Product Focus Layered Embellishments | Assymetrical Layout Strips

Hello Lovelies, it's Theresa here to share more ideas for our Product Focus. This week we are creating layered embellishments which are just awesome for using supplies and getting layouts completed. I am going to create four assymetrical embellishments using elements from the September Farmhouse kit, plus one layout.
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To  begin with, I chose a photo of our son Addison that I had taken recently for back to school. Addison is our oldest, going into tenth grade this year, and the wood grain, green, and yellow in this kit suit his photo well. I laid down a layer of gesso and some paint splatters onto my page, just to break up the wood grain and lighten my layout a bit.
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My photo is vertical, so I knew I wanted an assymetrical layout with photo on one side. I grabbed a few extra things from around my desk and started laying some elements around the page, and realized I could do several assymetrical layered embellishments inspired by this one layout.
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We will come back to the layout, but let's create these embellishments first! These are the items I used to create these strips:

1. punches - I have used a shaped label and a starburst, but you could also use border punches.
2. doilies - this is a boy layout so I've used kraft doilies.
3. marketing strips and other narrow patterned paper strips all from the Farmhouse kit.
4. die cuts and chipboard embellishments included in the Farmhouse kit.
5. word strips and word art from the Farmhouse kit.
6. twine - I have used dark navy twine but you could use baker's twine, hemp, anything that adds texture.
7. miscellaneous ribbon - I have used one from my stash to add another bit of texture and dimension.

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These are the four embellishment strips laid out for you to see. I created each one to be oriented in a different direction and the idea is for the strips to border on the edge of a photo or on the edge of your patterned paper. I love this idea because once they are all done I can create four different layouts!

Each strip began with the patterned paper or marketing strip from the papers in the kit. They are the home base for the embellishment cluster and everything else grew from there. For the cluster above, I added the punched starbursts underneath the strips, a leaf and banner die cut, and word art. The word art is adhered using pop dots to add dimension. I also wrapped a bit of twine around my fingers and adhered that underneath all the layers as well.
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For the next cluster, I again began with the patterned papers and a doily. This one is a vertical orientation, so I added a die cut arrow, a leaf, and some word art. Using the doily on this one gives a great home base for the horizontal word art so it doesn't look out of place. Instead of using chipboard I used one of the flair buttons included in the kit! Again the twine adds more texture to the piece.
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My third embellishment starts with patterned papers and a doily, and this time I have added a banner, the ribbon, and a chipboard piece. This one has a horizontal orientation and the photo could go above on the layout, or the cluster could go at the top of the page.
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For my layout, I chose to use a vertical cluster. This one uses two strips of patterned paper and three shaped labels punched from the yellow patterned paper. I also added a leaf, heart, and banner from the die cuts, plus a chipboard embellishment. Notice the banner overlaps the photo a bit, and the arrow on the heart points inward toward the photo. Again twine peaking out from underneath it all adds more dimension and ties all these elements in with the background.
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Of course my layout also need a title and journaling, which was so easy to add. I used the Pinkfresh Studio alphabet in the kit and repeated the vertical direction on this layout. Everything on this layout leads your eye upwards! Here is another look at the full layout.

The best part about having this layout done is knowing that I can easily create three more layouts using these embellishment clusters! How about you? Have you been creating with your Farmhouse kit this month? We would love to see, so be sure to share with us on social media and use #cliquekits.
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