Hello there, Stefanie here giving you a glimpse into my scrapping process. People are always quite amazed when they hear that I finish a layout in under 30 minutes. I have taken a few classes and now know what I like and what makes a layout look like I created it.

Nothing blesses me more than when I get a comment on a layout that features obscure family members, but folk still recognise that it is one of mine, even without the normal familiar faces beaming back at them. I have found my style and it makes me happy. Often what takes the longest time in deciding what you want to do and use, the more I limit my choices, the faster my process goes. I know that I will use more than one photo and that the photos will have a white stroke and shadowing.

I started with A Happy Family kit collab by Digital Scrapbook Ingredients and Meghan Mullens.  I was drawn to a happy floral print and a fabulous woodgrain for the background. I knew that I had the perfect photos from the day before.

I start with the photos on the background and then add my shadows as I go along. I decided to feature the photo of my sister-in-law and my daughter as the focal photo, making that one larger and then have the photo of the scones and my daughter as secondary detail shots. I love that some of the home is visible in the background as that provides context and we will remember the furniture and its arrangement even after years and changes. My Mom passed away recently and I have come to treasure the photos I have of her home, messy and lived in. The mugs and platters she used have been passed on to other family members and given to charity, I only kept some very special sentimental (to me) items.

I love layering papers at the top left of my layout, this introduces the viewer’s eye into the page, usually the first cluster is top right and either home for the title or the date. I will always add a stripe paper into the paper layers if there is one. I love striped papers as they usually contain all of the colours within the kit and make everything pull together beautifully. I added a journal card and wordart. The wordart especially resonated with me, making an occasion of tea, stopping everything else and giving everyone one on one quality time is the way I feel love and express love. At this stage the bones of the layout are done and I get to play with my creative side, layering and adding goodies to make things visually grounded, dimensional and have clusters that move the eye throughout the layout.

I work from the background up, adding brushes and splatters into the foundation. The tag and date with their small floral cluster and a stringy bit to add that dimension and pop of red. The doilies are perfect for the theme and also add a surprising new shape into the design. The floral pattern at the bottom is looking a little flat and has too much visual weight so I layered another journal card over it, the extra light background of that, lifts the heaviness. Stitching the top paper layers together adds yet another visual attachment and textural element. My layouts are usually characterised by aligned photos, diagonal draw from the top left to bottom right created by either brushes or scatters or both. I used the colour picker to lift the navy blue from my daughter’s jersey for my journaling and right aligned it into the gap between the date cluster and the first photo. I love pea fonts from Kevin and Amanda or Darcy Baldwin’s handwritten fonts for the personal and handmade touch they add.

The layout is done and I am happy with it. I save and resize for web in two different sizes and put it into my folder to get it printed later this month. I hope that you have enjoyed the glimpse into my process and trust that you will take the time to decide what you like, where you can make changes and save time and get those layouts done.