By Ashley Horton, Guest Designer
I am so excited to share my first post with you today, as
the Guest Designer for October Afternoon during the month of January! I was sent a ton of Farm Girl and Midway goodies and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw everything that was packed into that box!! My first thought was,
"where to start??!!" But it didn't take long to get the creative juices
flowing.
I decided to start out, by using some of the Farm Girl collection. It is adorable and I love the mix of images and the different patterned papers included in this line. When I saw it, I thought of a photo I wanted to
use to create a layout, but honestly, the photo was not that great. So my challenge was using a bad photo, but still wanting to tell the story behind it.
I decided to "go big" with my title, embellishments and mix of products on this layout, to take some of the focus off of the bad photo but still get my story scrapped. The photo is dark in some places, over-exposed in others and also has some bad shadows. But, I think using the "go big" approach gives your eye a chance to focus on all of the fun elements on the page, rather than the photo.
I really love the range of products that October Afternoon includes in each one of their collections...Buttons, Chipboard pieces, Stickers, Brads, Tin Pins, Miscellany Packs, Sprinklers, Washi Tape...and they are all coordinated perfectly. It takes so much of the guess work out of putting your layouts together.
I mixed together a lot of the different elements
on this layout to create dimension and interest on my page. I always love
to add pop dots under the OA stickers, just to get that pop off the page
look. I also mixed in some of the buttons and brads to create a scattered effect near the journaling, embellishment cluster, and title work. This fun mix of product use moves your eye around the page, without lingering on the photo for too long.
Now that I've shared an idea for using bad photos, what about when you have no photos? Say for instance, if you are creating a December Daily, a mini album for an upcoming trip, or creating an album to give someone as a gift. This can be a lot of fun, but a little intimidating. I have a solution to this problem...OA's Here & Now Chapter books! These books
are great for creating a pre-made mini album to use for future photos. The blank chipboard cover and back are perfect for decorating and the included pages are perfect for pre-embellishing.
We are a Home School family and plan to plant and grow a garden this year. I thought it would be great to transform the Farm Girl Here &
Now Chapter Book into a little journal for our First Grader to document the growth of our Garden. I have to admit, I had a lot of fun decorating the
front cover of the book. I used my craft knife to cut out the word
"grow" that is included on the front cover and then I backed each letter with a different patterned paper from the 8x8 paper pad.
Then I got started on the inside of my album. The inside pages will be perfect for documenting the growth of our plants and for adding photos of the garden. I used my Cameo to make a few negative cut titles that I added into the album.
I also had a little bit of fun with the buttons and added them to the folder tabs on each of the divider pages. I chose to do a color coded
look and matched the buttons to the color of the divider tab.
I added in some of the cute journaling cards for my daughter to take notes and embellished a few of the pages, leaving room for her to add photos. The Rubber Stamps included with this collection are adorable and they stamp really great images! I decided to try out the cute little lamb on this page and it turned out perfectly.
The rest of the book was finished out, using a mix of Tin Pins, Stamps, Chipboard pieces, stickers, stitching, and brads. And the great thing about this album is that we can add in more pages as we go if we need them. I love having the binder hooks with this album because they offer so much room for multiple pages and adding a lot of the cute embellishments
to your pages.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my post for today and hopefully found some ideas for creating with bad photos or no photos. Make sure you join me next Friday as I share some more projects using the Farm Girl and Midway collections.
See you then!
This is a great mini, lots of ideas! thank you so much for sharing all the details of this one, love the OA farm girl collection!
Posted by: Rose Ann Deighan | January 15, 2013 at 02:32 PM
So adorable!
Posted by: Keshet | January 13, 2013 at 08:22 PM
Both projects are fabulous, Ashley! Love the sweet Farm Girl layout.
Posted by: Cynthia O. | January 12, 2013 at 11:38 AM
You did beautiful work with this collection! Love the distressed/torn edges.
Posted by: Sheila | January 12, 2013 at 10:13 AM
lovely and beautiful and certainly very inspirational :) great job Ashley! :)
Posted by: Lucia Barabas | January 12, 2013 at 10:09 AM
Beautiful work on the LO and the album! I am really impressed :)
Posted by: Renee VanEpps | January 12, 2013 at 09:29 AM
This is too cute!
Posted by: Jean A Marmo | January 12, 2013 at 08:49 AM
Love the garden journal and the layout is so pretty. TFS pammejo1@yahoo.com
Posted by: Pam Bray | January 12, 2013 at 08:05 AM
Your garden journal is so cute. I like how you added pages and they aren't all matchy-matchy. So interesting.
Thanks for sharing and inspiring! :)
Posted by: auntie em | January 12, 2013 at 06:30 AM
I absolutely love your torn paper layering! Wonderful layout!
Posted by: Sara Andrews | January 12, 2013 at 05:49 AM
Such awesome work, Ashley!!!
Posted by: soapHOUSEmama | January 11, 2013 at 08:50 PM
I love your garden journal! I have a veggie garden every year and always plan to keep a journal of what we do with it (and maybe discover when those dratted stinkbugs start to show up and eat everything so I can thwart them!). This one is really cute. I love the idea of making seed packets for pockets too, that would be a great little addition!
Posted by: Caryn S. (Scrapnsing) | January 11, 2013 at 04:20 PM
Love your layout and the mini! - and your thoughts about scrapping the bad or not-too-good photos ;)
Posted by: Jette Knudsen | January 11, 2013 at 08:38 AM
Your LO is wonderful! I feel for you. I often look at how my pictures came out and wish I'd taken more to get a better shot. I like how you used the arrow to point out the black piggy! Very clever idea!
Posted by: Ruth G | January 11, 2013 at 07:57 AM
Awesome LO Ashley and you really transformed that Farm girl mini!! Great job!
Posted by: Andrea Kuenzel | January 11, 2013 at 07:49 AM
Cute Cute stuff Ashley!!!! Love it and that layout is one of my favs!! Hugs, Katrina
Posted by: Katrina | January 11, 2013 at 07:46 AM
Ashley, love the layout. Farm Girl is such a cute collection.. Your mini is wonderful as is all those little bits and bobs you added.. Love the word cards like plant and harvest. You will have to share how you did the harvest one.
Posted by: Sherry Eckblad | January 11, 2013 at 06:55 AM