After emailing with Liz about post ideas, I decided that I would walk you through my process for creating a layout. Sometimes, I am inspired by products that I buy and create a layout with it, but usually, I am inspired by a story. There is usually a story that I want to tell that compels me to create a layout. I start with the story in mind and that is almost inseparable from the photos (sometimes I might need to search for photos to help tell the store, but usually, I have the photos in mind along with the story).

I found this photo a couple of weeks ago while going through vacation photos to scrap. I LOVED it and knew that it needed to tell a different story separate from the vacation.

After some editing, I added it to a 12×12 blank layout. I knew I had some supplies from this month’s THE DIGI FILES so I went to that folder and brought in the papers that I thought might work.

I love using kraft paper and use it all the time, because of the brown tones in the photo, I knew I would use that as one of my papers:

Next, I turned the papers layers off and on to see what papers I might want to use:

I decided that I really liked the look of the red and it is a complementary color for all of the green in the photo. I decided to make my favorite shape that I like to use on layouts as a clipping mask for the kraft paper:

That helps tone down the layout quite a bit and make it less busy, so the focus is back on the photo.

The next thing I usually do is bring in my embellishments. I grab a few things I like and sometimes recolor and piece together things to create what I want (I love that about digital)! For this layout, I used the ‘big boy’ and ‘big girl’ tags and layered them on top of the heart. I recolored the ribbon on the heart from blue to green and then erased parts of the paper tags so they looked like they were layered under the button and ribbon:

Almost all of my layouts have stitching of some sort on them, I LOVE stitching!!

Then, I added my title and decided to make it look like a sticker by rasterizing the text and then adding a stroke.

I really liked the contrast that the black and white added, but I knew I needed something green on the upper left of the layout to help create a bit of a visual triangle and give the eye a starting point. I recolored the red ribbon from orange and added this element:

Now, to add the journaling and the date:

I usually add drop-shadows as a last step, after everything is on the layout, but as you can see, for this layout (because I knew I would be sharing screenshots with you) I added them as I went. I am happy with the way this layout turned out, but most importantly, I preserved a very important memory that I can also use right now to help convince my son that he needs to be a good example! 🙂

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Thank you for guest blogging Steph!

About Steph
Steph is the co-founder/owner of THE DAILY DIGI which gives you back your time to create memories! We bring you the best in digital scrapbooking on a daily basis, so you don’t have to spend time searching for it! We are an ad-free, affiliate-free site, so we are able to share our honest opinions with you about quality products, photo printers, programs, resources, and more! Each month we bring you the BEST DEAL in DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING by introducing our readers to quality digital designers through THE DIGI FILES, a collection of several products that retail for over $5 EACH for only $5 (that is over $35 of product for $5). The designers are chosen based on their quality products, they do not pay to contribute. THE DAILY DIGI is also leading the industry with the first dynamic informational based scrapbooking iPhone App!!

You can connect with Steph at the following places:
the daily digi | twitter | facebook
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the daily digi giveaway
I am sponsoring a $5 gift certificate giveaway to the daily digi shop. To enter for your chance to win simply leave a comment below. You have until Saturday, May 1st at 9:00 pm (PST) to enter. You can get an extra chance to win if you tweet/facebook/blog this. Be sure to come back and post links to your tweet/facebook/or blog as a new comment entry for EACH thing you do. ONE winner will be drawn at random and announced when I return from vacation, after May 3rd.