Artbooking Made Easy: Friendship Layouts

Congratulations to mikeslittlesis, the winner of the contest I announced in my Artbooking Made Easy: Christmas Layouts post from 2 weeks ago (comment left on November 19, 2013 at 5:37 am)! Please email me@jeanettelynton.com with your mailing address and “Artbooking Made Easy blog post winner” as the subject line so I can send you your Cricut® Artbooking Collection. I know you’ll absolutely love tinkering with your cartridge to make great artwork.

Today I want to show you even more Artbooking inspiration to help you envision what is possible with your own projects. Watch the video for ideas on taking new spins on the friendship-themed keys, which you may recall having seen in my very first Artbooking Made Easy post. The keys are the same, but the ideas are fresh and fabulous!

As promised, I have even more layouts to show you with new great twists meant for your inspiration.

I love this layout featuring a mother with her 2 daughters. All of the shapes you see here come from page 79 of the Artbooking booklet. Notice the fun and funky color scheme: the artist has used B&T Duos™ paper from the Sarita paper packet for the overlays, B&T Duos™ paper from the Laughing Lola paper packet to cover the Dimensional Elements arrows, and scraps of cardstock in various colors to back negative spaces on the photo mats. The variety on this layout makes it visually exciting, and with dabs of color on both pages it also remains balanced. Very befitting of a fun friendship theme!

Notice the overlays used here. One page features a full overlay (11 inches), while the other utilizes just a half. How much more the other embellishments stand out on that negative space at the top! Compare this layout to the one you saw in the video, where only portions of the overlays were used. Both can effectively highlight different pieces of your layout according to your individual taste.

Notice the way a specific day of the week was highlighted on this layout, as compared to the “BFF” layout you saw in the first episode of my Artbooking blog series, Artbooking Made Easy: Getting Started with Cricut® Artbooking. In that first episode you saw the special day highlighted with a circle outline centered over the day. Here you see colorful pointed circles that back each day of the week to first attract the eye with fresh bursts of color against a dark photo frame, and then a B&T paper-covered Dimensional Elements arrow guiding the eye to the special day alone.

Now let’s take a closer look at the “Best Buddies” layout you saw in the video. Most of the images seen on this layout come from both page 78 and 79 of the Artbooking booklet, the friendship-themed keys.

The scallop overlay featured here has been taken down to 9 inches using real dial size (RDS), and has been backed with a darker color; this adds a bit of interest to the photos without covering a majority of the page. And isn’t it fun how the artist has combined the colors of the Tommy paper packet with Lagoon cardstock? It’s an unexpected splash of color! 

Some other elements on the page were also cut using real dial size instead of at the linked size of 11 inches. The “buddies” title was cut at 1 ½ inches RDS, and the LOL bubble was cut at 1 ¼ inches RDS. The arrow/circle shape at the top of the right page was not only cut using real dial size at 1 inch, but it also came from a completely different key, one of the Top Secret mini album keys (page 43 of the booklet). The notebook overlay on the right page is a visitor hailing from the other Top Secret mini album key (page 42 of the booklet), and is sized at 7 inches.

Images from the friendship-themed keys, and all the others too, are as versatile as you make them! Take the inspiration you’ve seen today to create your own elevated art to celebrate relationships of every shape and size.

Recipes:

12" x 12" Friends Layout
Z1906 Cricut® Artbooking Collection
X7176B Sparkle & Shine Paper Packet
X7171B Sarita Paper Packet
X7170B Laughing Lola Paper Packet
Z1869 Babycakes Assortment
Z1881 Huntington Assortment
Z1907 Sparkle & Shine Washi Tape 3-Pack
Z1263 Bitty Sparkles
Colors: Colonial White, Hollyhock, Goldrush, Sweet Leaf, Lagoon, Honey, Blush, kraft

12" x 12" Best Buddies Layout
Z1906 Cricut® Artbooking Collection
B1416 My Acrylix™ Keyboard Uppercase
D1555 My Acrylix™ All the Details
X7169B Tommy Paper Packet
Z1853 Aqua Dots
Z1850 Lagoon Houndstooth Washi Tape
Z1294 Sanding Kit
Colors: White Daisy, Outdoor Denim, Lagoon, Honey, kraft