Go Outside!

Hi, everyone! I hope those of you in the US are having an awesome holiday weekend! I'm back with a traditional layout I did.
I haven't done a traditional layout since... 2010ish? I got so frustrated with making it look perfect and I didn't know about all of the incredible online resources (or they didn't exist yet?) available to help shape an idea and turn it into a page.

I took this picture at a family get-together last weekend and knew it was special. I decided I wanted to do an 8.5x11 layout with it and fit it into my Project Life binder. I've watched a lot of Shimelle, so I thought I knew the basics and could take this on! But let me tell you, there was a lot of angst and anxiety about getting it juuuussstt right. Don't ask me why! I am incapable of being carefree!

I loved how the reflection of the trees in the water made a triangle shape and I tried to mimic that with chevrons. I used my Silhouette software so draw the chevrons and my "go outside" embellishment and loaded my photo in to see how it all would fit together. (I still have the cut file for this layout, so let me know if you'd like me to make it available for download. I think I know how to do that!)

I initially thought I wanted the chevrons pointing away from the photo fitting right into the shape made by the trees and reflection. But I didn't like that that was drawing attention away from the photo (THANKS SHIMELLE!). So, I flipped the chevrons around, pushed the photo to the side and fit the chevrons into the side of the tree-triangle. I liked it! Then I tucked the "go outside" into the "white space" of my photo and that was my design!

So now it was time to choose my papers. The picture has a lot of green and blue, but I wanted to go a slightly less obvious route. I flipped through my paper and found a stack of old 4x6 adhesive papers from Hobby Lobby. (I honestly had no idea they were adhesive until I cut them and the chevrons came off like stickers! See how much use I'd gotten out of this paper pack??) I took the shapes I had made in Silhouette and cut them out out of the Hobby Lobby paper I'd chosen in wood print, orange, and teal. I also found a sheet in a Studio Calico 6x6 pad that incorporated all of these colors, including the wood print! I cut the "go outside" out of a Maggie Holmes 6x6 pad. I cut a second "go outside" out of Silhouette brand cardstock to give it some heft and dimension.

I also added a splash of brown watercolor to give some interest to the background but generally kept it very simple. I also added a tag sticking out of the photo to anchor the "go outside" embellishment. Once the photo, chevrons, and "go outside" were down, I searched my stash for wood veneers, in keeping with the "nature" theme. I had some wood veneer chevrons but I thought that would be too much. So I added these hexagons, trying to work in threes and keeping in mind everything Shimelle had taught me about clustering embellishments. The three clusters make a triangle around the photo.

I also added a bit of stamping to the corner. I didn't have any journaling. What am I gonna say, "I did a bang up job of taking and editing this photo! Isn't it pretty?!"? I just picked some random Citrus Twist word stamps and stamped them in a row with the arrow on top. Not rocket science!

So that's how I conceptualized and executed this layout. It was really a drawn out process because this is so new to me, but I am SUPER happy with how it turned out! The result has definitely encouraged me to keep at it and make some more 8.5x11 layouts. I'm also very pleased that I was able to create this with just things in my stash and didn't have to spend any extra money to make it happen.

Thanks for reading!