full summer with hot pinks, marigold, turquoise, and tropical references. May is the last “soft” mood-board palette before the saturation kicks in.
Where to Go Next
- Scrapbook Page Ideas – layout recipes including more spring-summer templates
- Scrapbook Ideas – the full hub with techniques across every theme
- April Mood Board – the spring sister palette
- Analogous Color Palettes – the color-theory companion
- Scrapbook Supplies – what to buy first for May palettes
- Card Making Ideas – May palette cards for graduations and showers
What Makes This Moodboard Layout Work
- Ashley enlarged a cut file title in light pink cardstock and backed it with foam for dimension – a simple move that anchors the whole page.
- Clear stickers can disappear on busy backgrounds. Her fix: fussy cut them on white paper first, then place them over the polka dot pattern.
- Three floral clusters form a visual triangle across the layout, which keeps your eye moving instead of settling in one spot.
- Pulling all your embellishments from one kit forces color coordination without overthinking it.
- The moodboard narrowed her palette to two tones. Fewer choices up front meant faster decisions and a more cohesive page.
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