My goal this year is to purge and use up my craft stash, and one of the things I have too many of is kits. Right now a three-foot stack sits in my hallway that needs going through. I struggle using pre-printed kits, like the ones from Close to My Heart, and I don’t use kits in the way they were intended. Today, I am going to share with you how I flipped one of the kits and made it into my design.
This kit is one that I have had sitting in my craft stash, and it has some really bright colors that I rarely use. I chose to use it to record some photos that were taken on the same day.
When I pulled out the two kits in the package, I knew right away that I wanted to tone down those bright hues, so I added some navy stitching to outline each of the rays and bring more blue to the layout.
I also flipped the pages so that those pre-printed patterns were at the top. These are going to point to my title and journaling and create a diving point on the layout between the two stories.
Not only did I change the layout of the original design, shown here, but I also used items from both of the kits to create the layout.
Another element I am not fond of on these kits, is the printed journaling lines – I always find a way to cover them up. On this layout, I added a row of adorable selfie photos to hide them. This created a fun design element that draws your eyes across the page.
As I put the layout together, I shopped my craft stash and found washi tape, titles, and a few other elements that matched the design.
To tone down the bright hues, even more, I added another color to the design. The blue-green helps to soften that bright lime green, brings a coolness to the design, and creates a nice analogous color palette.
Bright colors often draw your eyes away from the photos, so I added black, grey, and white elements near the pictures to help draw your eyes to certain elements. These create a nice balance with those bright blues and greens and allowed me to add more to the design without adding more color.
To create a big bold title on this layout, I combined a few items from my craft stash with elements from the kit. The blue pattern chipboard letters combined with a chipboard element create a grand statement.
Behind that chipboard phrase, I used a date sticker from the kit. By strategically placing it behind the chipboard to hide the journal box, it looks like a flag sticker behind the title.
Around the title, I added some stars. The white pattern star helps draw your eye to the title while the acrylic and metal stars bring texture and contrast to the design.
Throughout the layout, I mirrored patterns, colors, and shapes to draw your eyes to the photos that help to tell the story.
Even though I am not a fan of lime green, I continued to add subtle bits of that color with stars outlines and patterns to bring balance to the design.
If you would like to see how this layout came together using elements from both of the kits, I have a process video for you to enjoy.
I love how I was able to take elements from two kits and pull them all together to tell a story. I hope that this project helped you learn a few ways to flip a kit in your collection and how to balance out brightly colored elements on a page.
If you have any questions about todays project, feel free to leave me a comment below.
I hope this inspired you to try something new. If you have any questions about this project or the supplies listed above, feel free to leave me a comment.
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I’d be happy to purchase some of those kits you won’t use.
I’ll be posting them in my Facebook group this summer. 😀