Just One More Thing - Design Team Challenge, Episode Five

Is anyone else still busily working on December Daily or Journal Your Christmas? Or have all thoughts of winter been shelved, while spring is eagerly anticipated?

I must confess, I'm still in winter mode, working on prompts from Journal Your Christmas (and using up the last of my Document December Kit.) But, before I started on new layouts, I revisited some of my older entries and realised that the one thing that was consistently missing from my Journal Your Christmas layouts was the journalling! I usually find it a little daunting to add journalling to my layouts - and, of course, like any scrapbooker, I hate my own handwriting. Why is it that so many of us hate our handwriting?

I knew that this layout, which I liked but didn't love, was a serious contender for our latest feature series 'Just One More Thing'. (If you've missed the previous episodes, check out the synopsis of the series and catch up with layouts which have already undergone the team's analysis!)

Not wanting to ask any leading questions, I didn't mention my own desire to add more journalling (and, of course, the Master Forgers were questioned in isolation.) Here's what they suggested:

• Add a title, perhaps with red Thickers. 
• Emphasise the photograph. It's 'floating uneasily above the bottom border. 
• Add washi tape to the top/bottom of the photograph. 
• Add a tiny, little sentiment to the journalling card. 
• Add a title and some journalling < Wahoo! Someone mentioned it,  corroborating my own story! 
• Add more contrast, the photograph is 'disappearing.

(You can really tell which photograph was taken in natural light and which was taken in my kitchen late at night, can't you?) 

Well, it seems that they had their stories straight, doesn't it? There was no contradictory advice, so taking all of the suggestions on board, I started by adding an extra strip of patterned paper to the bottom border. This covered the bottom of the photograph, stopping it from 'floating' and 'grounded' the layout a little.

I then added a title (and I am so pleased with it) using some lovely red alphas from Simple Stories. A little smaller than Thickers, they fit perfectly into the space alongside my embellishment cluster.  I then added a little sentiment to the bottom of the journalling card. (I'm sure I was supposed to add it above the twine, but I do love some white space and I was 'giving it up' elsewhere.) I also had to replace the little red acrylic star that was on my original layout. It was the one casualty of my crimes!

Finally, I added a little journalling. I still hate my handwriting, but the story of the layout has, at last, been told and my layout is complete!

So, now that I've confessed my own crimes, I hope that you'll join us for the next instalment of Just One More Thing when we'll see whether I've 'rolled on any of my accomplices' for a better deal (at my local scrapbook store.)