Thursday's Tutorial: Simply Great to Simply Sensational

Here is a tutorial I found in my files that I never posted online, as it was submitted to a magazine. The magazine wanted to publish it if I could have both versions of the journal, but I only had the one.



Ideas for Taking Projects from Simply Great to Simply Sensational!
by Julie Ann Shahin

Ever create a project, and after sitting back and looking at it from a distance - realize it's just not quite right?

This very thing happened to me as I altered a composition notebook. I thought I was all finished - set it up on the bookcase, and after watching television for twenty minutes, decided the design was not quite right.

The first thing that I noticed was that the color of the ribbon was not quite right. Perhaps it was the ribbon was too thin - I needed a wider ribbon. STEP ONE. I replaced the thin ribbon with gorgeous (wider) ribbon from Strano Designs. Although I loved that the rubon was on the ribbon, I realized the thin ribbon was going to have to go.

I also didn't like the juxtaposition of the orange flower under the lime green flower. STEP TWO. Here I decided simpler was better - thus going with just one layer of flower petals. STEP THREE. I then added a 7gypsies tab that says "Dream" to the first page in the book.

Finally, I was bothered by a lack of definition near the binding of the book. STEP FOUR. I decided the aqua scalloped patterned paper would give just the right amount of "oomph", while staying trendy and feminine.  Plus, it gave a line of definition for the binding - which I thought was charming.

STEP FIVE. I moved the 7gypsies sticker down near the word "spirit" and then added the rub-on word "share" where the flower and felt tags had been. Otherwise, I would have been left with dead white space.

STEP SIX. My final touch was to remove the photo corner sticker above the slide mount, and add the Heidi Swapp bling word "cherish" which I had wanted to use but forgot about!  I'm much happier now that I re-worked the design. My mood changed from frustrated to feeling fabulous as well. Next time you make a creation, be willing to re-vise and re-work just like you would if you were writing a letter or a story. 

Have fun and be creative!

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