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Monday, January 28, 2013

Layering Tutorial

I've had several comments in the past about my layouts having oodles and oodles of layers and how I get my projects to look so dimensional. To start, you need a whole lot of paper, the embellishments you will be using and the general composition of your layout ready to go. (click on photos for larger images)
I am a total thrift store shopper! I LOVE it! It is such a thrill to enter a huge store and come out with treasures galore for undr $5.00! Things I find at thrift stores include doilies, objects to alter, old/vintage lace, etc and books.
Here is an example of a vintage encyclopedia I picked up for $3.00! Look how thick this is! I will never use all these pages up - but they are just the perfect addition to my otherwise 2 dimensional layouts. To get the dimension on my layouts that I love, here's what I do: Rip out a few pages from my trusty vintage book, crumple them up like you were going to throw them out.
Now gently unravel so that you have a very crumpled, and dimensional piece of paper. Glue this to your project making sure that there are raised portions. I often add several pieces to my layouts. The best part about these crumpled pieces are that they raise the focal point of your layout as well as offer the perfect nooks and crannies with which to tuck the rest of your embellishments. I tend to have white space issues. Any part of my layout that is 'bare' gives me anxiety. LOL! I need to cover things with embellishments and/or layer with paper. For this reason, I love the Noteworthy product from Bo Bunny! Tons of little bits of coordinating papers - the perfect size to tuck under your photos, etc. I will often only use parts of embellishments - I will cut stickers in half, cut flowers in half, cut trinkets in half, etc. so that just the part of the embellishment that I want to be shown is visible.
Here you can see my layout in each phase. Firstly, right after I have added the dimensional paper, next after adding a few embellishments and again after adding even more embellishments and layers.
 
 
And here is the finished layout - layers, dimension and all! Thanks so much for your visit today!!

Bunny Supplies
Patterned Paper: Stripe, Poppies, Trellies, Cut Outs, Garden, Sunrise/Serenade
Cardstock Stickers: Treasured Friend
Combo Stickers: Serenade
Chipboard: Serenade
Jewels: Serenade
Noteworthy: Serenade
Layered Chipboard: Serenade

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful layout, and very interesting to follow your "thinking proces" while making a layout!

Lauren Hender said...

All those layers are just beautiful! Very inspiring. Thank you for sharing the process.

morkaren said...

Kære Tara, du kan noget der, som sikkert for dig er nemt, men for mig ville være meget svært, men jeg prøver. knus morkaren.

Sandra said...

Tara I've been an avid follower of yours since I started in this creative world of scrapbooking and this is so exciting to see how you layer up your pages, thank you so much for sharing your fabulous ideas, I for one appreciate you taking the time to show us this tutorial.

Lizzyc said...

Wow.. you make it seem easy, but it looks complicated to me. stunning layout, love all the wonderful details you have used.. thanks for the inspiration!!

Jessica Navarro said...

Amazing, but I still couldn't mimic your gorgeous layering even with the tutorial! lol another beauty!

Beatrice Lawson said...

What a fabulous idea! I normally cringe at the idea of tearing up a book - but I can actually see myself using an old dictionary like that!

Стокли said...

Decpite all this crumpled paper your LO looks so neat! and I can see that there not layers, there are LEVELS! gorgeous effect.

Cindy Gay said...

Thanks Tara! You may be a Thrift Store shopper, but you're also very giving!

Kathy/NorthCarolina said...

Tara...I posted on the G45 blog this morning, and I am going to try and repeat what I said here. The thing I love the most about your amazing layouts is the perfect composition you achieve. You have lots of embellishments and lots of layers, but none of them compete with or take away from the focal image. That is so hard to accomplish. Your layouts are very full, but they are not at all busy. The eye can rest on the main image and then take a lovely journey all through the piece, enjoying each element. That is such an art...and I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it!

Ava Gavloski said...

thanks tara for your share on the deets about layering. you inspired me with the 5 layer challenge a couple of years ago at scrap that, which really help me, so once again, thanks
ava g

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