Friday, March 9, 2012

4 Squares, 3 Lines

I visited the website of a 2 Peas Garden Girl, Shimelle, for the first time a couple of days ago, and found this really simple page starter in her post, Scrapbook Starting Points. "Hmmm...cute concept," I thought and filed it in the back of my brain. Later that day, with nothing in particular to scrapbook and no particular products in mind to use, I retrieved the thought and said, "Why not?!"

The challenge was to use 4 squares of patterned paper, and 3 lines of ribbon or trim. I pulled out a photo that didn't mean a whole, whole lot (it wasn't one of my kids or a particularly memorable vacation) and dug out the only 6x6 paper pad I owned (a prize from a few months ago) and went to work. And it WORKED! Of course I had to change things up a bit: I did lay out the four squares of paper, but made a little three piece banner hung vertically to satisfy the three lines concept. Yes, banners are still an obsession of mine...sigh.


I liked the finished page so much that I transferred the concept to a photo that actually DID mean something, found four papers, old and new, cut them into 6x6 squares, and did it all over again. This time I used the original idea of three horizontal lines, but also included a 3-piece vertical banner to hide some of the very busy paper in the upper right quadrant. The equation for this page is 4+3+3=done!


What is really amazing is that both of these pages were completely in less than 24 hours. And for a slow scrapper like myself, that's quite an accomplishment. The most time-consuming task was shirring the ribbon! Shimelle's starting point certainly shaved off a significant portion of time for me. Getting started IS the hardest part. :)

Updated layout #2:

11 comments:

Erica said...

I'm working on one too. I love the concept. Both of yours came out great!

Mary Jo said...

Both pages are fabulous!!
I printed up that Starting Point, but wasn't sure if I wanted to use it.
Seeing your layouts, now I know I do! :)

Anonymous said...

these turned out great!

Pam W. said...

Great job. Both layouts are beautiful.

Tanya Ham said...

This is so great! :) I also really like your Right Now ... something I may have to start doing myself. Would be interesting to look back ...

New Follower!! :)

Danielle said...

Lovely pages-like how you turned the sketch to have your strips at the top.

Lorna said...

I really love both these pages. I love the pink and aqua - a fav colour combo of mine. I love your banners too - who doesnt love bannners. Amazing that they come from the same sketch. Great work!

Christina Collins said...

Gorgeous work! I especially love the second one. So feminine!

Debbie P said...

Hello, came over from Shimelle's. I love both of your layouts. They are gorgeous!

Heidi said...

Nicely done! Your pages look great.

Suzanne said...

Love your pages! They came out great!