More is More with Cheryl

I am completely in love with Traci’s newest collection in her Story Foundations series! Me Time is absolutely brimming with fun, hobby-themed embellishments, and the minute I saw the journal card that says, “Collecting things for the hobby is its own hobby (duh),” I knew I had the perfect starting point for a layout about some of the things I collect.

Because apparently, having a hobby isn’t enough, I also need to collect all the supplies that go along with it! For this page, I decided to focus on one of my favorite categories: writing utensils. I chose four photos featuring some of the pens, pencils, and markers in my collection. I use them in my Happy Planner, but they also get plenty of mileage when I’m Zentangling, drawing, coloring, or filling the pages of my journals. There’s just something ridiculously satisfying about having the right pen for the job, and, of course, having approximately eleventy-billion choices when one pen would probably do just fine.

I arranged the four photos into a neat little grouping, placing the landscape photos across from each other and doing the same with the portrait photos. That left a small open space right in the center, which was just begging to be filled. I covered it with an adorable embellishment featuring markers, and then tucked the journal card right above the photo grouping so it could introduce the whole story.

From there, I had way too much fun adding tags, labels, cards, and all sorts of little embellishments to help tell the story of my love affair with writing utensils. These little supplies may seem like simple everyday objects, but they are part of so many things I enjoy doing. They help me plan, create, doodle, color, write, experiment, and generally make my creative time a little more fun. And honestly, there’s something about a fresh pen or a new set of markers that makes me ridiculously happy.

If you know me, you know that my layouts usually involve lots of flowers and foliage. I am a firm believer that there is almost no such thing as too many flowers! This time, though, I showed a little restraint and started with just one floral grouping—a sweet bouquet tucked into a watering can. I thought that was plenty.

And then I finished my video.

And then I looked at the layout again.

And then I decided it needed more flowers.

So, naturally, the additional florals were added off camera. I duplicated that original watering-can floral cluster and tucked the copies behind the other layers, hiding the watering can itself while letting all those pretty flowers peek out from behind everything. I absolutely love the effect! It gives the page a fuller, layered look without taking away from the photos or the story.

This layout ended up being such a fun little snapshot of one of my many creative obsessions. It’s a reminder that the things we collect and surround ourselves with can tell their own stories—and sometimes the supplies we gather for our hobbies become a hobby all by themselves!

If you have hobbies of your own (and let’s be honest, you probably have a stash of supplies to prove it!), you’ll definitely want to check out Me Time. It’s such a fun collection for documenting the hobbies, passions, collections, and little creative rituals that bring joy to our everyday lives. Because sometimes the best stories are hiding in the things we use simply because they make us happy.

Story Foundations: Me Time Collection