Life Crafted Inspiration with Shannon

Hello, crafty friends! Shannon here with some Life Crafted inspiration for you. I just love these albums. I mostly use them for spreads about me but I recently started one for family stories as well. My ideas for this album is that it'll be filled with stories that deserve more of a spotlight than I give on my pocket pages. This just happens to be the first story! It was our first family "outing" during the quarantine and it just so happened to mesh perfectly with the May 2020 Journeys Life Crafted kit.

I had a lot of photos from this outing so I opted for a 2x2 square grid pocket page. This is such a great option for lots of photos! I chose my favorites and alternated them down the page. Then I cut up some patterned papers and journaling cards from the Life Crafted kit. [note: the May 2020 Life Crafted kit and many of the components are sold out. I will link to the digital product where I can.] This was a great way to get break up the photos on the page.

I used two tags from the May 2020 Cut Apart Elements to add to my drone photos. Those sayings were meant for these pictures! I also used the Journeys 3x4 Kit Stamp to add sentiments to my patterned paper. Since my journaling cards had such large phrases (and one was pretty colorful), I opted to keep the embellishing to a minimum so I didn't overwhelm the page. A label, a stamp, and a geotag on the bottom square of patterned paper was all that was necessary to complete this side of the spread.

Since the left page was packed with color, I wanted to keep the right side fairly clean and neutral. I used the Journeys Traveler's Notebook Basics Digital Papers as my base for the right side. I simply opened the file in Photoshop to add the date, weather, and my journaling. This could also easily be done by hand as well!

I chose a photo with a lot of "white space" (the sky) to add to the lighter feel to this side of the spread. It's important to have balance in your pages! I mentioned that I didn't want a lot of color on this side, so it must have been meant to be that there was a chipboard embellishment in the same color as the compass - and it fit perfectly into the open spot!

The May 2020 Journeys Life Crafted Kit ephemera pack came with some fantastic die cut words. They're delicate and modern at the same time. They definitely make a big impact! That's exactly what I was looking for at the bottom of this page. My journaling didn't quite fill up the whole spot but this die cut "travel" filled in the blank space perfectly. I added one last touch - a Tiny Word Sticker - over a swatch of pink that was already at the bottom of the page. I did this to pull in the colors from the other side of the spread in a little way. You'll notice that I also made sure to have a little bit of peach on my left side to connect the two pages and add a cohesive look to the overall spread.

I hope I've inspired you to try a Life Crafted album or break out that May 2020 Journeys Life Crafted Kit to document your travels - even if they're just local travels around town. I can't wait to see what you create!