5 Products=One Layout

When I first started scrapping, I occasionally participated in a 3 product challenge host by the amazingly talented Robyn Werlich. Every layout I made for that challenge became my new favorite because it forced me to focus on just a few supplies. Because I wasn't worried about what else to put on my page, I think I enjoyed the process that much more.

Last week's blogging was about looking back at how we've changed as scrappers, and it got me thinking about that challenge. I wondered how I would do with it now that my style has changed to include more texture. I've also been going back through old blog posts, labeling them to help make the blog more usable and I saw a similar challenge from Stephanie and Nicol. I thought it would be fun to revisit it, with one extra product.

Without further ado, I challenge you to make a layout using the following 5 products and the following 5 products only (you can use cardstock as a base, and of course pen or computer for journaling, but see if you can stick to the 5 products listed otherwise.):

1 sheet of patterned paper (Studio Calico would be wonderful!)
letter stickers
metal
paint
and embroidery floss or baker's twine

I've asked a few Studio Calico subscribers and DT members to join me for the moral support, and I'd love to have you play along too. I'll start a thread in the Challenges Forum for you to link to when you are finished. You have until Saturday to complete your layout.

Here's kathyb's layout. I have always loved her layouts because she tells such good stories in her journaling. I think her family is lucky to have her scrapping their memories so beautifully! I love how she took the exact same list as I did and yet made a completely different layout about her son's love of the name Maurice. I asked Kathy to write up a paragraph of the story behind the page, that's something I noticed you guys want to hear when I was reading throught the suggestions made in Maggie's post. So here's what Kathy said about the experience of creating for the challenge:

This page is about my 3 year old and how he ended up calling animals and then crabs “Maurice”. I took the photograph on holiday earlier this year and showed it to him the other day. His reply to my questions made me smile and so I wanted to record it.

Initially I thought it would be easy to work with just five products as I’m a minimalist scrapper, and love lots of white space. Once I started it was harder than I expected. “Metal” was the most difficult item to include as it’s not something I’m fond of.

The key was choosing a double sided paper that had a decorative strip ( studio calico “thread love”) so I had lots of patterns to play with yet they were all from the one sheet of paper, in keeping with the rules.

I cut some of the circles out of the paper using a craft knife, and then used the holes as a stencil for the white paint “bubbles” - We’d found the crabs in the sea the day the older two were snorkelling. I drew lines round the outside for definition.

I had a lot of journaling I wanted to include, which in hindsight I would have preferred to position differently as it has made the page feel more cluttered than I would have liked. Overall I’m pleased with it and enjoyed participating in the challenge.

Here's my take on the challenge and an explanation on how I chose what I did for the challenge:

The first thing I chose was the metal pin from Maya Road. I'd gotten them in the Documentary kit, but somehow (might have to do with my messy scrap area) they got misplaced and I didn't find them until after all my projects were done, while I was cleaning up… I immediately stuck them into my bulliten board and made a mental note to use them soon. I thought it was funny the the one thing I had to use was the one thing Kathy didn't like using. I usually don't gravitate toward metals either Kathy :).

I knew I wanted to use paints because of a post by Missy on the message boards about the Claudine Hellmuth gel medium and paints. It got me itching to pull out the paint. The embroidery floss idea came from this page by VanessaMeryl I saw while perusing her gallery the other day. And the other two products, letter stickers and patterned paper, well I just needed two more products!

And a little about my process:

I started with the pin through the picture, knowing it wouldn't be the focus of the layout, but that it would still add a lot of texture because of how it bends the picture just a bit. I then cut out a rectangular frame from the SC paper, but in moving it around I wasn't thrilled with the look. I pushed it aside and it ended up hanging off the edge like you see in the right side frame. I loved how that looked, so I cut the frame up into three separate ones and added the white paint. Normally I love lots of color, but i wanted to keep this page a bit softer because of the subject matter. Originally I was going to use the letter stickers as a mask, but things went horribly wrong–think paint seeping under the stickers, misplaced stickers that because some were on the white paint and others on the kraft, made it hard to read the title, and a bit more paint streaking onto the picture than I'd planned–I scrapped the whole page started over again. But since I already had a plan, it went really fast. I then added the title, thinking the green Basic Grey letters would carry the green top from the pin over in nice line. I finally added the stitched lines to the boxes, which looking at them now, they really remind me of pages in a book, but that wasn't where I was going from, I just thought it added a cool design element and some texture. It turned out to be a great place to journal in as well.

Having to use 5 specific products wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, it actually gave me more room to play than I normally allow myself, I think it's something I'll be trying a lot more of in the future.

P.S. I really am smiling in that picture!

All week, I'll be sharing more pages inspired by the challenge with you, and from the ones I've already seen, I can tell you, they are all amazing. So please, join me in this 5 product challenge!