The color of 2025 is...

 Pantone has announced its color of the year for 2024!

Mocha Mousse!

Mocha Mousse is a versatile shade infused with inherent sophistication and earthy refinement.

FOOTBALL FREEBIES and SALE!

 It's time to party! The super bowl is almost here! Click the images to visit my store for the SALE price!

Do you have Super Bowl fever? If you're a football fan (college or NFL), play fantasy football, or are the adult of a little one who loves to play football, this collection was made just for you!

From word art to party banners, a marching band, a trophy, and even delicious party snacks, this kit has it all and a lot more!!! Just check out the customizable score board, jerseys, flags, and helmets!!! Just add numbers to the scoreboard or helmet, or your favorite player's name to a jersey or flag!

This full kit includes 25 total papers, 121 elements, 35 word arts, and 2 full alphas (lowercase, uppercase, numbers and punctuation/symbols) in both individual characters and alpha sheet format. There's also a bonus pack of 14 textured cardstock papers that are 12x12 inch, 300 dpi, JPG format.

The freebies are in my store HERE!

The color of 2024 is...

Pantone has announced its color of the year for 2024!

Peach Fuzz!

Peach Fuzz captures our desire to nurture ourselves and others. It's a velvety gentle peach tone whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body, and soul!

The color of 2023 is...

Pantone has announced its color of the year for 2023!

Viva Magenta!

Viva Magenta vibrates with vim and vigor. It is a shade rooted in nature descending from the red family and expressive of a new signal of strength. Viva Magenta is brave and fearless, and a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative.

The color of 2022 is...

Pantone has announced its color of the year for 2022! 

Very Peri! 

A New Pantone Color Whose Courageous Presence Encourages Personal Inventiveness and Creativity!

Country Wildflower Journaling Cards!

40 Country Wildflower Journaling Cards for Project Life, Planners, Scrapbooking, and more! 4x6 and 6x4 and 4x4 inch! Use digitally or print! On sale now HERE!

The color of 2021 is...

Pantone has announced its color of the year for 2021! It's a double duo of ultimate gray and illuminating yellow! 

PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray + PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating, two independent colors that highlight how different elements come together to support one another, best express the mood for Pantone Color of the Year 2021. 

Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, the union of Ultimate Gray and Illuminating Yellow is one of strength and positivity. It is a story of color that encapsulates deeper feelings of thoughtfulness with the promise of something sunny and friendly. A message of happiness supported by fortitude, the combination of Ultimate Gray and Illuminating Yellow is aspirational and gives us hope. We need to feel that everything is going to get brighter -- this is essential to the human spirit. 

As people look for ways to fortify themselves with energy, clarity, and hope to overcome the continuing uncertainty, spirited and emboldening shades satisfy our quest for vitality. Illuminating Yellow is a bright and cheerful yellow sparkling with vivacity, a warming yellow shade imbued with solar power. 

Ultimate Gray is emblematic of solid and dependable elements which are everlasting and provide a firm foundation. The colors of pebbles on the beach and natural elements whose weathered appearance highlights an ability to stand the test of time, Ultimate Gray quietly assures, encouraging feelings of composure, steadiness and resilience.

My ultimate illuminating kit SHINE will help you feel the brightness of the new year with the promise of so many good things to come!

A Year of Double Page Spreads: December

DPSs don't have to be complicated or full of photos and embellishments. I am a huge proponent of white space, and this is a gorgeous example of how even simple can be elegantly beautiful, and still look like the layouts belong together as one giant DPS!


image courtesy of Becky Higgins

A Year of Double Page Spreads: November

This has got to be one of my most favorite ways to create a DPS... the photo that spans both pages! It's a tricky technique because you want to make sure you aren't splitting the photo in a spot that cuts something important in half. It's a bit hard to tell where one layout begins and the other ends in this example (as it should be!) but the line is just to the right of the baby's right arm. This is such a cool way to make your DPS really seamless!


image courtesy of Kelly Hensen

A Year of Double Page Spreads: October

Another DPS trick is to have at least one element that moves your eye from one layout to the other. In the example below, the striping goes from one layout to the other, it draws your eye across the entire DPS. The title is also helpful here because it forces your brain to see both pages as one layout. While each layout looks great on its own, having connecting elements makes them shine. More importantly, connecting elements say these two pages belong to the same story.

A Year of Double Page Spreads: September

By repeating the same embellishments and motifs on both pages, you can telling the viewer these two pages belong to the same story. Even though the embellishments aren’t an exact repeat, the theme and motifs are. This repetition brings unity to the two pages without having to use the exact same layout for both pages. It's hard to miss the car motif here, the pictures are of cars, the embellishments are gears, there is racing stripe washi tape, etc. This one motif really pulls the two pages together.

A Year of Double Page Spreads: August

By having the same colors on both layouts, they naturally look like they belong together.  In the image below, navy blue is used as a faux frame and photo matte on both layouts.  Additionally, the main color of both layouts is aqua with navy as the second most prominent color.  Followed by hints of red, creamy white, and indigo.  Both pages have this color combination in about the same proportions. Thus, the two layouts really feel like they belong together.


image courtesy of scrapbookwithlynda

A Year of Double Page Spreads: July

Sometimes when creating a double page spread you can mirror the placement of the photos, titles, and embellishments from one layout onto the other layout. Look at the example below, there are three photos on each layout, each with green mattes, and there is a spot for embellishments. Don't you think it really ties the two pages together?

A Year of Double Page Spreads: June

By placing the two layouts side-by-side as you work, you can really get a feel for how they look together. This way of working on a DPS allows you to see how all the elements on both pages are interacting. Having the pages interact tells the viewer these two pages go together and that they should be viewed as one page. You can see this in the example below.  Rotating the paper so that the diagonal stripes create a chevron pattern creates an interaction between the pages and moves your eye between the pages. Cool! Did you notice the hand-written journaling? Be sure you are using your own handwriting on your layouts, it's important as part of your legacy. and it's so easy HERE!


image courtesy of scrapbookwithlynda

A Year of Double Page Spreads: May

Let's get technical... single page layouts can complement each other while not being true double-page spreads! What? That's right! If you want to make your album look seamless check out the two pages below, they are totally different outings but with the same color palette and embellishments and alphabets, and similar layouts! These two pages look like they belong together, and that's the point! It’s easy with the perfectly coordinating kits like THESE.


images courtesy of paperwishes

A Year of Double Page Spreads: April

This entire album is purple, teal, blue, and green. So it already goes together quite nicely, however pages that face each other need to tell the reader that they are part of the same story, not just another page in the album. The way I've done this here is by using the same teal alphabet stickers, and the same green photo mattes, they subtly tie these pages together in an already color-coordinated album.

A Year of Double Page Spreads: March

Double-page spreads don’t have to be mirror images of each other. Instead they should complement each other. Notice that with these pages the papers are oriented in two different ways, one layout has the yellow paper on the side, while the other layout has the yellow paper at the bottom. This creates an interesting contrast between the two pages while at the same time linking the pages by incorporating similar colors and animals.

A Year of Double Page Spreads: February

Besides matching papers, a great way to get your DPS's to transition together and flow smoothly from one layout to the other is through the embellishments used on each page. By using similar embellishments (in this case it's a bunch of cooking items) I’m able to further link the theme on the both pages. I also spread the title over both pages to be sure it's understood that these pages go together as a set.

A Year of Double Page Spreads: January

When you take a lot of photos (I took 25,034 last year alone) you tend to need to extend your layouts to more than one page... enter the double page spread (DPS)!

Basically its two layouts that coordinate through color and theme to create a unified effect, as opposed to two single layouts that stand alone. However, by treating facing pages in an album as one page (think of it as a 12x24 layout instead of just two 12x12s), you can create a large canvas to express the many aspects of your event. You can also add one larger eye-catching photo among the smaller photos for emphasis.



Of course, there are some tricks to DPSs that will help them look utterly amazing in your album, let's talk about one each month for the year of 2020.

First, if you have too many photos to fit on a single page, a DPS allows you to spread out a little. They also allow more room for journaling. Be sure you are using your own handwriting, it is SO important, and you can turn your handwriting into a font HERE!

The main element tying your pages together, besides the photos, should be the papers. The matching background papers create a common color scheme and instantly tie the pages together. Plus, if you like to have the facing pages in your scrapbook match, creating a double-page spread is the perfect solution. When facing pages match, the overall effect creates a continuity that is nice to look at, rather than the sometimes jarring effect very dissimilar pages can have. Most of my scrapbooks have a color palette that I stick to, so even pages that are not DPS's still look nice next to each other in the album.

Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you don't miss next month's tip for making gorgeous DPSs!

Color of 2020!

Pantone has announced its color of the year for 2020: Classic Blue!

A timeless and enduring blue hue, Classic Blue is elegant in its simplicity. It instills calm, confidence, and connection. Suggestive of the sky at dusk, the reassuring qualities of the thought-provoking Classic Blue highlights our desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era.

Imprinted in our psyches as a restful color, Classic Blue brings a sense of peace and tranquility to the human spirit, offering refuge. Aiding concentration and bringing laser like clarity, Classic Blue re-centers our thoughts. A reflective blue tone, Classic Blue fosters resilience.

As technology continues to race ahead of the human ability to process it all, it is easy to understand why we gravitate to colors that are honest and offer the promise of protection. Non-aggressive and easily relatable, the trusted Classic Blue lends itself to relaxed interaction. Associated with the return of another day, this universal favorite is comfortably embraced.

What do you think of it? Let me know in the comments below!