Care Free – Heidi Swapp – Part 2 | Amy Kattenbelt

Hello Magpies, Amy here, sharing two more layouts using Heidi Swapp’s new collection called “Care Free“. This collection is inspired by the beauty of nature and is fall of lovely warm neutral earth tones as well as some gorgeous rich colours such as the dark teal and the dusky blush pink. There are also lots of champagne gold elements throughout the collection. Its a great collection to scrapbook so many types of occasions as well as just the here and now and every day layouts.

You & Me

My first layout today is a 3×3 grid layout, featuring photos of my youngest son when he was a baby. Care Free may not be an obvious choice for baby photos but actually the colours work perfectly as do all the pretty floral elements (yes, even with a boy!). A grid layout is a super great way to use paper pads, so I picked out all my favourite papers from the 6×8 paper pad and then cut out lots of squares in 3 sizes.

I left two of the nine squares with out any patterned paper. Instead, I used the top middle area for my title. I used the amazing Elles Studio Jane outline alpha stamps and number stamps in Large size to stamp my title with black ink on to 3 of the patterned papers. You could then use the matching dies, or fussy cut them by hand if you have enough patience!

In the remaining seven grid areas, I layered up my paper squares, and when I was happy with the mixtures of colours I stuck them all down. I like to use a T-ruler to make sure they are all nicely lined up and uniformly spaced out. Then came the fun part of decorating and embellishing the squares. I basically just picked my favourite pieces from the sticker sheet, the sticker book and the ephemera pack.

In th efinal empty grid area, I placed a large ‘today’ sticker and then added some photo corners as chevrons. This is a fun idea, you may have seen I did something similar with one of my layouts a few weeks ago. I also added a rainbow, some hearts, a tab and stamped the date.

I decided to trim down the background white cardstock by half an inch and layered it onto a piece of striped patterned paper to frame the whole layout. Of course, I cut away the central section of the patterned paper because it was too pretty to be wasted.

Poets Walk

For this layout I wanted to use all the beautiful washi tape that comes with the collection. To do this I created a square shape, open at the bottom left hand corner. I layered stripes of the tape up. To make thicker areas I used two pieces of tape side by side. It was a really fun effect that I have never tried before. The washi tape guides your eye around the layout, to each of the corners in turn.

At the lower right corner I placed my photo. Then I added the grey frame from the ephemera die cut pack. I layered up some of the stickers, and created a subtitle that reads ‘Explore more together’.

In the top left corner I placed a phrase sticker and added two more frames. Then added some more stickers and ephemera pieces to decorate. I stamped the date onto the small frame piece.

Because the layout was very busy, with lots of colours, words and patterned, I decided to use the alphabet stickers from the sticker book to create my title. They have a black background so really stand out and are such a great variety of fonts. I also added the year ’21’ to the very bottom right corner of the layout. I felt that adds balance to the page.

As with the first layout I share above, I trimmed my background white cardstock and placed it onto a patterned paper to frame the whole layout. Adding a frame to the whole layout often helps contain your layout and stop your eye from wandering off the page. Lastly I finished my layout off with a fine splatted of black ink.

I hope these layouts have given you a few ways to try various products, namely paper pads and washi tape. I would love for you to share your ideas over on the Hey Little Magpie Facebook group. Thanks for taking the time to read about my creations. Take Care and Stay Safe