Layout: Expert Road-Trippers

(as always, click on photos for larger versions)

Here is a layout I just finished about how the boys have really grown into car travel.  They can now hang out in the car for an all-day car ride like it's nothing!  It's soooo much easier than when they were little!  It started after the last of our Christmas travels, a ski trip just days after we got back from a family visit.  We could really tell we had turned the corner then, and sure enough they have been champs all summer.  If you have little ones, take heart:  they can adjust to it... with enough practice!

The original design for this layout was by Cheryl at one of her Stamp Classes.  I love love love these "Travel Log" stamps from Stampin' Up! Right now they are not available, as they were in a previous seasonal mini-catalog.  But they could always come back in next year's full catalog so cross your fingers.  Here is the original design:

Cheryl had us make all the elements including that awesome little map.  I usually take her designs and spin them just a little.  For one thing, I like to accommodate a lot of pictures.  Also, between printing and cutting, I end up with various picture sizes. I find I like things grouped together.  But mostly, I really enjoy starting with something neat and making it my own.

This time, I ended up with a lot of red accents in the photos and decided I also wanted a little red in my embellishments.  Also, I wanted to cluster the embellishments and didn't have quite enough to give it a layered look.  So, I made a tag out of an office supply tag and some matching circles.  I used a rosette my sister had made during her visit that happened to match.  Finally, I added a scrap of patterned paper (leftover from Money-Pocket) that tied the page colors together and filled in the gaps in my photo grid.  That gave me enough stuff to make some embellishment clusters and a nice visual triangle out of the red bits.

One thing I found interesting was that I had it like this and then tore up a few things and changed it to the version at the top of the post (yes, one of the tabs has fallen askew here but I've fixed that too).

 

I don't know if the difference is noticeable when you aren't looking at them side by side, but in this one the tag is tilted the other direction.  I thought I had everything like I wanted it but then it felt unbalanced.  I decided the lines of the tag were leading the eye off the page instead of onto it and switched the direction.  I don't know if anyone but me even sees the difference but I'm happier with it switched!