Hats Off Collection: All Smiles Layout by Karen Hanson

Hi everyone! It's Karen from ScrappyCanuck Studios, and today I am sharing one of my favourite new layouts using the fun new collection called Hats Off! Now my two little girls are still a few years away from graduation, so I thought that I might be able to have some fun and look back to the first day of the journey instead of the last - the first day of Kindergarten. Yup-it's a perfect fit there too! I do have a little confession to make though - I tend to be a little afraid of creating black and white layouts. I tend to use colour a lot in my layout to create direction and emphasis, so in black and white, I sometimes become a little bit afraid that everything will blend together. So while my initial thought was to chose a feature colour to add (which would be a fun way to incorporate more Doodlebug product) I challenged myself to move away from my comfort zone and see what I could do. Since this was all about trying to create emphasis without color, The first place I looked was my package of Odds and Ends. I had two pictures of my daughter that I just loved - they were playful moments when she was hiding behind her dress, and then having a good chortle about it afterwards. Because they felt "candid" in nature, I thought it would be fun to pop them behind the film reel acetate die cut, using just a bit of clear liquid adhesive to layer it on top. I think it's a perfect way to draw attention to those pictures in particular. I also wanted to add a bit of a border on the right side of the photos, so I used a combination of fussy cut paper (the top 4 cameras), a sticker from the 12x12 sticker sheet and one additional camera from the icon stickers. This gave me the length I needed to frame and anchor the photos and create a bit of dimension so that the cameras didn't get lost in the background paper. And just for fun, I wanted to balance all that was going on in the middle of the page with a small element on the bottom of the page. Again, the Odds and Ends were my first "go to" - in this case, simply layering some of the bolder black and acetate pieces to create the contrast I needed at the bottom of the page. I have to say that on my daughter's first day of school, we really were all smiles - and I am so grateful to be able to capture that in this layout! It makes me wonder how many other events in our lives this collection might capture beautifully! Thanks for stopping by! Hugs, Karen