This layout makes me smile every time I see the bright colors! There is nothing spectacular about these pictures, but they bring back special memories. These were taken in April of 2020 - right after the world shut down because of COVID. The kids and I were all home, doing school in the kitchen and dining room, and Jim was working crazy long hours because he was considered an Essential Worker. There was so much fear and many unknowns at this point in time.
To create a sense of community with their students, the boys' school district had a virtual spirit week. One day they had to send in pictures of them wearing their favorite team's jersey, another was family fun day where they had to take a picture of what they do with their family to have fun, and so on . . . I took these photos on the play outdoors day.
Although it was spring, it was still chilly, and the sky was overcast. Instead of just playing outside, we decided to go for a walk, and things got pretty silly while I snapped pictures. I loved making these memories with the kids. We had lots of laughs that day. When I think back to the quarantine, I remember loving the simpler, slower pace of life, and all the time I spent with these three. It was a special time, and although I was happy that COVID started becoming more manageable, I was sad to see this time end.
Scrapbooking Tips:
I really wanted to make this a fun, happy layout despite the gloomy, overcast sky. To counteract the drab weather, I swung the opposite direction with my design and went with rainbow colors. I think the colors matches the smiles and laughter shown on the kids' faces.
I used Scrapbook Generation's first paper collection, Color Splash, to create this layout. I need to pause for a minute and rave about this and their Piano Forte collection. They are incredible! They were designed by a scrapbooker for scrapbookers. The color is vivid, and it feels more like cardstock than pattern paper. It has a glossy smooth texture and is so amazing to work with. It was easy to stitch though as well. If you want to check out these paper collections, you can go here to Scrapbook Generation. I guarantee you will not be disappointed!
After creating the striped background and placing my photos, I created this floral border using flowers I cut out of a piece of pattern paper from the Color Splash collection. This collection came with cutout sheets, but nothing seemed to work with the topic of this layout, but the floral print caught my eye. I fussy cut a bunch of flowers and began layering them to create this border. I placed my large flowers first and then adhered some with foam adhesive to give dimension. I added small and medium flowers to create more visual interest. I also made sure that the green leaves created two visual triangles to balance the design. To learn more about visual triangles, you can read about it here.
The last design element I want to point out is the title. I'll be honest, this layout sat unfinished for probably two months because I couldn't find the "look" I thought I wanted. I had used my Silhouette to cut out the "Spring Fever" title in white. It took up too much space and threw off the balance of the design. I cut it again smaller and inked the edges in rainbow colors, but the colors didn't quite match the paper. I tried rainbow-colored stickers and they didn't look right.
Finally, in a moment of desperation and wanting this layout done and off my scrap table, I used white letter stickers from Doodlebug Designs in their Sunshine font, and that's when I had my " a ha" moment. The white broke up the bold color and made the smaller sized title stand out. So, the lesson here is if your title doesn't look right, don't be afraid to take it off and go back to the drawing board!
Supplies Used:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Pattern Paper: Scrapbook Generation
Embroidery Floss: Hobby Lobby
Letter Stickers: Doodlebug Design
Sketch: Allison Davis
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