If your dog doesn't like somebody, maybe you shouldn't either.

Here's a fabulous inspiration for a layout. 

Look at the call log in your phone (I'll just look on my new 4G, take that Dr. Pepper!) and figure out who calls you the most.  And then dedicate a WHOLE page just to them... sort of like an Ode to the Person Who Makes Me Feel Popular.  The winner for me: my awesome mom... who logged a total of ELEVEN calls to me yesterday (I just know that there must be some glitch in the iPhone software... eleven, really?).

Anywho.  Here's a page just for the special lady.  And the steps for the masterpiece:

1. Pick your pics. I took some of my very favorite pictures of her and luckily she was wearing red in all of them... and her favorite color is blue.  The pictures were all different sizes, and rather than refiguring the "perfect" photo size, I decided to do some patchwork and make the focal point the center of the page (rather than one specific photo).

2. Pick your paper. What comes next? You got it: coordinating paper to match the photos and add a personal touch by complimenting with her favorite color.  

*Let's focus on step 3*

3. Pick something personal. Find something that you either received from the person, or something that reminds you of them and incorporate it into the page.  Wacky Jacque (aka my mom) is notorious for sending funny notes to me in the mail.  She also has a knack for finding greeting cards that don't mean anything, but mean the world, at the same time.  So, I found two that I love (and one happened to be red... extra points for color coordination) and cut them to size.  

***Adding these types of touches is what truly makes layouts unique.*** 

There are tons of pre-fabricated layouts from which to choose, but when you add something that is yours, it becomes your masterpiece.  Aren't I brilliant?

4. Pick your nose.  Just kidding.  Step Four is: Pick some pretty petals...or some other embellishment for sparkle-factor.  I picked a little flower stamp and was able to use two different ink colors.  I'm still mastering this stamp thing, so I'm not going to go into too much detail (or do a post about it) until I can give you the Full KeKe. 

5. Pick up your Fiskars and start trimming.  To continue with the patchwork look, I decided to do two large angular shapes.  The patchwork of the photos is very squared off.  By adding some triangular shapes (and some diagonal flow) the square is somewhat broken up.  Once you've got the triangles cut, play around with the Fiskars by snipping off a few of the sides to create some negative space.

6. Pick up your pen.  Use the negative space created in Step Five to do some journaling... a perfect topic for journaling on this page would be a few reasons why that person is #1 on your call log.  In this case, it's because my mom thinks I'm so damn cool... for you, it might be because you have a stalker.  In either case, you have created a beeeeeeeautiful layout.  Congratulations. 

I would love to know: where do you get inspiration for unique layouts?