No Elements? No Problem! Make a BIG Impact with Paper!

f one were to describe my scrapbook style it would not be clean and simple. My layouts generally have lots of patterned papers and are cluster heavy. I have a hard time with pocket pages.  Clean and simple layouts take me much longer to design than a full on clustered page which you wouldn’t think would be the case, but it is!

Traci’s newest release Story Foundations had me thinking outside the box because there are no elements! No problem!

Since there are no elements, I needed to create dimension on my layout a different way. I was inspired by a Pin on Pinterest that used rolled papers as part of its design. I love the colors in her patterned papers and decided to make that the focus of my page. Clever Monkey Graphics has a few digital templates to make rolled papers. I used one of them to create the base layer of my layout.

I opened a 12 x 12 document. A created a new layer and drew a very large circle on this layer using the shape tool. This is going to be my “template” for the paper rolls.

I filled in the circle with paper rolls lining up the top edges of the rolls with the edge of the circle. It didn’t matter that the bottom edges of the rolls didn’t meet because they would be covered with a photo mat. Once completely filled I clipped my papers to each individual roll trying to not repeat the same color or pattern directly next to it.

Then I added a second circle using the shape tool to the top for my photo mat. Two of the word arts on my layout were created from two journal cards in the collection. I used the shape tool to make an oval, simplified the layer, and clipped the “This Was So Good’ card to it. I did the same with the other card but used a circle shape instead. The pink heart in the title was extracted using the magic eraser tool from a journal card too (using PSE).

I really like how my layout turned out without using any true embellishments. The paper rolls are really versatile and can be used to make any shape. This technique can also be used with hybrid projects as well by actually rolling paper strips to create the rolls.

I hope that you will be able to incorporate some of the techniques I used here to add journal cards to your layouts. By using templates, the custom shape tool, and magic eraser tool, journal cards can be used in versatile ways on your non pocket card scrapbook layouts. You will be able to create fabulous layouts even if you don’t have any elements available to you.

Story Foundations Collection