In the bleak midwinter: my design process

That title is misleading. It's not really been bleak here in Minnesota this year. Very little snow, very little cold. In fact, it should be 40 degrees this weekend! I'm going jogging.

Still, midwinter in Minnesota means almost no sunlight. I leave for work in the dark and arrive home in the almost dark too. That means it's very hard to take pictures of my layouts. I tried it outdoors, which didn't really work well. I'll just have to figure something else out until the Christmas tree comes down. (Our tree is in front of the picture window, the only natural lighting source indoors.) Here it is:


I started the page typically for me: I picked the photos with the idea of the story behind it. One photo was obviously the "starring" shot, so I printed it big; the rest were 3x3.

Next, I selected papers, this time from the left overs from Studio Calico's November kit Handmade. Indoor shots tend to be kind of dull color-wise for me, so I picked subdued hues; since my son was the most colorful thing of the page, he would stand out more against subdued hues.

At this point I figured out how to lay the photos on the page, fitting the papers in between. I made a block layout because it was the easiest way to put these photos together in a balanced manner. I tend towards asymmetry, so I like the way it looked.

At this point I picked embellishments and the title lettering. I selected the leaves because they looked a little bunny earish, and set them against a button. The letters were from a kit; I overlapped them slightly as I lay them down.

Here's where something typical happened for me: I realized I'd like to stitch some stuff down right next to some dimensional accents. So, I pried the buttons off carefully, stitched, and lay them down again. (Confession: this is the point I tend to mess up, ripping the paper or something. Then I have to fix it. Remember: no mistakes, only creative opportunities. Or there's this reminder by Ryan G. a la Handmade Ryan Gosling, if you prefer.)

Right now I journaled. I like doing the strips of journaling, since I can fit them almost anywhere.

Finally...finishing touches. The page looked a little blah, so I pulled out my twine and tied bow ties around the buttons. It was thematic and added a nice detail to the page. Just what I needed!

So there was a little glimpse into my design process. Thank you for reading! Please let me know how your design process goes, especially how it's different. I love to know how others create.