have you seen my latest layout for get It Scrapped called The Expat Life?
The assignment was to make a layout using emojis.
What I love about DT assignments and especially the Get It Scrapped assignments, is that they make me think outside the box. I don't just tell stories, I think of better stories to tell and of better ways to tell them!
So while thinking about a story I could tell with emojis, I thought to myself "well, if I want to use emojis, the story better have some emotion!" The first thing that came to mind was my over sensitive daughter, but I didn't feel like using emojis was very appropriate to scrapbook a serious subject like that one. The second thing that came to mind was the Expat Life I've been living since 20 years! That's emotional I thought! And just the right level of emotions, positive and negative, to add emojis without it being inappropriate. You know what I mean?
What the emojis and the story brought me to think of is a roller coaster, with ups and downs and twists and turns! And I had the vision of making the silhouette of a roller coaster in black paper. I googled "roller coaster" and chose the best picture I found that I could possibly convert into a cut file.
I wanted the title to follow the ups and downs. I chose 2 different fonts. One for the title and one working as a subtitle. Both are gold.
I wanted to add lots of small photos representing the past 2 years we've spent her, in Prague. I wanted pictures of ups and pictures of downs, and pictures of favorite things. My pictures go hand in hand with my journaling.
And even though I tell all the stories of the pictures in my main text, I added tiny sticker labels to sort of identify each photo/story.
I also tried to align the photos with the text. So that when I talk about a story/an idea, the photo would naturally be there where the eye is looking. It wasn't easy and I had to reprint and recut my journaling a couple of times.
Throughout my text, I sprinkled emoji stickers (from my Potpourri collection, sold by Pretty Little Studio). I didn't do this randomly. I really wrote my text and placed the emojis where they would go, have I been writing a text message to a friend.
When I write I often add little hearts here and there with and through the emojis. So here too, I added the hearts.
I added some dimension to the tiny pictures, using foam adhesive and stitching.
I also left the smileys half stuck to the page and I stitched all the journaling strips, one by one. Again, this was a tough job! As I was stitching I had to make sure my strips of paper were staying straight, and I had to make sure I wasn't taking more space then wanted because I would have gone over my roller coaster silhouette.
To break the harsh black and white contrast at the bottom of the page, I decided to fit some of my small pictures in the back and front of the roller coaster. Again adding stitching, to keep the continuity with the top of the layout.
I had to put my last sentence at the bottom of the page, over the roller coaster silhouette. I did it because space was running low, but I'm glad it ended up like this because that strip kind of attach the top and the bottom of the page together.
Have you ever made a layout using emojis? If so, link me to it. And if not and you want more ideas, check this link to the Get it Scrapped blog where you will find more fun ideas for using emojis.
Also, don't forget to visit Pretty Little Studio to shop for emoji products and my Potpourri collection. :)
Marie
