Explore – 49&Market Naturalist – Amy Kattenbelt
Hello Magpies, Amy here sharing how I created this layout using the collection called ‘Naturalist‘ by 49 & Market. Its a brilliant collection for any outdoor/nature photos. I have also used an Amelia Creates cut file as my title. If you haven’t seen them in the Hey Little Magpie shop before I highly recommend you check them out. They are available to purchase as either a digital cut file or as a pre-cut physical copy.
The central design of my layout is heart shaped. My initial idea was that I wanted to layered up some of the pretty papers from the 6×8 paper pad into a half heart shape.
TIP: To cut large heart shaped pieces of patterned paper, make your self a template. Simply use a piece of waste paper (I used A4), fold it in half and sketch out half a heart shape along the folded edge. Now you can cut that out and you end up with a perfectly symmetrical heart shape template. Of course for my layout I only wanted half the heart so I just kept my paper folded in half!
Next I used my template to cut three half hearts. I used my template as the smallest shape. I simply drew around my template and cut it out for the top most layer. I did the same for the next two layers, but when I cut the shape out I left a bigger border (and bigger again for the third bottom layer). I promise it doesn’t have to be too accurate, take a sneak look at mine and you will see they aren’t. But follow my next tip and you will see it wont matter.
TIP: To hide imperfections, distress the edges of the half heart shapes. Either use a distressing tool or the blade of your scissors to rough up the edge and it really will hide any wobbles.
I then decided that I wanted to reflect the heart shape on the ‘missing’ half, but I didn’t want to cover up more of the gorgeous background paper. This paper is also from 49 & Market but from their Essentials range, which are neutral in colour, making the perfect background pages! They honestly have so many amazing details, its really worth taking a closer look!
To create the other half heart I used my template to draw in the shape, and then used a pokey tool to make fairly regular spaced holes along my line. Once you have your holes, you can erase the pencil line. I had a plan to the stitch along this with some pale yellow embroidery thread. But first I wanted to use the beautiful rub ons that are in the collection.
The 49&Market rub ons are the best quality and easiest to use rub ons I have ever owned. You get 6 sheets of beautiful designs and are actually great value. I wanted to add these before my stitching in case any of them overlapped the stitching. I used a bramble rub on, a doily rub on and some green splatter rub ons for this layout.
TIP: Always plan to put the layouts on a flat surface. You can get away with overlapping the rub-ons on different layers of papers and even your photo, but it would be very difficult to achieve a good finish if your trying to add them over stitching etc.
TIP: Another thing I would strongly recommend is to cut out the rub-on from the sheet of rub ons and then apply it to your layout. You will inevitably get all the other rub ons sticking to your layout if you don’t do this.
TIP: My final tip is that, as you can see in this next photo, I lightly traced the outline of where my photo would be placed. This allowed me to perfectly place the rub ons onto my layout.
I used my favourite technique of applying Distress Oxides to the cut file title with sponge applicators. I used Gathered Twigs, Forest Moss and for the ‘O’ I used Squeezed Lemonade. I stuck this below my heart shape, and then added a few die cut pieces on top to make it cohesive with the layout.
I used the fun twig frame die cut on top of my photo, and also layered up several die cut and ephemera pieces around my photo to make a focal point.
I added some more die cuts to the edges of the layout to add some green colour. I stamped the date below my photo. Lastly to finish the layout I used a pencil and sketched a load of leaves in places I felt needed a little more interest. I copied the leaf shapes from some of the papers. Please give it a go, you could practise on waste paper first, but it is so much easier than you might think and really adds something extra to the layout.
Thank you for coming to read about my thought process and how I created this layout. I hope it has inspired you to give some of these techniques a go and get creative. Why not heard over to the Hey Little Magpie Facebook group for more scrapbook chat and inspiration. Until next time, Take Care and Stay Safe
