A warm-up page

When I go to a crop like I did last weekend, I usually bring photos that I know I will use for a "warm-up page." They are fun or about a fun topic, will not be too challenging design-wise to scrap, and will allow me to pick out product I am excited to use.

At last weekend's crop I began with a warm-up page. I had some photos I'd taken last year of the route I jog (obviously, those were some of my slower jogs: the ones I stopped to take pictures during!). I'd never made pages with the photos, but I thought I'd pull some photos together from different seasons to put on a page about my route. Since the city had recently closed the route for repaving, I've been thinking fondly of my old route and wanted to scrap it!

I pulled a new collection from Fancy Pants Designs called Memories Captured which I thought would look nice with the photos: lots of greens and blue, plus touches of yellow and orange to fit with the few fall photos I had. Here's the page I made:

I love using 8x12 photos to highlight a dramatic shot, especially of scenery, and use smaller photos to give some details. My problem with my dramatic shot: My jogging route has some MASSIVE power lines, which impede the beauty. That line of smaller photos covers most of the lines, leaving the winding path in the front.

Here's some details:

 

I used some of the small label stickers, ephemera, buttons/brads, and cork stickers to highlight the photo strip. And cover power lines. :-) I try to pick stickers that fit the theme a bit--ZOOM and the one on the bottom of the page, GO YOUR OWN WAY, seemed to fit a page about running somehow.

I added some patterned paper to the back of the die cut  and sewed it together to a pocket. I had initially envisioned making a tag for the journaling, but I really loved putting a button in that hole (most designs, IMO, could be made better with a button. Not really kidding--it's a running joke with my scrapping crew that I always put buttons on my pages!). As a result, I decided I'd have to do journaling strips instead, which overlapped a bit too much on the photo. Looking back, I wish I'd put that pocket a little further left, but I'd already sewed it down, so too late! :-)

Thank you so much for checking out my warm-up page! If you have a big project to do, I suggest a page like this--fun subject, fun project, not-too-strenuous design--to get your creative motors started.