Monday, November 17, 2008

Get creative with your matching embellishments!

Do you ever have find yourself wanting to use embellishments that go with a particular paper line, but not sure how to make them fit into your page design? Don't be afraid to modify or customize those journaling cards, chipboard pieces, transparencies and other coordinating embellishments to fit your needs!

For my page "the little things" featuring the gorgeous Fancy Pants Daily Grind line, I really wanted to take advantage of the great variety of coordinated embellishments available in the line! But I customized some of the items to make them work better with my overall design plan.



The "little things" quote on the strips paper was a perfect fit for the page, and even gave me the inspiration for my title.



But the wavy shape of it - while very cool - didn't fit my plan for the overall page design. Problem solved: I cut out the quote strip, following the "wave" shape, and then cut it apart word by word to adhere onto the large circle highlighting the focal point photo. Not only does it work better with the page design, but it also ties into the other journaling on the page, which I did with journaling strips.

Next, I turned to the great journaling cards sheet.



How cool is it to get these TWELVE great journaling cards for the same price as a piece of paper?? And like all the paper in this line, the sheet is double-sided and has a great pattern on the back, too! I loved the "these are the moments" card and it was perfect, as-is, to tuck under the corner of my main paper/photo block. But I wanted to give it a little bit more "oomph", and at the same time, add some interest and dimension to the page. So I found that cute little chipboard circle with the heart among the load of chipboard embellies included in the Daily Grind Chipboard Shapes pack:



I placed it over the circle "flower" on the card and let it hang off the edge a bit - it looks like it was made to go there!

Finally, I really liked the card on the journaling sheet with the brackets and the combined dots and grid pattern, and wanted to incorporate it into my title. But rather than use it as-is, I used my circle cutter to cut a circle shape from it, and layered it behind the paper block and title work. I think this provided a better balance to the other circles on the page, and kept the top of the design from feeling too "heavy".

So don't be afraid to get creative with those coordinated embellishments! Use them however you see fit!

- Debbie

2 comments:

Kary said...

Okay, you just blew my socks off with this tutorial and your LO!!

Vel said...

Neat ideas...thanks for the inspiration!