shabby May layout

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From the May Design Team kit put together by our first Designer of the Month Erin Saravia, I selected the MME 29th Street red blossom paper with its persimmon reverse side for a fun shabby layout. For a photo mat, I used a corner of the Creative Imaginations red diecut notebook paper that mimics the brick pattern in the photo, then layered under that a cardstock piece bordered with the new Fiskars Threading Water punch.


A narrow scalloped cardstock strip on the left side provides some vertical balance. On the strip is an American Crafts ribbon with a dovetail grain that proved my guide to hand-sew a running stitch in red down the middle for more texture and color repetition. Flowers are Making Memories, Prima and Heidi Swapp. Brads are American Crafts. The numbered tab pieces are cut from a MME diecut, while another MME diecut provides the decorative journaling block.

The cardstock-weight MME 29th St paper stands up well to the sanding, folding and tearing I used to distress it, along with some dry-brush off-white acrylic paint. Folding over the upper corner and tearing in a bit on the left side gave the glimpse of its persimmon reverse side that allowed me to hype up the color combo with some orangey flowers. Small gold metal stars also give a little shine and set off the numbered tabs.


You may notice that the photo caption reads "autumn '08" -- don't worry, I fixed that with just another swipe of paint, writing the correct year '07 over the dry paint patch. And needing some photo corners to accent both the front and back colors of the 29th Street paper, I simply punched them from under the photo mats.

This is the first in our Designer of the Month series, which will continue for the rest of the year at Scrapbooks Plus. Design Team member Erin Saravia put together the DT kit this month and has also designed a project which will be offered as a kit for sale in the store while supplies last. The kit will contain all the materials and instructions for completing the project. Both the project kits and the new Design Team works will be on display in the classroom starting May 15th.
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