Write from the Heart with Kiwi Lane.... and Downtown Tape!

Supplies: patterned paper, small letter stickers (Simple Stories); washi tape (Downtown Tape); brad (American Crafts); glitter letters (Creative Imaginations); ink (Ranger); pen (Staedtler)

Kiwi Lane Templates used: Paradise 4, Tiny Accents 1T, Tiny Wacky 1T, Happy Trail 3A

Do you every have "leftover" photos?  You know, the ones you print thinking you'll use them on a layout, but they end up just not fitting?  What do you do with them?  I usually give them to my daughter and let her use them for her layouts, but I kept finding these fun photos of her and her cousin that I just couldn't let go of.  I knew the day would come when I could put all those random extra photos together- and I was right!  

My brother and his family are moving to Guam this month- and this includes my daughter's BFF cousin.  I wanted to make a page with some of those photos as a glimpse into their friendship.  I set to work with my templates, some fun paper by Simple Stories and some marvelous tape from Downtown Tape- an awesome trio!  First I chose my background paper and started to lay out my page.  It looked something like this:

Of course, I always end up moving things around and changing some photo sizes while I'm making the layout.  For instance, I had a flower covering most of a head, so I moved it.  One more reason I love using the Kiwi Lane templates is this planning process!  I knew I'd need a pretty big space for journaling and the templates helped me plan around that space without guessing where things would end up.  I was able to cut my large piece of lined paper (I'm a big fan of lined paper for hand-written journaling!!) and plan around it! No guessing and cutting and wasting pretty paper!  Love it!!  And this is the journaling I ended with:

When I'm planning on doing large sections of hand-written journaling, I cheat and write it all out first on scratch paper, making corrections along the way.  Then I use that to read off of and do my journaling on the page.  I still make mistakes when I'm doing my writing, but my thoughts are a bit more organized.

I loved using the washi tape from Downtown Tape as I would use ribbon- looped behind the top right photo for some added embellishment.  Did you know that you can keep the tape from sticking to itself (making it look more like ribbon) by dusting it with talcum powder?  This is what I did to keep my loops from completely flattening out.  I also made sheets of washi out of the tape that I could trace a template on and easily cut it out- the layered flowers on the page are both made using that technique.  Here's how:

Lay strips of washi (long enough to span the width of the template you intend to trace) sticky side up, slightly overlapping the edges.  When you have enough laid out to accommodate the size of the template, start laying strips of washi tape sticky side down and perpendicular to (or criss-crossing) the washi that is laying sticky side up.  It should look something like this:

Now give it a good rub to make sure it's all stuck together.  Then place your template on top and trace:

I used a pencil to trace and found that it worked quite well and didn't leave dark marks that I had to make sure I cut off.  I also found that cutting the exposed tape off your washi sheet made for easier cutting (nothing extra got stuck to me or the scissors that way).  Here's what my flower looked like:

And I loved the finished look because it has kind of a transparent/plastic/paper look that is hard to see when it's laying on the mat, but this is what it looks like in the light:

Kind of fun!  The orange one had more of a grid pattern because it was lined washi tape.  And here's what it looked like on my page:

And, of course, I had to make a cute little card with some of my scraps:

Kiwi Lane Templates used:  Tiny Floral 3T, Tiny Wacky 2T, Thoughtful 2A

I used the same washi tape layering method to make the pink fluff behind the sentiment.  I love how it just gives a little bit more dimension to the card without adding too much bulk!

Are you as obsessed with washi tape as I am? ;)  Try giving this technique a try!  I'd love to see what you come up with so don't forget to comment with a link to your creative endeavor!

Don't forget to stop by on Friday- Kiwi Lane is doing their monthly blog hop and I have a 2 page layout to share... and maybe a prize will be involved... ;)

That's it for now.  Thanks for looking and happy scrapping!