My Creative Scrapbook: Step by Step Layout Tutorial by Guest Designer Stacia Brandt

Guest Designer Stacia Brandt is featuring our December Creative Kit today with a step by step layout tutorial!

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I was able to get 4 layouts out of the Creative Kit this month and thought I would share a step-by-step tutorial of how I put it together. To start off, here is the finished layout.

As you can see, it is a fairly clean and simple layout. The majority of goodies are from the kit, so you can easily put this one together yourself. I only added some pen, some ink, pop dots and some pearl pen dots for a it of finishing. I also added the solid red and solid white cardstock as a background for this page.

So, lets' get started, First I took the white cardstock and cut it down to about 6x8 (give or take).

And then I laid my photos down on top of it to see where I wanted to place things. My photos are about 3in long by 2in wide. So I wanted to space them to be off the white....I moved the white paper over to about 1 inch from the right side and centered it from top to bottom.

Step 2. I outlined the white paper with some doodling and cut the red paper with the words down to be about 2 1/2 by 10. I left a little more space at the top of the paper strip when I put the photos on it, than I did at the bottom. I knew I was going to top it off with something, so I wanted it even on the two sides and the bottom when centering my photos on the strip. I also outlined/doodled around the red printed paper.

In this step, I placed two other patterned paper strips down next to my photo strip ... I made one smaller than the photo strip, and one slightly larger and cut them in banner shapes. I also outlined those with some doodling. (at this point, they are not glued down....this photo just shows the sizing I used.) In step 4, I glued the larger of the two strips about 1/2 inch in from the right side of the white paper. This one is almost the exact length as the 12 inch cardstock.

In Step 5, I took the smaller strip and spaced it about an inch to the left of the first banner strip...then glued it down as well.

Step 6.... Glue down your photo strip on top of the two banner pieces (centering)

I then turned the page on its side to do my title placement. I first put the white thickers down to form the word gifts, working from right to left and spelling the word backward. I placed the tag on the layout just for spacing. Then I started on the left side of the white cardstock and formed the word Opening. Adhere the letters once they are spaced as you like them. I left space in the middle to form the rest of my title with the mini letters in the kit. (step 8 below)

Step 9 - I wrote my journaling on the tag and inked the edges before gluing it into place. The end of it just lays up against the paper strip so you can see the red inking on that end of the tag

The bow in step 10 is not through the tag hole....I wanted the tag to lay flat and the bow to form properly, so I used some Zip Dry to adhere a pre-tied bow from the ribbon in the kit. I simply glued it down where the hole in the tag is.

Step 11 and 12 - I used the adorable Penguin piece, and as seen in the step 11 photo, I used pop dots to give it dimension and placed it above the photos. (Step 12)

Grab the little presents and pop dot them in the bottom right of the layout near your bottom photo. (step 13)

Then, I adhered a 1 inch strip of patterned paper to the left side of the layout. I outlined it to give it some definition...and also because I love to doodle!

I made a smaller banner with one of the other patterned paper and outlined that one as well. I chose the "all I want for Christmas" stack of presents for the bottom left area of the layout. I put those on with pop dots as well....Next to doodling, I love dimension as well!! The banner is just slightly larger than the sticker.

And last, Step 16....Add the finishing touches.

Added some faux stitching in white pen next to the white cardstock. I also added some pearl pen dots for a little bit of visual interest. In addition, I tossed a few of the cardstock snowflakes among my embellishment clusters for a little pop of color against the red.

And, once again, the finished product!!!

There you have it!!! Step by step how I created this cute layout! I hope you loved it and would love to see your "lifted" layout!!!

Thanks for joining me today,

Stacia

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You can see more of Stacia's beautiful work in our Design Team Gallery!

Here's the December Creative Kit: