I Heart Family Layout (Hidden Journaling and Video)

 Hi!

Hope you are having a great day! I'm very happy to share with you a layout I made yesterday in between home chores. I used "The Avenue" collection by Jen Hadfield for Pebbles Inc. to create this layout as the October Guest Designer of A Cherry On Top. Since I was making this layout between chores and homeschooling my toddler, I was not able to record the process, but I did a quick video showing how I made the shaker heart and a closer look to the layout and the hidden journaling. Stay with me as I guide you through it.

I started this page by cutting the "I ♡ Family" file in white American Crafts cardstock using my Silhouette Cameo 3 and the following settings: Blade 4, Force 30, and Speed 3. The file is from The Lilypad. I backed the file using Downtown paper. For the shaker, I cut a heart from the Dahlia Dr. paper and glued it on top of the cut file heart. Then, I prepared a frame using the other side of the same Dahlia Dr. paper and added a piece of transparency to its back. Afterwards, I used foam adhesive between the frame and the cut file and added glitters I bought some time ago at Target.

After that, I matted the photos using  white cardstock and the Welcome Home paper. Then, I chose the Third Ave. and Seventh Ave to use them in the layout. The two strips of paper (green with leaves and peach stipes) are the barcode strips of two papers. Once all the papers were cut, I added them to the layout. To create the scalloped border, I used and old paper punch from Stampin' Up.

Now, to the best part: embellishing the layout. For that, I used the die cuts from the collection (Floral, Phrases and Ephemera), the puffy heart stickers, and the Thickers titles. I created two clusters, one behind the shaker and the other on the corner of the photos. Most of those embellishments were added with foam adhesive to add dimension and interest to the layout. Then, I added the journaling behind the 3" x 4" card. I matted this card with white cardstock to help it stand out and to give me a place to write my journaling. Between both papers, I added a thin magnet. The other magnet is behind the blue plaid paper. This way, the card is secure while the journaling is hidden. In the next photos you can see the card in place, and how easily it can be moved to reveal the journaling.

To finish the layout, I reduced the white cardstock a little and added the Seventh Ave. paper behind it to reveal three sides of it. Then, I used the sewing machine and gray thread to stitch a zig zag border around the page.

In this short video, you can see a quick tutorial on how I made the shaker on top of the cut file and all the details of the layout, including the hidden journaling.

Thanks for staying with me during this post. Hope you like this layout and it inspires you to craft!