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Hi friends, Kimberly here, and you are going to absolutely love what Heidi Lewis cooked up for us this month. Heidi took an adorable illustration of a bear carrying a paddle board and used it as a sketch template to build a stunning adventure-themed scrapbook layout featuring a photo from her family’s paddle boarding trip on Yellowstone Lake. She pulled from the April 2026 Main Kit (with Cardstock), the April 2026 Color Kit, and the April 2026 Pocket Life Kit to bring this whole project together, and the result is pure magic.
What I really love about this tutorial is how Heidi shows you that you do not need a die-cutting machine to recreate a custom character on your page – just an illustration, some scissors, and a little patience. She walks you through fussy cutting the bear, building a soft beach scene with Lindy’s Magicals in Teapot Purple and Tweedle Denim, ink blending her own brown bear because the kit did not have brown paper, and finishing with hand stitching using DMC embroidery floss. It is full of those clever little workarounds and personal touches that make a layout feel like you. Grab your kits and let’s get crafty.
Step-by-Step Tutorial
Step 1: Fussy Cut the Illustration Template
Heidi starts by printing a bear-with-paddle-board illustration onto 65 lb weight cardstock so it is stiff enough to serve as a cutting template for her pattern paper pieces. She uses regular scissors to fussy cut the illustration. Picking an illustration that fits your photo’s theme – in this case adventure for the April 2026 kits – is what ties the whole layout together.
Step 2: Plan the Layout and Mark the Shoreline
Once the bear is cut out, Heidi places him on a 110 lb weight cardstock background along with her photo to plan placement. She uses a pencil to lightly mark a shoreline where the mixed media will go. The heavier weight cardstock is important here because it can handle wet mixed media without warping.
Step 3: Add the Sandy Beach with Teapot Purple
Using a fan brush, Heidi picks up Lindy’s Magical in Teapot Purple and distributes the powder along the penciled shoreline to recreate the sandy beach. The fan brush is great for breaking up any big clumps as you spread the powder around. Her real beach had black sand, but she decided purple was close enough and adds a fun pop of color.
Step 4: Activate the Mixed Media with Water
Heidi adds Tweedle Denim above the sand for the water effect, then spritzes both Lindy’s Magical colors with her water bottle to activate them. When the denim turned out deeper than expected, she used water and paper towels to lift off the excess pigment. Do not panic if a color looks too intense – you can always pull some back.
Step 5: Create an Orange Sun Glow
To add warmth to the sky, Heidi uses a 1-inch punch from We R Memory Keepers to trace a circle onto the background. She delicately applies Lindy’s Magical in Cafe Terrace Tangerine inside the circle and activates it with water for a soft sunset glow. This little detail adds so much atmosphere to the scene.
Step 6: Cut the Bear’s Components from Pattern Paper
Heidi traces her bear template onto white cardstock as a base, then cuts out individual pieces – shorts, hat, and paddle board – and traces those onto coordinating pattern papers from the 6×8 paper pack. She ended up with blue floral shorts and a red hat. Using plain paper for the paddle board keeps the bear from looking too busy.
Step 7: Ink Blend a Custom Brown Bear
Since the April 2026 Main Kit did not include brown paper, Heidi made her own by loading a brush with brown ink, tapping off the excess on scratch paper, and applying it in circular motions to build up the color in layers. She only ink blends the parts of the bear that will show – the head, arms, and legs. Little variations in the ink actually make the bear’s fur look more realistic.
Step 8: Add Hand Stitching Details
Heidi adheres her pattern pieces with Barely Arts liquid glue, keeping the glue close to the edges so the paper does not lift when stitching. She hand stitches around the bear’s boxers using six strands of DMC embroidery floss in color 3811 and adds a red stripe down the paddle board with floss in color 351. She also stamps “weekend away” in Blackberry Bliss on the paddle board for a cursive branding touch.
Step 9: Assemble the Layout with Foam Adhesive
Heidi angles the photo so its shoreline matches the mixed media shoreline, then uses foam adhesive to pop the bear off the page so he becomes the standout feature. She adds a yellow puffy sticker sun, a vertical title stack on the left for contrast, and scatters circular puffy stickers as rocks or seashells. Foam dots also lift the clouds for added dimension.
Step 10: Finish with Whimsical Final Touches
To bridge an awkward gap between the title and clouds, Heidi scatters a few white sequins across the sky to draw your eye across the page. She journals with a blue pen instead of black so it does not overpower the layout, and ties a tiny bow onto the bear’s boxers because, as Heidi says, anything with a bow is automatically more whimsical. Do not forget to use her coupon code HEIDILEWIS in all caps.
Products Used in This Tutorial
About the Designer
Heidi Lewis
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