Happy Thursday! It's Jill here, with a project featuring two of my favorite techniques: building layers and creating accent lines.
Step 1. This project began with about a hundred heart-shaped scraps, which might have been tossed after I used my die-cut machine to create heart-patterned lace many layouts ago, but which I set aside for some unknown future purpose. Those hearts definitely found their purpose on this layout! I heaped the hearts in a pile next to my sewing machine and ran them one by one through the machine. In minutes, I had lovely little garlands. I set those aside and started working on the background.
Step 2. In playing with all of those scraps, creating a united whole from individual pieces, I got this idea in my head to create a deconstructed/reconstructed background using the B-side of a sheet of Farm Girl "Rose Trellis" patterned paper. I cut the paper into four wide horizontal strips, and then cut those strips into squares and rectangles of varying sizes. I then folded each piece lightly, turning up edges, adhered the pieces to the background, and sewed over them, resulting in a patchwork feel that added some variation and texture to the background. Sure, the lines are imperfect, but that's the point, given that the layout admits to my own imperfections.
Step 3. With the background done, I began to build the layers of the layout, pulling together papers from the Farm Girl collection and placing pop dots between layers to give each one a boost. Paper scraps and layers go hand-in-hand: with the exception of the background, every paper that makes up one of the layers is from my stash of scraps.
Step 4. The beauty of using pop dots between layers is that doing so creates additional space to add accents. I take an over-and-under approach, adding some accents over layers, some under (like the button line), and some in both areas (like the heart garlands). There's no need to thread buttons in a button line like the one featured here, since the button holes aren't visible.
Step 5. I added the journaling, measuring the area with a ruler before printing to ensure that I could still place a photo in the bottom right corner without obscuring the words.
Step 6. The finishing touch was to add a few splatters of spray ink. To prevent it from getting on the photo and journaling, I covered those areas with pieces of scrap paper and then let the ink drip over the exposed areas. While those spray ink bottles were open, I took a small paint brush and added some additional color here and there to the paper hearts.
That's it -- a layout comprised mainly of layers and lines!
If you have a layout featuring layers and/or lines that you'd like to share, please be sure to post it in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery. We'd all love to see it, I'm sure!