For this set of pages, I wanted to highlight the heritage features of the buildings so I kept my layouts simple by matting my photos on black cardstock and using the same woodgrain chevron pattern cardstock on all three. My only embellishment is a strip of Shimmer Trim that I cut in half lengthwise and used as a border along the edge of the cardstock.
Schubert House - this house was smaller, but the trim work inside the house reminded me of the heritage house that my family had owned.
These are my favourite pictures from this tour and the reason that I decided to stick with very simple layouts. I really wanted the pictures to stand out on these pages.
I love all the old products in the General Store. I was a Watkins Consultant for many years and spotted a few Watkins products on the bottom shelf.
I found a map online and printed it out and added to one of the layouts. So glad that everything is online to reference since these photos are from 2002 and I couldn't remember the names of all the buildings.
These layouts were so easy to put together - unlike the rest of my album where I used sketches, for these layouts I was inspired by the Power Layouts method. I laid my pictures out on each sheet of cardstock and set aside. When it came time to adhere I just quickly matted all the pictures at once, cut the two sheets of wood grain cardstock and the embellishment strips, adhered everything, journaled and just like that I was done.
So fast and easy! I love decorative scrapbooking but I have quite a few albums to do so I am trying to keep it as simple as possible. After I do the last three layouts from this trip I will have completed three albums this year. The first album took the longest (started a couple years ago) because it is all decorative layouts. The last two are fairly decorative but I planned differently and they went a little quicker - better use of my time and supplies. I will be ordering one (or two) of the re-released Power Layout kits from Creative Memories and pre-sorting my layouts so the box is ready to grab and go when I find I have an extra few minutes. I will still do some decorative layouts - I'll just add a post-it note to the guide to reference which sketch I want to use for that page.
If you aren't familiar with this sorting method check out this YouTube video - it's from 2010 but
explains very well how this method works.
I wish this method had been around back when I first started using CM products in the mid-90's. I probably would have completed more albums. I really like that you know what will be on the back of the right-hand page. I love the quality of the CM pages with the jeeping but was always concerned that I would mess up and put the wrong pictures on the back. By using the guide to represent the back of a page I can rearrange and have everything exactly as I want it before adhering.
You can find the Power Layout Kit under the Tools section of my Creative Memories website.
Supplies used in these layouts:
- CTMH White Daisy cardstock
- Recollections Black cardstock
- CTMH Fundamentals Wood-grain cardstock (retired)
- CTMH Bronze Shimmer Trim
