What an exciting week this has been! I posted my first layout on the Hip Kit Club Blog and I’m here to share it with you today too!!

For my layout I used items that are included in the beautiful 2016 September Hip Kits! And wow, are they gorgeous! I started by choosing this bold blue pattern paper as my background from the Maggie Holmes Gather collection that is included in the Main Kit. Once I had my background chosen I grabbed multiple project life cards from the Project Life Kit and clustered them together to create a mat for my photo. My theme for today is ‘focus on the story’ and if you watched my chit chat video you know that I don’t journal on a majority of my layouts!! (pause for gasps!! ha!) So I knew using the project life cards would ensure that I had a spot for journaling once the design of the layout was complete.

I then moved on to embellishing the layout. I grabbed multiple pieces from the Main Kit including the Maggie Holmes Gather ephemera pack, the Maggie Holmes Gather Thickers sheet, and fussy cut a floral from one of the pattern papers. I also tossed in a couple tassles from the Crate Paper Cute Girl collection that are included in the Embellishment Kit.

Because my theme was focus on the story I wanted to let the embellishments help do some of the talking for me! My photo was taken on the day my son lost his first tooth. But he actually lost 2 teeth within minutes of each other! By positioning the numbers from the Gather collection around the layout it helped draw attention to the story.

Now I needed a title! One of my go-tos when searching for titles is to use a cut file. After I had selected the HKC cut file I wanted to add a little color and a little texture to the white cardstock. So I reached for items included in the Color Kit. I used the Echo Park stencil, white modeling paste (from my stash) and the Great Fruit Creameez on the cut file all while it was still attached to my Cricut cutting mat.

For more detail I added a couple clusters of enamel dots and a few pieces from the Simple Stories Posh ephemera pack from the Project Life Kit. I wanted to bring a little more attention to the story so I added a few gold shiny phrase stickers from the Gather collection that are included in the Embellishment Kit.

I had so much fun putting this layout together! I also have a process video to share that includes a quick Cricut Design Space tutorial using the Hip Kit Club Cut Files.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!!