For the Boys - Traveler's Notebook Spreads | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone! It's Sue Plumb here with my latest guest designer project to share with you. You might recall that last week I shared a pretty floral 12x12" layout (you can see it HERE); so for this week I decided to go in an entirely different direction with some boy themed traveler's notebook (TN) spreads.

My love for TNs has really grown over the past 12 months, as I approach this format quite differently to the "traditional" layouts I do. These little books are less about the process, and more about getting the memories down so I include a lot more journalling. For today's post I was working in one of my sons books and getting a couple of stories recorded for him.

I started this spread with a piece of leftover patterned paper from another project, so I thought I would take the opportunity to use it up on this. (This is a great way to use up scraps.) The paper I used was the I Love You paper from the Simple Stories 'Heart' collection, and I placed a piece on either side of my spread as my base.

The next step was to arrange my photos and my printed journalling. (I pre-print my journalling so I know exactly how much space it will need on the page.) Just like a larger layout, once I have those things in place, it's simply a case of filling in space with embellishments. For this spread I was working with the Ephemera Pack from the Pinkfresh Studio 'Boys Fort' collection. 

All the embellishments you can see on this spread are from the same Ephemera Pack; and I simply shuffled through the pack and found ones that work work to fill the spaces on my page. The final step to finish off my spread was to add some spots to the white space using a very fine grey felt pen.

For my second spread, I again began with my background. This time I used a scrap of the Treasured Memories paper (also from the Simple Stories 'Heart' collection); along with a scrap of the Happy Go Lucky paper from the Cocoa Vanilla Studio 'Boys Rule' collection. 

This time I also matted my main photo with the same Cocoa Vanilla Studio patterned paper to help it stand out more on the page. Again, I placed my photos and journalling before turning my attention to the embellishments.

I used the same Pinkfresh Studio 'Boys Fort' Ephemera Pack to embellish this page as I did for the previous spread. This time however, I needed an extra pop of blue so I fussy cut some blue stars from the Starshine paper from the Cocoa Vanilla Studio 'You Rock' collection (using my awesome limited edition gold Fiskars scissors).

I finished off my spread by stamping some little banners using StazOn black ink and a roller stamp from my stash; and with some doodling using fine tip felt pens.

I hope I have inspired you with some ideas for the next time you get creative - maybe try the traveler's notebook format if you haven't already, or even just create something masculine?

Thanks so much for stopping by, I will be back again next week with another project to share.