Behind the Page: Using It All Up

Happy Saturday!  I am so craving the weekend today!  I hope to scrap a bit and take a ton of photos!  I wanted to share a page and give some background about how it was built.  I always love reading about how others construct their pages!  Everyone has a different take and it is interesting to get inside the creative mind!

I made this layout recently with my October Nook kit!  It features My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Sunshine...I have to say that this color palette is amazing!  I have been attracted to soft, almost monochromatic layouts recently so I gave it a whirl.

I started this page with the photo and the background papers and kinda built it up.  It was a process of adding different sized rectangles or strips in the right places.  The jazzy gold with the circles is meant to bring the eye to the photo. 

I made my own chipboard frame.  I love the look it gives to the picture.  I simply grabbed the packaging from the MME brads and used my Elmer's Craft Knife to cut out a rectangle.  I adhered it with pop dots!

I decided to add handmade hearts.  I used the old fold-a-rectangle-in-half-and-cut-half-a-heart-on-the-not-folded-side.  You open it up and have a symmetrical heart!  I then cut the inside of the heart out and used it to overlap.  I purposefully placed it up top because I don't do that often and I like how it brings out the photo.  I added little touches like the brads and the pin to give it all texture.

This element is heavy so I needed balance on the other side.  That led me to the bottom cluster.  I knew I wanted to put the circular brad and the numeral 7.  But those things didn't have enough substance.  So I added the stamp.  I actually stamped right onto the page, but it didn't look right.  So I stamped again on a piece of cardstock, cut it out and placed it over the other image with pop-dots.  The banners and twine give it the final touch of balance.

The touches of blue are placed in a visual triangle.  And those dark brown strips are from the cut-off strip of the 12 X 12 paper.  I like to use up as many of my materials as possible.

What is your process?  Link me up...I would love to see!