Guest Designer: Basic Grey

I was thrilled to recently receive an email inviting me to be a guest designer for Basic Grey.  Ummmmm, you want me to create with my choice of your beautiful paper collections AND you'll feature my work on your blog?!  YES, please, sign me up!

If you follow me on instagram, you might have guessed from the sneak peeks I've been sharing, that I've been keeping this little secret.   Todays' the day I get to share all of the projects I have been working on in their entirety!  I used a mix of Basic Grey's Second City collection by Kelly Purkey and the Capture collection.

Second City has many travel themed icons and phrases, which are great for documenting your trips and/or vacations.  I wanted to use this collection in a bit of a different way on my first page, though.  All of the purples in the collection, reminded me of some photos I had not yet scrapped of my daughter when she was just learning to cruise and walk.   The travel themed phrases 'let's go', 'take the scenic route' '& adventure' worked just perfect to document this milestone. 



Supplies used: Basic Grey Capture & Second City - patterned paper, stickers, diecuts, flair, 3x4 cards, chipboard; Other: veteran typewriter font, foam adhesive, twine.

I loved that I could combine pieces of Second City so easily with the Capture collection. I might not have paired these two initially, but they share some common colors that really allow them to coordinate well.

 

 

Sizing my photos down to 2x3" and arranging everything into a 3 x 3 grid allowed the design to stay cohesive.  I was able to include four pictures, plenty of journaling and lots of different layers and textures.  Take for instance this title piece - I used multiple stickers, diecuts, chipboard, stitching and twine all layered together.  If I had done this type of layering all throughout the page, it would be chaotic.  Focusing the textures and layers among select pieces of the grid, instead, allows for movement through the page, and still keeps the focus on the pictures.

 

 

For the second of the two layouts I completed, I couldn't help but to go pretty literal in theme and memory. I used Second City to document a fun memory from a girl's trip my mom, sister and I took, this past summer.

 

Once again, I was drawn to the purple in this collection, which surprisingly is actually is a color I never reach for!  I love how it provides a somewhat 'neutral' background for all of the added details and layers happening on this page.

 

Supplies used: Basic Grey Second City - patterned paper, transparent & paper diecuts, wood embellishments, letter stickers, flair; American Crafts - twine; We R Memory Keepers - cardstock; Silhouette - Vegas script title; Other: Bebas Nue font (title), Veteran Typewriter font (journaling); machine stitching.

Aren't those feathers great?  I mixed a diecut paper, transparent and sticker feather to create a cluster alongside my photo.  The '3' circle diecut couldn't have been more perfect to represent a picture of the three of us.

 

Lots more strategically placed diecuts and stitching work together to frame the photo.  I loved the wood veneer pieces that accompanied this collection.  Boy are they sticky, too!  There will be no worries of coming back to this page in the future, and wondering whether or not the heavier embellishments have stayed in place!

To create the title I used a combination of letters cut from my silhouette along with the great tiny letter stickers included in the collection.  That orange ombre paper was too fun not to use for the title!

 

 

These two collections make for some pretty fun cards, too!  Again, I went for it with a cluster and mix of feathers behind my sentiment.  To continue to carry the color throughout the card design, I used the transparent triangle pieces to carry the eye from the top of the card to the bottom.

 



 

 

I knew this cityscape image would be the perfect compliment to a 'missing you' greeting.  The alphabets included in each collection are a great size for cards.  Since they are small enough to work on a card, they allowed me to customize my sentiment just perfectly!

 



 

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my excitement today!  I hope you'll swing on over to the Basic Grey blog also, to get another look at my featured projects and read my answers to the 'baker's dozen' questions.  If you do, make sure you comment and say HI!