Top Ten of 2011

Every year, I post my top ten layouts of the year at the end of December. Today's post is just that - ten layouts that I want to keep looking at and reading again and again. As always, they are in no particular order. There is one layout I'd have included here that's out for publication, so keep watching Scrapbooks, Etc. for that one. ;)

1. I'll start with a layout that I've never posted online before. I did this one for the September "Design Play" issue of Masterful Scrapbook Design. It features products from October Afternoon's Sidewalks line. I love this one because I love the photo, the emotion it evokes for me, and the pops of bright color against the black background.

2. Sticking with black and October Afternoon Sidewalks, here's a layout I did about our wedding, reflecting back fourteen years later. I love this one because of the photo and the journaling, but also because I adore the giant banner flags (this was the second layout I did that on - I like this one much better than the first one). Kitchen skewers + stickers + baker's twine = easy and fun embellishment.

3. Next up is another layout I haven't posted anywhere before. This one was so different for me, but I love how it turned out! I decided to create a layout that would dig into my stash, so dig I did! I kept adding and adding and adding things, so it's significantly more product-heavy than most of my layouts, but, hey, variety's a good thing, right? ;) Patterned papers are from Cosmo Cricket, My Mind's Eye, and October Afternoon; the stickers are from Studio Calico, My Mind's Eye, and October Afternoon; the badges are from Ormolu and October Afternoon, and the fabric tab and journaling card (digital - I printed it out) are also Ormolu.

4. Okay, okay, I get it, enough of the black backgrounds, already. Moving on to white...This layout was one of the four I sent in when I applied for the Bella Blvd design team. I love all the bright colors, and that this rockstar layout combines products from a Halloween line, a Christmas line, and a sports line. 

5. Sticking with a white background, and Sadie, here's a layout I did last week, my first layout using my brand-new Silhouette CAMEO (to which I am now addicted). The first thing I cut was a set of mustaches for Sadie to play with. She was hamming it up and trying them on so I snapped pics and then cut smaller mustaches for the layout as well as an airplane ticket. Bonus? The extra small mustaches were sized just right for American Girl dolls. :) All of the non-Silhouette products here are from October Afternoon's Boarding Pass line (except the telephone, which is October Afternoon Five & Dime), which I hadn't originally thought of as a spy-themed line, but it works, doesn't it? I think I need to move the mustaches on the toothpicks so that the left edge of each mustache is attached to the toothpick, rather than the center of the mustaches. Funny how you have to post something online sometimes to figure out what's wrong with it!

6. More Sadie and a white background next...this one I did for the Bella Blvd December newsletter. I went crazy with punches and it turned out really fun!

7. Family history next. This may be one of my all-time favorite layouts ever. I did this one with October Afternoon Boarding Pass. I love that I was able to resize scans of my grandfather's family passport and embarkation cards to include on this layout.

8. Here's another October Afternoon Boarding Pass layout - this one was for the booth at CHA last summer. I love how the background paper acts as an embellishment - I didn't have to do much else to finish out this layout.

 

9. Here's another "busting into my stash" layout. I have been hanging onto these cute animals from Cosmo Cricket for far too long. I combined them with some October Afternoon Farmhouse, Amy Tangerine Thickers from American Crafts, and a tiny heart sticker from Jillibean soup. Love the cute animals, love the cute kids, love how the new and old products combined so well!

10. Last, but not least, is a layout I made with a very special photo I scanned while visiting my parents. This one uses October Afternoon Farmhouse.

In looking back at my layouts from this year, I am sensing some trends:

• I still love white/black/kraft backgrounds.

• I have made a shift back towards computer-generated, rather than handwritten, journaling. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I do love seeing my writing on my layouts, but I've been doing more clean-lined layouts this year (I used to do a lot of torn edges), and the printed journaling seems to align better design-wise with that for me. I did just handwrite on a layout I did today, so I think I'm going to let this be and just go with whatever I feel the design calls for.

• I'm using a lot of embellishments on sticks. Skewers and toothpicks are always on my desk these days.

Okay, folks, there you have it: my ten favorite layouts of 2011 and my thoughts on how my style has both stayed the same and shifted a bit.

Stay tuned, as after years of being a horribly irregular blogger, I have cooked up a Monday through Friday schedule that makes sense to me and won't be too taxing for me to keep up with. 

I'll be back tomorrow to share my Silhouette CAMEO-cut New Year's decor, and then Monday will be the start of the new-and-improved Right Side Up.

I'd love to hear from any of you who are also posting your top ten (link me up in the comments here, please!) and from any of you who are doing some year-end reflecting on your style.