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Retro Style Pages

The retro look is in: Whether you’re scrapping memorable photos from your own childhood or looking for fun patterns and colors to accent those modern teen pages. Cool colors like brown, pink and orange plus funky patterns like paisley and flowers will add color and style to your layouts. This month, Paris and Susan explore the retro look on two feminine layouts featuring 12”x12” Retro sarapapers™ and new 8”x8” Retro Papers.

Naturally Natalie
By Paris Dukes

“This double-page spread was easy to create with coordinating 8”x8” papers and artwork, then I personalized the page with a hand-crafted title,” Paris says. “First I cut out letters from a coordinating paper to spell “Natalie”, then used a brown pen to finish off the title. To create cut-out letters, you can trace the letters onto your choice of paper from a stencil, then use scissors or an X-acto® knife to cut around the lines (Hint: Use an X-acto® knife to easily cut the openings in letters like “a”, “e” and “o”). You can also use a computer to print out your letters onto standard printer paper and lay your solid or patterned paper on top. Use a light table or light from a window to trace the letters onto your paper, then cut around the traced lines.”

Supplies:

Instructions:

For the Left Page:

  1. Use one sheet of the blue with flowers paper as the background. Mat the photo on brown cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/8”. Cut an 8”x4 1/2” piece of tan texture paper. Glue the matted photo to the right side of the tan texture paper, 1/8” in from the edge. Cut a 5 1/2” length of pink grosgrain ribbon and lay it vertically down the left side of the tan texture paper, then wrap the ends around the top and bottom edges and secure the tails on the back. Cut out the artwork and use foam mounting tape to attach it down the ribbon length. Attach the tan texture mat 1” down from the top edge of the page.
  2. Cut a 2” length of pink grosgrain ribbon and lay it horizontally in the top right corner of the page, wrapping about 1/2” of the ribbon around the edge to secure on the back. Cut out the “explore” artwork and use foam mounting tape to attach it over the loose end of the ribbon length.
  3. Cut a 5”x2” piece of light blue cardstock. Cut out letters to spell the name from brown cardstock and glue across the light blue cardstock. Use a brown pen to complete the title. Mat on brown cardstock, trimming the top, left and bottom edges of the mat to 1/16” and trimming the right edge flush against the light blue cardstock. Glue in the bottom right corner of the page, flush against the right edge.

For the Right Page:

  1. Use the bead border paper as the background, orienting the paper so the border runs down the right side. Cut a 2 3/4”x8” piece of blue with flowers paper and glue it down the right edge of the page, covering the bead border. Cut a 9” length of pink grosgrain ribbon and lay it vertically down the page, covering the seam between the tan texture portion of the background paper and the blue with flowers paper. Cut out the button artwork and use foam mounting tape to attach it down the ribbon length.
  2. Mat the photo on light blue cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/8”. Glue in the top left corner of the page.
  3. Cut one 2” and one 2 1/2” length of pink grosgrain ribbon and lay them horizontally in the bottom left corner of the page, wrapping about 1/2” of each ribbon around the edge to secure on the back. Cut out the “wonder” and “discover” artwork and use foam mounting tape to attach one over the loose end of each ribbon length.

 

Best Friends
By Susan Cobb


Click here for larger image.

“To emphasize the retro theme of this ‘Best Friends’ page, I created a punched paper flower and added it between the areas of journaling at the bottom of the page,” says Susan. “The flower adds femininity to the page while the center of the flower and the ribbon leaves add extra texture and dimension. When working with many small pieces of journaling and embellishments, it’s a good idea to have a similar element running throughout the page to tie all the elements together. For this layout, I chose to add penwork around the edges of the background paper, the photo mats, the journaling and even the cute stem on the flower to mimic the edges of the ribbon printed on the border.”

Supplies:

Instructions:

  1. Use the pink texture with border paper as the background, orienting the paper so the border runs down the left side, and ink the edges with black. Use a black pen and a ruler to draw straight lines about 1/8” in from the edges of the pink texture portion of the paper. Begin just to the right of the pink and black gingham ribbon portion of the border and draw one line along the top, right, and bottom edges of the pink texture portion, meeting back at the ribbon border. Add small dots about 1/8” apart along each line to mimic the edges of the ribbon printed on the border of the paper. Add one black brad to each corner of the pink texture portion, just inside the penwork lines.
  2. Mat the photo on lime glimmer paper, trimming the mat to 1/2”. Use the black pen and ruler to add the same penwork as in step 1 around the edges of the photo mat. Mat again on black cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/32”. Glue 1 1/4” down from the top edge of the pink texture portion of the background paper.
  3. Computer journal onto lime glimmer paper and crop to a vertical rectangle. Add penwork around the edges, then mat on black cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/32”. Glue the matted journaling in the bottom left corner of the page, overlapping both the pink texture and border portions of the background paper.
  4. Cut out the coordinating green texture tag and glue it to the bottom portion of the page, about 1” to the right of the journaling block. Add one black brad to the top of the tag. Computer journal the phrase “best friends”, the class, the names and the school year separately onto lime glimmer paper. Cut each into small rectangles and add penwork around each of the edges. Glue the “best friends” journaling to the tag. Add the class journaling just above the tag and the names in the bottom right corner of the page, about 1” in from the right edge. Add the school year journaling overlapping the background paper’s border, centered just to the left of the photo. Add one black brad to the top of the school year journaling.
  5. Use a 2” daisy punch to punch two flower shapes out of lime glimmer paper, then glue one on top of the other, staggering the petals. Punch a 3/4” circle out of pink striped paper and ink the edges with black, then use foam mounting tape to secure it to the center of the layered flowers. Glue the flower between the tag and the journaled names on the background paper. Use a black pen to add a curly stem extending from the bottom of the flower and add dots to the stem to coordinate with the rest of the penwork.
  6. Cut five 3” lengths of lime grosgrain ribbon and trim the tails of each at an angle. Tie a knot in the center of each ribbon length, then use Glue Dots™ to attach them to the page. Add one to the curly flower stem and add the remaining four down the pink and black gingham ribbon portion of the border by placing two above and two below the school year journaling.

Paris Dukes and Susan Cobb are professional scrapbook designers who can't get enough of the new retro trend.