Disney layout: Princess dinner

This layout appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today, in the readers’ gallery on page 72!

I’m reposting my original blog post (from December 20, 2020) about the layout…

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I bought some new papers from Shimelle’s Never Grow Up collection near the beginning of September 2020. I was so excited to use this light blue starry paper as a background for this layout for my Disney 2016 scrapbook. I immediately laid out the basic design for this layout…And then it sat there–for some reason, I was just stumped. I think part of it was the fact that this particular event was pretty special, and I wanted to make a layout that would convey “perfectly” all the little moments that added up to make this a memorable evening for my daughter (and me!).

Finally, in the very beginning of December, I buckled down and really worked on it. I started small: I added a white mat to each photo and finally figured out how I was going to include my journaling: I typed it up and used my Silhouette Cameo print-and-cut feature to make sure that my boxes were cut exactly where I wanted them to be around the text.

left side

right side

I was very thankful that my husband had written down some details of the interactions between my daughter and each princess in my daily trip journal that evening, because it really captured some of my daughter’s personality at that point.

Once I had those white mats and journaling ready, I was able to break through my “scrappers block” and start embellishing. One thing that I’d known for sure from the very beginning that I wanted to include was this “starry-eyed” sticker from Shimelle’s Head in the Clouds collection.

In fact, I’d taken it out of the 12×12 project pad and stuck it temporarily to the edge of a box I had on my desk, to remind me to use it… and in those months in between starting and finishing, I managed to lose it! I’d been doing some sewing in that time, and I was pretty sure it had gotten caught up on some fabric… but the problem was that I didn’t have any idea where it could have been carried! I searched and searched (and used it as an excuse to put off the layout even longer!) and my daughter even offered to give me her sticker from the project pad I’d given her! (so sweet!) One evening, after I’d all but given up, I went into my sewing closet to pull something out for a hand-sewing project, and lo and behold! the sticker was there at the back of the shelf! And undamaged, at that! I was so excited.

Among the photos and journaling squares, I had two “feature” squares, one using a 3×4 cut-apart (from Shimelle’s Head in the Clouds) that I trimmed down to a 3″ square, and one using some smaller cut-aparts (from Shimelle’s Starshine) that I combined together to make a square.

As I put these feature squares together, they established the embellishment scheme I ended up using for the photos. I used doilies behind each of the posed photos of my daughter with a princess, and I layered strips of patterned paper and washi tape on different sides of the squares.

On the photos of my daughter interacting with the princess, I added a small, horizontal piece of washi tape and a wood veneer piece (hearts or birds– both old Studio Calico products). I sprinkled gold glitter enamel dots around the whole layout, and of course also used them to make a hidden Mickey!

I used the same elements in the title block– strips of washi, gold glitter Thickers, a tiny doily, and a wood veneer piece to tie everything together. I added the location and date on a tiny label sticker from Shimelle’s Sparkle City sticker folder. The aqua alpha tile stickers are from Shimelle’s #stickerbook.

Looking back, I’m not quite sure why I was so hung up on this, but I am glad that I didn’t force it, because I really do love how this layout turned out!