Just One More Thing - Design Team Challenge - The Pilot

Are you sitting in a comfy seat?  It is time for the pilot episode of the Just One More Thing Design Team Challenge.  If you missed last week's post describing how it works, click here to read the "tv guide" synopsis of this series.

Drawing by Peter Falk

Susanne here.  I proffered this layout for perusal and pointers by the team -

Design features the team liked (in no particular order):

1. the misting, the misting, the misting (they really liked the misting!)
2. the photo collage
3. the color combination, with one dissenting opinion on the yellow
4. the enamel dots clustered with brads
5. the center line is softened by the offset layered papers

Suggestions for improvement (also, in no particular order):

1. shorten the top border on the left and add it to the bottom left to eliminate trapped space
2. add a cut-out border to soften the line between the misting and the patterned paper
3. add small amounts of red to better tie the design to the photo
4. make the 2014 tiles more jaunty to match the other tiles better
5. soften the journal block, perhaps using misted strips instead laid jauntily like the tiles
6. change the journal font to script to match the number 28

What say you?  Is the one thing that you would change on that list?

Here is my finished layout -

First of all, it looks brighter because I had a nice sunny day to photograph it outside.  I wouldn't want Columbo to cuff me on a false advertising charge.

I decided to incorporate most of the suggestions, making one change at a time to ensure it would work with the ones that came before. In some cases, I addressed the problem but not in the way suggested. If I were to do only one change - it would be the addition of red to the page - I added the red book die-cut and switched the coral enamel dots to red as well.

There is always a danger when you start fiddling with a layout that you won’t be able to stop.  But I was prevented from over tweaking the layout for a couple of reasons.  First, I had very specific things to improve and second, my scrapping time was repeatedly interrupted that day.  I won’t deny that the second may have had more influence than the first.  Lt. Columbo wouldn’t let me get away with fibbing, now would he?

Thanks for viewing.  Another teammate will be back to take the challenge soon. Stay tuned.