My July - and a shoutout to Bella Blvd

Link your layouts to this post if you want to play along this month.  You'll also see the link to SCT and the appropriate blog post for the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog.

July.  Oh July.  I loved the sketch for July this month and had a lot of fun going through my photos.  Check out what I chose:

(click it to enlarge the photo).

Now let's talk design.  I adjusted some of the sizes per the photos I wanted to use.  I only had horizontal photos of Steve, so he had to be in the middle there, and I didn't want all the lake photos to be together, so I switched places with the photos at the top, because I really wanted MY mug to get in the layout this month (I'm going to do better about making that happen every month, in fact).

When I had them all printed out and lined up, my first thought was that I needed to redo them, because the photos seemed too big to me, and that they'd take up all the space, not leaving much room for the embellishments. 

And then I told myself I was a complete moron and to leave them alone.  The point of a scrapbook layout is SUPPOSED to be the photos, not the embellishments!  Especially for this particular challenge, for pete's sake!  You can focus on pretty paper in another layout!  I agreed, and I told myself to chill out.

For the title I used the usual, my month stamps from Studio Calico.  Those butterflies?  Those are a little sneak peek at a stamp set in one of the add-ons for the September kit from Studio Calico.  I'm a bit in love with them and this particular shape works beautifully with the classic butterfly punch from Martha Stewart.  There are a couple different designs in this set with this shape, and they are also a few designs for the royal butterfly shape.   Lovely, huh? 

Those tags?  Those tags are 7gypsies.  I checked the label and I have had them since 2003.  These tags are neverending and I love that I am utilizing my stash, still.

Those flowers are Dear Lizzy crochet blossoms.  They worked perfectly with the paper.

The paper?  That's the Hello Beautiful line that debuted at the summer CHA show from Bella Blvd.  The team from Scrapbook and Cards Today will be hosting the Bella Blvd blog in the coming weeks and I was sent oodles of new product to play with.  The Hello Beautiful line is my favorite and the color palette was perfect for this July layout.  I loved that red print but used part of the paper for one of my blog layouts, so mixed it with another red print for the left side of my layout here.

The design thought for that idea is this:  the left side of my layout is heavy because of all the large photos.  For that reason, I needed to balance the right side of the layout, so carried the darker, heavier print to the right.  Then on the far left side, I used the print that had more color in it.  This balanced out the page more.  There's also balance in mind with the placement of the flowers and butterflies on this layout.  The far left one is in the middle, it carries you through the photos and up to the title and larger flower, which is there to bring weight to the right, and then the last bloom is on the lowest point of the layout, on the right hand side, to carry your eye through the rest of the page.

Make sense?  I just love that Becky keeps that type of thing in mind.  I think that's why people gravitate to her sketches without thinking about it.  Balance.  She has it.

With days to spare I am finished!  You still have time to play along!  The deadline is the 20th if you want a chance at a prize.  The prize this month is adhesive from American Crafts!

Davinie