Guest Designer Nancy Damiano using Family Stories collection and a 1, 2, 3 photo challenge on her layouts!

Hi there! I’m Nancy Damiano from New Jersey. I'm married and Mama to one little boy named Nico + favorite Aunt to a little tribe of nieces and nephews. I love a good story (listening to one, telling one, or reading one), anything aqua and Disney World. Oh, and scrapbooking - I do a bit of that too. I am a Garden Girl over at Two Peas in a Bucket where I spend lots of time making scrapbooking videos for a series called Scrap Your Stash. I’ve been scrapbooking in one shape or form since 1996. I’ve always loved making stuff, but I guess you could say the scrapbooking thing really stuck. You can see more of my work on my blog at www.thepaperochard.blogspot.com.

I was lucky enough to get the Family Stories line to work with. I love the color palette and icons in this collection. It’s perfect for themed and non-themed pages. To make things more interesting, I challenged myself to create a series of layouts with 1, 2 and 3 photos each. Here are some of the layouts I came up with.

The first layout features a single photo. One of my favorite shots from our recent Disney cruise. This is the first page in my cruise album, so I kept it simple and to the point. I used a color blocking technique to highlight the photo without overwhelming it. What I love most about color blocking is that everything has it’s ‘place’. A photo spot, a journaling spot and a decoration spot. The row of brads add a pop of dimension to an otherwise pretty flat page. The glitter border gives it that punch of sparkle.

This layout is heavy on the embellishments. Two of my favorite things from Family Stories are the sequins and chipboard elements. Both of these elements are highlighted on this layout by lining them up across the side and middle of the layout. The sequins were held in place with a dot of adhesive and then sewn onto the layout. I love how they add color and shine to the layout. The chipboard arrows create a vertical visual line and the envelope cluster adds dimension to the layout. I placed the photos on a vellum mat so that the diagonal stripe background didn’t overshadow them.

My final layout includes three photos. There was a story here – about my son losing his two front teeth the day before vacation and I wanted to combine the two. I started with a stark white background and then layered all of the aqua and red elements from Family Stories that I could find. I think that while the palette is bold, it really complement the photos. The huge ampersand was perfect for the title and a journaling card tucked behind the focal point photo tells the story.

Once I was finished with all three layouts, I gathered my leftover supplies and created this card. The base is a file folder from the Family Stories line. I decorated it with bits and pieces of layered stickers, die cuts and a single button with an enamel dot in the center.

Thank you so much Nancy!! We were so excited to have Nancy as a guest designer today, we just love her style! Please leave her a message below and to see more of her work please check out her blog here:  www.thepaperochard.blogspot.com