September Kit. First inspirational layout by Kerry Mcinally

Kerry is here with her first layout using the September 2024 kits. She’s sharing ideas on how to incorporate stencils and inks into your layouts. Here’s what she has to say…

For this layout I used the Blackbird and Watermelon cardstock and the Take Heart and Pen Pal patterned papers, along with  a piece of Bazzill Marshmallow cardstock from my own stash.

I began by backing my 4x6 inch portrait photo with some scrap white cardstock, the Watermelon cardstock and the Pen Pal patterned paper, distressing the edges using my Tim holtz edge distresser.

Next I started to work on my background.  I gutted (removed the middle from) the Blackbird cardstock leaving a frame of around 1inch.  Then I trimmed roughly 1/2 an inch from some white heavy weight cardstock from my own stash.  I used two Distress Oxide inks in Kitsch Flamingo  and Picked Raspberry to create a background.  I used the packaging technique to apply the Kitsch Flamingo to my white cardstock.

I then used two heart stencils, from my own stash, to layer hearts, starting with larger hearts at the top and working down to smaller hearts at the bottom of the layout.

Next I used some Tim Holtz Texture Paste mixed with some Picked Raspberry spray and applied this in random places through the stencil.  I kept bringing my photo back in to check I wasn’t applying the paste where my photo was going to go.

Using the Take Heart patterned paper I cut out several hearts as I wanted to use these as my ephemera pieces around my photo.  I used foam behind some to raise them up from the background.  Then I used the title ‘fun time’ from the 49 and Market Sunburst word collection along with some word phrases from the 49 and Market Spectrum Gardenia collection, along with a few black hearts.

I placed the title and hearts around the page, and went round a few of the stenciled hearts with a black fine-liner pen. Finally I adhered my white cardstock to the black frame. 

Bazzill: Marshmallow

Distress Oxide Ink: Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo

Distress Oxide Spray: Picked Raspberry  (or you could try the Picked Raspberry Distress Spray Stain instead.)

Scor-Tape (other widths available)