Hi everyone! Krystal here with a 12×12 Layout using the beautiful May 2019 Main Kit. Our assignment today was to use the “Selfie” paper from Crate Paper’s All Heart collection as well as the puffy frames in a clever way.

I knew right away what photos I wanted to use. Sometimes the sentiments and colors of a particular product bring to mind a specific moment. This was definitely one of those times. I knew the color scheme would go perfectly with these sunset photos, and the sentiments on the “Selfie” paper couldn’t be more perfect.

So even though these photos are from way back in 2015, I had to use them. I guess that’s the benefit of not scrapbooking chronologically. I can always pull from any time in my life and find photos I haven’t scrapbooked already.

But back to the page at hand. I started with…wait for it…a patterned paper background! Gasp! Can you even believe it?! I’ve been saying all year that I was going to try something other than white cardstock as my background, and I finally did it! The “Star Dust” paper from All Heart was just screaming to be used as a background, so I dove in and gave it a try…and I’m so glad I did! The subtle pattern and printed splatters give the page a mixed media-like look without having to add anything to the page.

With all of the rectangles in both of the highlighted products, I knew a grid of some kind would be the easiest place to start. So I just began laying out all the pieces and moving them around until I liked the way it looked. I paid special attention to the edges of each piece. I wanted everything to overlap, but I didn’t want the subject of my photos or any of the sentiments to be covered. I also didn’t want any of the pieces to line up perfectly. I was going for a “I just threw all of these pieces onto the page” sort of look.

Once I had things where I liked them, it was all looking a little too monochromatic to me, so I decided to add in another color. Since the page was already pretty full, the easiest way to bring in more color was to add a mat behind my photos.  I auditioned a few options from the Main Kit, but eventually settled on the very aptly named “Just Right” paper from Pinkfresh Studio’s Joyful Day collection. The dark teal was the perfect addition to the page. It added contrast and color without distracting from the other elements.

I kept my title very simple. At first I thought I would use the exclusive pink puffy alphas that were in the kit, but when I put them on the page, they were just a tad too small, and the pink didn’t quite match any of the other pinks I already had on the page. So instead I went with the blue puffy alphas. The size was perfect, and it actually brought out a lot of the blue tones in my photos.

As a finishing touch, I decided to add more of the “Just Right” paper as a border on two sides of my page. I trimmed off a little bit from both the right and left sides and added two strips to the back with some double-sided tape. And voila! That’s my page all done!

Here’s a closer look at my entire process.

I hope you enjoyed this page and are able to find some inspiration in all of my madness. Thanks so much for stopping by!