Summer Fun

Hey everyone, it’s Deborrah (DivaMom96) here today to talk about my favorite season – summer!  That wonderful, hot, glorious season when outside is the place to be!  Today I’m going to highlight some fun, seasonal summer kits I found in the store and, of course, share a couple of layouts. 

I started by clicking on the “Summer” theme circle highlighted on the main store page and see what I could find. You’ll find it here.

There are so many great summer kits in our store! I had a blast browsing through the pages, opening some, marking others. I thought it might be fun to try creating layouts using different styles of kits: artsy and traditional.  I would have to colors that would work together, too. So after a while, I selected the following kits:

For my artsy kits, I chose Samar, by Pixel Giraffe Designs, High Tide, by Rachel Jefferies and Lynn Grieveson, and Fresh Scrapbooking Kit, by Lynn Grieveson.  All have a great blue and orange vibe going with lots of artsy brushes and transfers to play with. And I love how all three have papers that would easily mix and match.

The traditional kits were tough – so many great designs! I finally settled on:

Golden Lake Days by ninigoesdigi caught my eye immediately. I love the papers and elements in this kit and the colors were perfect for working with the artsy kits. To complement this, I selected La Dolce Vita Summer by Rachel Etrog. Look how beautifully all the colors go together. Rachel’s kit has some great summer Italian elements that will be perfect for my layout ideas.

The Artsy Layout

For my first layout, I went artsy!  I chose one of the templates from the High Tide collection and began to move things around.  I adore templates!  I would guess that 90% of my layouts start with a template.  The end result might be nothing like the original template, but it gives me a starting design and structure. Design isn’t something I’m confident with so I really like having a starting point from which I can then diverge. Compare the original template against my layout. You’ll see that there is some similarity, but things have been changed to make it my own.

I decided that I loved the framed photo space in the template as well as the blue brushwork idea. I went searching and found that fabulous “mountainside” brushwork!  It just says summer to me and I can imagine being on a seaside town in Italy when I look at it.  There are some wonderful mixed media pieces in the High Tide collection!

For the elements, I chose pieces from the two traditional kits and placed them strategically around the layout to highlight both the photo and the message. My sister and I tend to indulge on our vacations together, so that cocktail glass was a great find; and aren’t those stamps around the journaling great?! I love that font! But, the finishing piece for me ended up being the paper.  I had originally selected a plain, light apricot color for the background and wanted to see what a light blue color would look like.  I randomly chose the blue paper from the High Tide kit and WOW!  It made the whole layout for me! I love happy accidents.

The Traditional Layout

This layout was a lot of fun! I wanted to highlight a summer excursion that my son and I had taken and the two traditional kits were the perfect starting point. I chose some simple elements (leaves, patterned papers and word art) and created a three-photo layout. From there, I added some artsy stamps from Lynn Grieveson’s Fresh and PGD Samar collection. There are some amazing transfers and paints in both of those! My final touch was that “fun, fun, fun” overlay in the Samar collection. It just pulled the whole layout together.

Your turn!

I would love to see how you mix and match kits to create your fun, summer layouts. I challenge you to choose some in your stash, or go shopping in the store, and then create some layouts. Step outside your box and really go to town. Post your layouts and then tag me @divamom96 in the gallery when you post them. I can’t wait to see what you create!

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Deborrah / DivaMom96

I hail from Florida – yes, a true Florida native (we DO exist!).  I moved to Chicago after college to pursue a career in opera, and lived in many different mid-western states before returning to Florida in 2013.  Both of my sons were born in the Mid West, so they are perfectly happy here on the West Coast of Florida, since that’s where all the mid-westerners come.  I met my second husband here and life just couldn’t be better.

I’ve been scrapbooking since 2003, soon after my second son was born.  I loved the feel of paper, fabrics and all the different textures.  I loved taking photos to put in my pages and thus was born a love of photography.  I also make cards – there is nothing like die cutting and inking.  I pretty much love all paper crafts.  But there’s always so much STUFF everywhere!  I discovered digital scrapbooking in 2015 and have never looked back.

I’m not sure I have a style.  I go through different phases – one month I’m into artsy, layered pages and the next it’s all about white space.  I love color and texture and strive to add it to my pages.  I’m inspired by other scrapbookers.  When a layout catches my eye, I try to figure out why it works and why I love it.  I analyze and study.

I’m also a Photoshop girl.  I started using it to fix photos so when I discovered digital scrapbooking, it was a seamless transition.  I’m always fiddling in it, trying to alter things, change colors, make things different.  And it’s perfect for my love of photography.

If I had one piece of advice for new scrapbookers it would be don’t be afraid to ask questions!  All of us were there at one time or another.  I love asking questions and even if I don’t get the answer I want, it inspires me to look further.  Enjoy the process; that’s what matters.