Hey everyone, it's Lauren here. Thank you for popping back to my channel and checking out my latest video. Now this video is a special treat because I was asked by Felicity Jane, a beautiful kit subscription company to create a couple of layouts as for the month of June using their June subscription kit titled Catherine. Now Catherine is all about you. It's all about sharing your story. It has a theme around documenting you. So I thought a selfie for this one would be a great photo of me, a little bit of a scrappy moment to think about myself and where I'm at and who I am at the glorious age of 40. Well when I created this layout I was 40. I am now technically 41, but I'm holding on to that 40 and as you'll see right at the end I will have the hashtag 40 going on on this layout. So this kit is full of beautiful florals and polka dots and mint and pink and pops a yellow and it is absolutely delightful and I thought I would, I don't know why I thought I would do this on for a guest design kit, but I thought I challenged myself. I'm seeing so many wonderful scrapbookers out there using patent paper as their background and this is something that really doesn't sit well with me. I tend, I feel like I just can't make it work. So for some reason I decided to challenge myself when I've got this beautiful kit here to do it and use that floral background to create my layout on and you'll see me shortly, you'll see me flip the page and think contemplate using the other side of the paper, but I then pluck up the courage to flip it back over and continue to use that patent paper background and at the end even though when creating this I was thinking this is not coming together well at the end I look back and I think I did it and and I'm really happy with the layout. I'm scrapbooking in a 9x12 inch format this year in my project life album and this layout will form part of that and that's why I've got this odd shape that I'm kind of getting used to. My heart does tend to fall back on 12x12 inch but I'm trying to once again step outside my comfort zone and work within a different format and I'm really enjoying challenging myself. So as you can see I've just using the patent papers I've done some layering behind my photo and that's really to try my best to help it lift off that there you go see. I'm like no no I'm freaking out I'm going to go flip it over but I'll be brave and I flip it back over shortly but the reason for all those layers that I put under there and I rough those edges up with that distressing tool was to try and really make sure my photo wasn't going to get lost in that busy background and that by bordering it with a few layers and roughing up those edges so it kind of humps the photo I it helps sort of define that transition from the back to the photo cluster that you see there. I also used one of the pocket life cards and did a bit of fussy cutting because I wanted that floral cluster and I popped that down the end of the photo there and just using some of these stunning ephemera pieces I'm just building around my photo just to sort of really strengthen it and put lots of detail there so once again it doesn't get lost in that busy pattern background there. Those gorgeous little tags look all this ephemera is thick and beautiful and stunning and smooth to feel it's it's just stunning so all these treasures just help make a really sort of sturdy strong quality little photo cluster that you have there. Now to try and relax and think it'll be okay with this busy pattern background I thought I'd just use a little bit of white jesso just as often the pattern that's under where my photo cluster's going to be and as you'll see it just once again just draws your eye to the photo a little bit more still giving me the effect of those beautiful florals around and not losing those but it just softens that edging and makes that photo cluster area stand out a little bit more so if you're like me and a little bit nervous with pattern paper backgrounds this might be a trick to try on a layout just to use some white jesso awesome acrylic paint of another color that coordinates with your pattern paper and just sort of wash out that background a little bit and it just sort of softens that background and once again just draws your eye to that photo cluster as you see that it's done there. To be honest when looking at this video and doing this voice over I much I was much happier looking at it now than when I was creating it I was really nervous but I guess that's a beautiful thing about our hobby it is only paper these are photos and we can scrapbook these moments differently but enjoying pushing yourself outside those comfort zones is always a good good idea because you might fall in love with another style another technique so I encourage you all to just try something new even if you think no no no I can't do it just try something new. Now if you haven't heard of Felicity Jane I'm going to link all the details in the description below so that you can click on the link and go and check out this beautiful boutique scrapbooking kit club and it also has a Facebook group and the design team are regularly on there you can share your photos and they give beautiful feedback it's just a really lovely environment to be in there so as you can see this cluster has come together the photo is not getting lost in all that busyness background and I'm just playing around with those final embellishments I also want to go in and shortly add a little bit of stitching around the border of my page just to create a little bit more texture and I also add some stitching elements around the edge of just those little tidal words there which you'll be able to see that intricate detail at the end of the video I think I'm finished here but I'm not because off camera I popped back with some of those beautiful puffy alphabet stickers and just add a few tidal words there just to finish it off so I encourage you if just a hold to the end and you'll see how I've put some tidal words there but I just really wanted just a few actual little embellishments just to bring it all together and and make sure that my background wasn't competing too much with my photo cluster so if you're new to my channel a big welcome I hope that you like my scrapbooking style and what we consider becoming a subscriber into my current subscribers a big thank you for watching my videos I love my little scrapbooking family that is growing and growing all the time and I feel really blessed that you enjoy watching my videos all right so guys there's my layout there it is almost complete just wait till that flick of the end and you'll see some puffy alphabet appear I'm just roughing up the edges to add those final touches and there it's all done so I hope I have challenged you to step outside the comfort zone and try something a little different like me with this pattern paper and I hope that you'll consider popping on over to Felicity Jane and checking out their beautiful kits all right guys take care happy scrapping bye you