Inspiration: November 2013 Scrapbook Generation Free Sketch + Just Us Girls challenge #639
Simple Stories has been releasing fantastic collections throughout the year and I was initially going to pass up on Into the Wild because I've found in the past that I've struggled to use collections that are animal or zoo-themed. I have been slowly but surely working on my Disney World album but I still had not put together any layout for our day spent at Animal Kingdom, as I wasn't sure what to use for those pictures. It dawned on me that Into the Wild could work pretty well, and this is the first layout I've finished putting together with the collection. I started with pictures from the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was pretty cool that the foam stickers have that exact word in it, and the Bits & Bobs have that adorable little green jeep as well.
My pictures from the safari are not stellar - most of the animals were far off in the distance, away or sleeping when we rode the attraction, but it was my very first visit at the Animal Kingdom park altogether, so I still wanted to document our visit there. Since the Scrapbook Generation layouts often include a ton of pictures, I had a look at various sketches and picked the November 2013 one. The fact that the animals were far off in the distance made it really easy to crop the pictures off to small 2" x 2" pictures and so on.
I bought a single collection pack so I didn't have any sheet duplicate, which means that in order to get the two blocks of paper going across the two-page layout, I had to get creative. I went looking through my monochromatic DSP from Stampin' Up! and pulled papers that matched the collection. I was really liking the yellow paper but only had a sheet and a half, so I reduced the size of the right-side block to accommodate the scrap I had. The photo mat and the two borders came from the Into the Wild papers.
For the square border, I would have die-cut squares out of patterned papers, but I wanted to be strategic about how I use the paper I have and I was also worried that would be one busy border, since the papers are not exactly discreet patterns. So I pulled cardstock colours matching the papers, die-cut each colour twice, then I used the Dotted and Stitched stamp set from Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous to add texture to each of them. I have to say, this might be one of my favorite detail of the layout! I also later on went through Candy Dots and Enamel Dots to add dots of matching colours on each of the squares.
I used one of the cut-apart blocks, turned 90 degree to match the sketch, for my journaling. I created my title with the foam sticker and gold puffy stickers from the Magical Forest collection. I recycled a piece of torn vellum that was on my desk to create a "shelf" for the word and add a bit of texture.
While looking through the ephemera pack, I noticed that the die-cuts included a lot of the same animals I had in my pictures, so I put those aside to see if I could match them to the pictures. I could not get each animal by its matching picture, because some of the animals were facing off the page, which did not look good and some were too big for the allowed space, so I moved the images around until I could find a pleasing arrangement. The animals I had the most trouble fitting in were the elephant, the zebra and the ostrich. I solved my problem by putting the elephant and the ostrich on top of other animals, to fill the space, and I found out that the cardstock sticker also included a zebra image that was actually smaller, so this condensed scale worked way better on the page.
I added some of the sentiment stickers around the page - my favorite is "Hakuna Matata" on the image of the warthog, my little Pumbaa lookalike. I had a jungle safari chipboard piece I was hoping to fit in, but I found the "Welcome to the jungle" cardstock sticker and again, the size was more convenient, so I popped it on foam and placed the puma over it. When I looked for embellishments, I found the Diamond Say It in Crystals gems, which actually have leopard dots and zebra stripes on them. They were perfect for this layout, so I added them to the title, and then I worked enamel dots around the pages.
I have a few remaining pictures, so I will probably make a couple of extra pages (maybe using pocket protectors) to add them to my album, and I'd like to use this collection to make the front page of our day at Animal Kingdom as well, so more to come later!
Supplies
Stamps: Marks (Woodware Craft Collection); Dotted and Stitched (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous);
Ticket Express (49 & Market)
Cardstock: Grey (Bazzill)
Ink: Regal Rose, Peach Passion, Mint Macaron, Dusty Durango, Lucky Limeade, Sahara Sand (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Foam Stickers, Bits & Pieces, Journaling Bits,
Cardstock Stickers: Into the Wild (Simple Stories)
Designer Series Paper Stack: Brights (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Vellum Stack: Botanical Gardens
Dies: Square Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Diamond Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing); Magical Forest Alphabet Stickers (Crate Paper);
Bundle of Joy Enamel Dots (Echo Park); Deckle Trimmer (Tim Holtz for Tonic); Decorative Scissors (Fiskars);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Enamel Shapes, Candy Dots, Mini Stapler, Gold and Clear Faceted Gems (Stampin' Up!)
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