EPIC! That describes my trip to the Pacific Northwest (PNW). I kept saying that word over and over as I was describing my trip to my friends and family. I thought, "What better way to do a summary layout for the beginning of my album than to start with EPIC!"
So this idea was born. Big EPIC letters, a summary of where I went and a collage of my favorite pictures.
I decided that since I couldn't decide on a main picture on the left-hand side, I would use a bunch of my favorites in a collage. I printed out a bunch of 3x4 pictures with white borders and just started laying them down and moving them around. I didn't spend too much time on this. Just though to get the ones I wanted and make sure what was showing was important.
Left page:
I think it turned out fine. It looks like a big ole' mess but I like that. This trip was a collage of different things. It was a road trip and should be reflected that way.
I did need a focal point though so I picked this picture because I liked it and there was space above for some embellishment. I also put it up on pop dots to make it stand out even more. It's the only full picture in the bunch.
Used some stars and the stamped sentiment "so totally love this story" from an Ali Edwards kit (can't remember which one though.) The banner sticker is from an old sticker set that I had.
I layered pictures so that I got the parts of the photograph I wanted to see. Like the bottom left corner I made sure you could see me but then let the other pictures cover up part of the background.
I didn't need the right side of this star fish picture so I let my main picture hang on top.
After I got every picture where I wanted it I just carefully put some glue on each picture at a time and glued it down. Then I went around the edges with a scissors and cut off the extra.
Right side of the page was actually the hardest for me.
I've been trying to take more of a minimalist approach to cut down the amount of time I spend agonizing over embellishments and just concentrating on the important stuff. but this one took me awhile because I wanted the "right stuff" not just junk. It had to be meaningful.
First things first. the background paper. I made this myself. I wanted to get down all of the places I stopped, the roads I was on, etc. So I decided to make my own patterned paper.
Trust me, it's easier than you think.
All I did was started with a 8 1/2 x 11 page and drew up a text box and started typing.
If you notice I didn't put any gaps between words/phrases. I only put an asterisk to separate them.
For instance: *Minneapolis*Washington*Sea-tac*Seattle*Space Needle.... and so on. There are no spaces between each set of words. The only spaces are between Space and Needle because they are two different words.
The reason I did this was to help the words flow better across the page. The more spaces you put the more likely you will see white space. I don't want white space here. I want the words to cover the entire page.
I made my text box a little larger so that the words wouldn't end on the edges but continue on.
Once I got to the end of my text I highlighted it, copied it and pasted it beneath the first set of text. This kept the text free-flowing and it didn't look choppy.
I loved this. It gave me journalling without the traditional look of journalling. Plus it kept my background from being just a piece of green cardstock.
Next I cut out my title using orange cardstock and my silhouette. You could use large sticker letters too if you wanted.
I decided after letting this layout sit out for awhile that it needed something else. So I put the letters on foam pop dots and added some embellishments.
I used Kelly Purkey's PNW stamp kit for the boat, space needled and PNW stamps. It fit this project to a tee and they are so cute.
I put the boat on the bottom of the E mainly because it could fit that big boat and the other ones couldn't.
I put a compass on the P just to cover the space and wrote the dates on the long part of the P.
The I got the space needle and the C got the PNW.
I ended up adding a star (to complete the visual triangle. If you look above the left-hand banner has two stars in it.) and the stars for the Exclamation point.
Overall I'm very happy with this layout. It's simple and fun. Plus it's bold and big just like how I felt about this trip. p.s. the orange color was chosen because of the orange that shows up in some of the pictures on the left-hand side. I wore an orange raincoat during most of the trip. :)
Thanks for reading this post. If you'd like to see more scrapbooking layouts click here.
If you'd like to see more pictures from my PNW road trip click here.
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