I Hope You Dance

Do you ever start to feel like you just need to create something but you aren't sure what? That has been me all week.  Not interested in house work (but when am I ever?), feeling kinda tired and lazy, and having a hard time getting motivated to start something.  Then the other night I was sitting on the couch and thought, "maybe I could start a digi layout...then I won't have to move out of this spot!"  And that is exactly what I did.  :)  I pulled up my scrapbook to do list and chose an idea for my All About Me album.  I spent most of my life as a dancer and I decided that I was ready to tell that story.

I always start a layout by looking for design inspiration and I typically scraplift...must be why I named my blog what I did!  ;)  But starting a digi layout is so much more difficult for me.  With paper I start playing around with things and moving them around on my table.  With digi I have to search through my files to find something I want and I can't lay them next to each other to see if they will work.  I'm much more likely to make a carbon copy scraplift when I'm going digital.

So I was pretty lucky that Ella had just posted the second sketch for their Stretch Your Sketches challenge!

This sketch and page are both 12x12 and I was doing an 8.5x11 two page spread.  Donna Jannuzzi did make an 8.5x11 sketch as well but I liked this one better.  My photos ended up being 4x3 instead of 4x4 so that they would fit.

 For this layout I chose pictures of myself throughout my childhood.  I studied dance from the age of 3 to 16 and yet I could not find a single dance picture above about age 10.  Not sure if we didn't take any or if they just got lost somewhere along the way.  So I just used two pics of me at a much younger age.  They are pretty cute (if I do say so myself) so I didn't mind that much.

For the title I used a popular song title.  I clipped some distressed yellow paper to a favorite font and placed it right on the pic.  I started with the title "So You Think You Can Dance" and while I liked it, it gave the layout a more playful feel.  This title gives the layout the more emotional feel I was going for.  It shows the love I have for dance.

To divide the pictures from the main section of patterned paper I added a strip of orange paper.  I felt that it needed a bit more decoration so I used two rows of stitching.  I think it makes the strip of paper look more like a ribbon.

On this layout I did something else I rarely do, all the products were from the same kit.  All papers, tape, and stitching came from Crystal Wilkerson.  I got the products here and here.  I'm so excited because everything Crystal creates during the spring and summer will be from the same color palette (which I LOVE by the way) so it will all coordinate!  Yay!  And there are so many more papers I want!  But I must pace myself.  :)

I love the look of these tape strips!  Not only do they bring some of the color to the top of the page, they also help the layout have a more cohesive feel.  Since the pics are from many different time periods and have lots of different colors the tape seems to help tie them together.

Even though I am a total introvert I have always been a performer.  Through dance, music, and theater I have always felt the call of the stage.  Even to this day, after years away, I miss dancing and theater (I still sing here and there).  I'm not convinced that this is all I have to say about the effect dance had on my life.  If I decide I need more I'll either go in and extend the tape strips to allow for more journaling or I'll add some hidden journaling behind the layout.  We'll see.  But since it's digital, and I haven't printed it yet, I can make that decision later.

Do you have an activity you participated in all through childhood?  Have you created a layout about it?  Leave us a link in the comments so we can all see!