Insider Tips...

Do you always print out your photos before you begin a layout? To be honest, sometimes I don't. Probably about 30% of the time, I start with the design (laying out the papers & embellishments). Then I like to figure out where and how the photos would fit best into my design. In the layout above, I knew I wanted to use that SC text paper, but I also knew that with my clean style that I couldn't have it be too overwhelming. That's where the torn paper came in giving just a "peek" of the text paper. Those Sassafrass hot air balloons were just begging to be handcut and I had this idea for a layout as soon as I saw them.

Now, I'm definitely a jump right in & start cutting kind of girl. I don't like to hem haw around too much about where things will go or panic about only having one sheet of a certain paper. I know that makes a lot of scrapbookers uncomfortable, but I always figure I'll just try and make it work one way or another. :) After I cut those balloons out and used pop dots to adhere them and added some other details to the layout, I was ready to add the photos. Most of the time if I have 3 photos I want to use, I will print them out in a smaller wallet size. This time I wanted to balance out the balloons and knew that regular rectangular photos weren't going to work here. That's when I decided to make the photos into circles. I think it adds a neat look to this layout and lends something that regular photos wouldn't have. After I adhered the circular photos, I finished it off with little bits of the text paper to balance the two sides.

If you always start scrapping with photos already printed and in hand, I totally recommend switching it up from time to time and starting with the design first. You might be surprised what you come up with! If you give it a try, be sure to link here so I can see! It's almost the weekend...yay! :)