Stitches, Stamps and Buttons

Ever get that overwhelmed feeling when you've bought a bunch of coordinated patterned paper because it was SO CUTE, but then when you get home, you just don't know how to put it all together to make it work? That's the way this DT Kit was for me. Terrific colors with bold, graphic prints that you just know look great together, but how do you get that LOOK? For me, I go back to my sewing experience....many of the designs by American Crafts seem to be right out of a fabric store. For this two-page layout, I thought about how I would put the papers together if they were fabrics for a quilt. Not too many strips with the white background, large patterns set in between smaller prints, all on a solid background. Then I added my "applique", cutting flowers from the patterned paper and giving them stitched stems and button root bulbs.

My original plan was to put the title on a 2"x24" plain brown strip at the bottom of the layout. You'll see that I used the entire package of buttons from the DT kit in the solid brown strip that I had planned to use for my LONG title. (You can find the buttons pre-packaged on the front counter basket at Scrapbooks-Plus.) I had to do something with that title block because I realized after the fact that my title - My Brown-Eyed Girl - would overwhelm the layout (particularly if I used orange letters for the whole thing!) . So I changed my plan. I used the American Crafts Thickers just for "GIRL". The rest is stamped with Provo Crafts and Heidi Swapp stamps to provide a more subdued look. The buttons were used to mask my "mistake", creatively covering my boo-boo. Considering I had no clue where I was taking this design when I started, I was quite happy with the result.