About the Page
Technique: Creating Designer Layouts with Personal Shopper
Designers: Paris Dukes

Beautiful designer layouts are so easy to recreate with Personal Shopper! Every month, you’ll get a kit of the latest and trendiest scrapbooking supplies delivered right to your door. Each kit comes with three color-coordinated sets of patterned papers, solid papers, cardstock and artwork, plus tons of unique embellishments all handpicked around a different theme. Best of all, we include a 6-page color newsletter filled with tons of tips and techniques, plus page and card samples by our very own Hot Off The Press designers! Here are two of Paris’ double-page spread samples–a tropical summer layout and a sleek travel-themed spread–straight from our Personal Shopper newsletters.

The Sights of Summer
By Paris Dukes

All Paris needed to create this hot summer-themed layout was August’s Personal Shopper kit! She used two of the same papers in the background for this double page spread, then used patterned and solid papers in purple and aqua to accent the page. She chose cute dimensional embellishments like flower clips, brads and twill, and even accented the journaling with ribbon word cut-outs and colorful plastic charms.

“Allow the viewer’s eye to move easily throughout your layouts by repeating visual shapes,” Paris suggests. “In this ‘The Sights of Summer’ layout, I created visual triangles with the placement of three flower clips, three areas of printed twill and three areas of yellow and turquoise ribbons. I also folded over one corner of my background paper, then added a different patterned paper behind it to create two more triangle effects. By repeating the same shapes throughout the layout, the pages are easy to look at without getting the viewer’s eye stuck on just one portion of the layout.”

Supplies:

• yellow sun paper (2), blue/yellow stripes paper, solid aqua paper, solid purple cardstock and artwork
• tropical brads
• tropical flower clips
• footprint twill
• plastic charms: sunglasses, sandals, umbrella, popsicle and sun
• yellow ribbon
• turquoise ribbon
• Scotch® Brand Foam Mounting Tape
• Zots™
• glue stick

Click here for the August "Birthday Fun" Personal Shopper Kit!

Instructions:

For the Left Page:

1. Use the yellow sun paper as the background. Fold the upper left corner of the background paper over and add a square of blue/yellow stripes paper behind the folded corner, gluing the edges to the back of the yellow sun paper.
2. Cut one 10” length each of turquoise and yellow ribbon. Lay the ribbon lengths horizontally about 1” down from the top of the page. Wrap the right ends around the right edge of the background paper and secure on the back. Tuck the left ends under the folded corner and secure under the corner. Cut out the “summer” title from the artwork. Add one green brad to the left side of the title and one teal brad to the right side of the title, then attach the title on top of the ribbon strips using foam mounting tape. Computer journal or trace “The Sights Of” onto the teal tag. Cut out the tag and add a purple brad to the top. Cut one 3” length each of yellow and turquoise ribbon. Holding both ribbon lengths, tie a knot in the center securing the ribbon lengths together. Lay the lengths horizontally across the bottom of the tag with the knot in the center, then wrap the ends around the edges of the tag and secure on the back. Using a glue stick, glue the tag to the folded corner of the background paper, as shown.
3. Mat one photo on purple cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/8”. Mat the other photo on aqua paper, trimming the mat to 1/8”. Secure the purple matted photo above the aqua matted photo, as shown, using a glue stick.
4. Cut two 5” lengths of footprint twill. Tuck one end of one length under the bottom left corner of the purple matted photo, then stretch the twill horizontally to the left edge of the page, wrapping the other end around the edge of the paper to secure on the back. Tuck one end of the other twill length under the top left corner of the aqua matted photo, then stretch the twill horizontally to the left edge of the page, wrapping the other end around the edge of the paper to secure on the back.
5. Computer journal the phrases “warm sand”, “hot sun”, “lazy days” and “doing nothing” onto purple cardstock, then cut the journaling into strips. Attach the “warm sand” and “hot sun” strips at varying angles in the top right corner of the purple matted photo with a glue stick. Add a purple flower clip and a purple brad to the ends of the strips in the top right corner of the photo. Attach the “lazy days” and “doing nothing” strips at varying angles near the bottom left corner of the aqua matted photo with a glue stick. Add a teal flower clip and a teal brad to the ends of the strips near the bottom right corner of the photo.

For the Right Page:

1. Use the other piece of yellow sun paper as the background. Mat one photo on aqua paper, trimming the mat to 1/8”. Mat the other photo on purple cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/8”. Secure the aqua matted photo in the top left corner of the page and the purple matted photo in the bottom left corner of the page.
2. Computer journal onto aqua paper, leaving space at the top and bottom of the journaling, and in between words to add charms and ribbon word cut-outs. Crop the journaling to a 5”x12” rectangle. Add the plastic charms to the journaling using Zots™. Accent the ribbon word cut-outs to your journaling with foam mounting tape. Cut one 4 1/2” length of footprint twill and tie a knot in the center. Attach the knot to the top of the journaling using a Zot™. Cut two 6” lengths of footprint twill and lay them horizontally across the bottom of the journaling, wrapping the ends around the edges to secure on the back. Cut out the “fun in the sun” ribbon word and attach it between the twill strips with foam mounting tape.
3. Mat the left side of the journaling on blue/yellow stripes paper and trim the mat to 5/8”. Mat again on purple cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/8”. Secure the matted journaling flush with the right edge of the background paper.
4. Cut one 7 1/2” length each of turquoise and yellow ribbon. Lay the ribbon lengths horizontally between the photos. Tuck the right ends under the matted journaling and wrap the left ends around the left edge of the background paper, securing them on the back. Cut out the popsicle, sandals and sunglasses from the artwork and attach them across the ribbon lengths using foam mounting tape.

Tour Guide
By Paris Dukes

Paris designed this travel-themed “Tour Guide” layout using only supplies from July’s “Summer is Here” Personal Shopper kit! She chose two coordinating bordered background papers, then cropped and added another paper across both pages to bring together this double-page spread. Paris accented the layout with travel frames, artwork and metal embellishments to create cute focals throughout the layout.

“Your photographs don’t have to be from the same day or the same event to put them together in a layout,” Paris says. “Wondering what to do with those random photos from various trips? Try this fun ‘job description’ journaling technique to tie all of those photos together in one layout. By journaling the job description of a tour guide, I was able to use photos of Natalie from three different vacation destinations on one double-page spread. The journaling technique, paired with the papers and embellishments, creates a strong travel theme for the layout, even though the photos are all from different trips!”

Supplies:

• license plate paper (2), map paper, solid brown paper, black cardstock and artwork
• Attachments™ Travel Frames
• black and ivory gingham ribbon
• “adventure” ribbon slide
• “LUV2TRVL” metal license plate
• graphite black Brilliance™ ink pad
• X-acto® knife
• Zots™
• glue stick

Click here for the July "Summer Is Here" Personal Shopper Kit!

Instructions:

For the Left Page:

1. Use the license plate paper with the border on the left edge as the background. Cut 2” off the bottom of the map paper and ink the edges with black, then vertically cut the map paper in half. Glue the left half of the map paper centered on the background paper, flush with the right edge.
2. Mat the photos on black cardstock, trimming the mats to 1/8”. Secure the photos on the page, as shown, with a glues tick. Cut a 10 1/2” length of black and ivory gingham ribbon. Lay the ribbon length horizontally across the page between the photos, wrapping the right end around the right edge of the paper to secure on the back. Use an X-acto® knife to cut a small slit on the right edge of the border on the background paper, then tuck the left end of the ribbon into the slit to secure on the back of the paper.
3. Computer journal onto solid brown paper. Add the large words frame horizontally to the journaling, then trim the journaling even with the edges of the frame. Using a glue stick, attach the framed journaling toward the right end of the ribbon strip, slightly overlapping the photos.
4. Cut out the “slow, vacation ahead” sign from the artwork and add it to the lower right edge of the top photo with a glue stick. Cut out the “speed limit 55” sign from the artwork and attach it at a slight angle in the lower right corner of the bottom photo. Cut a 2 1/2” length of black and ivory gingham ribbon. Fold it in half and secure on the back of the metal license plate with Zots™. Attach the license plate at an angle next to the sign artwork on the bottom photo.

For the Right Page:

1. Use the license plate paper with the border on the right side as the background. Glue the right half of the map paper centered on the background paper, flush with the left edge and aligning with the map paper on the left page of the layout.
2. Mat the photos on black cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/8” and securing on the page, as shown, using a glue stick. Cut a 10 1/2” length of black and ivory gingham ribbon. Lay the ribbon horizontally across the page, 1 1/2” down from the top of the page and overlapping one of the photos. Add the “adventure” ribbon slide to the ribbon, the wrap the left end of the ribbon around the edge of the paper to secure on the back. Use an X-acto® knife to cut a small slit on the left edge of the border on the background paper, then tock the right end of the ribbon into the slit to secure on the back of the paper.
3. Computer journal onto solid brown paper. Add the large gingham frame vertically to the journaling, then trim the journaling even with the edges of the frame. Using a glue stick, attach the framed journaling to the page, as shown. Cut out the stop sign from the artwork and glue it in the bottom right corner of the frame with a glue stick.
4. Computer journal the name and date onto solid brown paper. Frame them individually with the small solid black frame and the small words frame, then trim the journaling even with the edges of the frames. Cut a 4 1/2” length of black and ivory gingham ribbon and attach it vertically about 1 1/2” to the left of the border on the background paper. Glue the framed journaling horizontally on top of the ribbon length. Cut a 6 1/2” length of black and ivory gingham ribbon and tie it into a shoestring bow. Attach the bow to the top of the ribbon length using a Zot™.