Hello Cocoa Daisy friends,

Today I wanted to share a few tips for adding texture to your pocket page or simple dori layouts.

The first tip involves a layout I created about a special teapot that belonged to my grandma and was gifted to me by my aunts. I wanted to highlight the dainty nature of the teapot in my layout but wasn’t sure what I was going to do. As I looked through my stash I found a package of square white doilies. They were the inspiration for creating my inspiration journal layout about an item with intense sentimental value.

I assembled all the items I wanted to include in my layout from the Paper and Ink kits and I played around with the placement of the doilies. I folded one of the doilies several different ways to test my ideas. I decided to cut off each corner at an angle and use the pieces to create a layered look.

Tip #1. To hide the raw edge of an intricate doily that you cut to fit your layout, turn the edge under and use a little clear glue to hold in place. When they are angled like mine are some of the underside shows at the corners which can easily be nipped off with your scissors for a clean look.

On the bottom right of my layout, the edges of my doily pieces are visible therefore I turned them under and glued to maintain the “dainty” feel.  Doilies are also a great way to add texture without a lot of bulk to your Simple Dori pages.

I angled the doilies a bit on the bottom left and right to create a triangle on my layout.

By the way, I chose this foundation page because the flowers and doilies looked perfect together and the aged tape design highlighted my journaling perfectly!

Next I wanted to share how I added texture to my opening project life page for 2019 that is still in progress. This year I am using a 6×12 album. I tried this size last year for the first time and I love it. I kept up all year and my 2018 albums (Jan–Jun & Jul–Dec) are complete.

I wanted to add a little texture to the beautiful Paper and Ink pocket cards that did not interfere with the card designs. I liked the idea of random stitching and decided to use the thick angled stripes on the top left card as my guide.

I mimicked the angle in my hand stitching on the journal card with the circles and a rub on quote. I really like the addition of the stitching and I achieved the textured look on both journal cards without interfering with their gorgeous designs.

Tip #2:  Place the journal card you are using as a guide over a portion of the journal card you want to add texture to and use a straight edge, circle, or another shape cutout to draw the straight lines or shape you want to mimic on the journal card. In this case a small ruler helped me mimic the angle of the stripes on the top left card in my stitching on the bottom right card in the photo below. I drew the lines for the stitching and pierced holes along the lines to guide my stitching.

I also wanted to share a design using the black bookplates that came in the Paper and Ink kits. I love them!  The reason why is because I can easily stamp a multiple line phrase on the bookplate and use it as a tab. I did this on a layout in my inspiration journal.

Tip #3. This is actually more of a suggestion than a tip. Pull out your clear stamp stash and see how you may be able to use them on the book plates in the kits. I had more ideas than bookplates after playing around with these items the other day.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read through my post and please let me know if you have any questions!

~Robin