Before and After

Before and After

Posted by: Kristen Swain · Edit

Hey ya’ll, it’s Kristen here with you today, hoping I will bring you some inspiration for creating. Today our theme is Before and After. Ever been unhappy with a layout, getting it finished and it just wasn’t what you were hoping for? Today I have a layout for you, twice done.
For myself, I typically do not go back and redo layouts. A long time ago, about 12 years, I was caught up on my photos!  yeah, crazy huh? but looking back on my first layouts I thought I would take the time to redo them and bring them up with new products and techniques. Thinking about it, I decided against it. How could I one day go back and see how far I’d come ? See the popular products for that time in scrapping, try to replace my precious photos, and I decided, it would just be a bad idea. Because when it came down to it, wouldn’t I at some point in the future also feel that I should again rescrap? Would the need to redo end? So I left them. Which is why I panicked when I got this assignment.
However, there are times when layouts have not come out as I planned, where I’ve stuck them up to let them be and see if inspiration came back around. I also have worked for companies that have product at CHA, and I have created layouts for those companies. Sometimes, when I’ve gotten layouts back, they’ve been damaged, added to, or I just in general feel that I’d like to use those photos again for a layout that would represent me better. That is where I have pulled my layout from today.
I scrapped these photos for CHA for a company. I did like this layout, the fall theme, the cute tree and fox, and the design.I am not particular about what happens to my projects once they go to the company, but this company needed a layout for their flowers and added some to the bottom. Not something I loved, so I decided that I would just recreate the layout instead of trying to fix the holes that would be left pulling off the flowers.

As I said, I liked the tree, the fox and the outdoors nature of the layout. This is where I drew my inspiration from for my new layout. You all know, I adore a scene made with my Cricut cuts, so I thought about the Campin’ Critters cartridge. There are lots of fun critters, and outdoors cuts, so I found some cuts that were fun to go on my new layout.


As you can see, I did use some fall colors, but I brought in purple to match Annalise’s shirt. I used trees as a background, adding the peeping deer and a sun, then the main characters of the moose, raccoon and owl really set the outdoors theme. I added a few patterned papers, but kept most of my cuts in a solid cardstock. I added wiggle eyes to my creatures, keeping the uneven eyes of the cuts, but giving them a slightly kooky look.

I also foam taped up some of the pieces, the moose, owl and title word LOVER are all popped up for dimension.

I love the tree cut in the background, as my daughter is sitting in a tree. I also have the owl looking over at the moose, which helps the eye move toward the middle of the page.

The touristy moose I have flipped to have him taking photos towards the middle of the page, again, bringing the eye inward. I love the peeking deer, it looks like he’s hiding from the moose and his camera!
Lastly, I added half a badge cut as the phrases weren’t what I was looking for in the title. This shows, you can add one layer of a cut, then a font and still get the perfect looking title.
I hope you have enjoyed my remake layout!


Designed by: Kristen Swain
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression, Cricut Craft Room
Cricut Cartridges Used: Campin’ Critters, Boys Will Be Boys
Other Supplies Used: Cardstock (American Crafts, BoBunny), Patterned Papers (Bella Blvd), Computer & Printer (Font: Century Gothic MS), Buttons, Twine, Wiggle Eyes, Foam Tape, Adhesives