Whilst visiting the website for Echo Park / Carta Bella recently I stumbled across their free downloadable PDF project instructions. These projects are created by the Echo Park Design Team and each PDF is a complete guide that includes a photo of a finished project, a detailed supply list of the Echo Park/Carta Bella products used, and step-by-step instructions. I decided to put one of these projects to the test, and I can't recommend them enough.
The project I chose was designed for Carta Bella's "On The Farm" collection, but I decided to adapt it using the beautiful "It's Autumn" collection instead. I made a few small changes to the layout to suit the papers and embellishments I had.
I began by taking a sheet of white cardstock. After trimming it slightly, I adhered it to the B-side of the Multi Journaling Cards paper, creating a narrow border around the outside.
Using white thread, I machine-stitched a straight line around the inside edge of the white cardstock.
Towards the top of the layout I layered pieces of the Pumpkin to Talk About, Color of Fall Leaves and Fall Festivities papers. On top of the layered papers I added 3 photos which had been matted with white cardstock. I added 3D foam under the photos to add some dimension.
Beneath the layers of paper and photos, I added the title. The words were cut using my Silhouette machine with papers from the collection. To make the letters in the word 'Autumn' stand out, I created white mats for each one before sticking them to the page.
Journaling was printed onto white cardstock and after punching the left edge with a notebook border punch, the journaling block was tucked beneath the title.
I embellished the layout with stickers from the Element Stickers sheet and a few enamel dots.
Today I have a final layout using Vicki Boutin's Cut & Paste collection.
A beautiful piece of patterned paper can be the perfect starting point for a scrapbook layout, but what if you're torn between two gorgeous papers? I recently faced this dilemma with Paper #4 and Paper #6 from the collection. For some time, I thought each of these papers would make a good base on its own. But in the end I used both on one layout.
I started by trimming down Paper #6 just a bit, then mounted it onto a sheet of black cardstock to create a narrow black border.
Next, I took Paper #4 and carefully cut out all the pink squares. To make sure they really stood out from the background, I used a black fine-liner pen to draw a thin line just inside the edge of each square. This prevented the squares from blending into the background when I arranged and stuck them in rows across the top section of the layout.
I matted my 6x4-inch photo onto black cardstock to match the layout's border and placed it on the left side. For the title, I dug into my stash and found some older die-cut words from Cocoa Vanilla Studio. I arranged these words to hug the photo.
With the photo in place, I turned my attention to the right side of the layout, where I created an embellishment cluster using die cuts from the Ephemera Icons pack.
The pack included a cute dog die cut, which I absolutely had to use. I added it into the cluster, then added a puffy word sticker from a sheet of Thickers.
Right behind the embellishment cluster, I tucked in two tags that I cut from Paper #8. I threaded some black and white baker's twine through them, and they're now the perfect spot for some journaling—once I find the right words.
