Using the Roman Holiday Documenter Kit with Carson Riuta

Hello and Happy New Year, my crafty friends! I’m so excited to be back on the design team here at Studio Calico for another year, but I’m especially excited to be designing with the Documenter Kit for 2017. The first kit was a beauty – I absolutely loved the soft blues, pinks, greens, and golds in the Roman Holiday kit.  

The two-page spread I created for the Creative Team Gallery was a spread of our Thanksgiving weekend trip to the Outer Banks. Well, I had so many pictures from that trip that I decided to create an additional insert using a design G page protector, which is only about 10.5 inches wide, to fit nicely between the two 12" x 12" pages of my November spread. Using cards and embellishments from the same kit really makes the addition of an insert so seamless, as all the elements work together.  

For this double-sided project, I used a few elements from the main Documenter Kit, added quite a few specialty cards from the gorgeous set designed by Life Love Paper, and then went a little crazy with the sticker sheet that was included in the Sabrina add-on kit this month. When making an insert, I want it to flow with the design of its parent pages but still have its own personality, so that you can see it as its own story. I also brought in the paper pad to fill one of the vertical 4" x 6" pockets on the design G page protector, as those can often be tricky pockets to fill.  

I loved how easy it was to use the valentine-themed sticker sheet to add character to my non-valentine spread. I simply steered away from the obvious “Be Mine” and “valentine” phrased stickers and was able to add all sorts of beautiful little touches that didn’t overwhelm the project. Also, my photos are all printed over at Persnickety Prints, and for some glorious reason, stickers don’t stick permanently to their surface on first contact, which means I was able to play around with my sticker placement on the photos themselves without having to commit right away. If I didn’t like where a sticker was stuck, I just peeled it up and moved it! So easy!  

The other notable little trick I used while creating this project was to highlight the light blue alpha stickers by outlining them with a fine-tipped black pen. As long as there are other black elements on the page, this trick will work well with all kinds of lighter colored embellishments to help them pop off the page and add contrast to the project. You just have to have a steady hand.  

I hope you’re enjoying your January goodies as much as I am. Thanks so much for reading today, and I can’t wait to see the beautiful pages you create with your gorgeous kits in hand.  

Happy crafting!  

Carson 

Supplies: Kits – "Roman Holiday" Documenter Kit, Sabrina Add-On Kit; Card Set – Specialty Icon by Life Love Paper; Paper – Roman Holiday 4x6 Paper Pad