Hi, SCT friends! It’s Allison Davis here with a little peek into my newest Scrapbook and Cards Today Class, Design Concepts with Allison Davis.

Click HERE to learn more about Design Concepts & register today!

The core of this class is focused on learning how to build a creative toolbox of design concepts that you can create with over and over again. The way I look at it, we don’t always have to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we can take a simple concept we love and make it our own with the products, the theme, and the photos, all while customizing the design to our own needs, style, and ideas.

The layout I’m sharing with you today is based on one of the class sketches; the concept is all about covering a large background shape with smaller pieces to build a unique design. The original sketch uses a similar design on a large heart, but I had a fun, themed idea I wanted to play with.

Supplies | Cardstock: American Crafts; Patterned papers: Simple Stories, Echo Park, Honey Bee Stamps, Bella Blvd., My Favorite Things; Foam alphabet stickers: Simple Stories; Watermelon and word/phrase pieces: Bella Blvd.; Hearts: Bella Blvd., Doodlebug Designs; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L; Embroidery floss: DMC; Computer font: Century Gothic

When I came across these photos of my son eating a giant wedge of watermelon, I was inspired to take the sketch design and build a giant watermelon of my own, scrapbook-style!

I started with two circles, one for the green “rind” of the paper watermelon and another, slightly smaller one for the red and pink inside. Next, I cut my strips out of a large variety of red, coral, pink, and green patterned papers and a large strip for my title. Then I  adhered the red strips to that smaller circle base and trimmed off any hanging over the edges. After that, I used the finished inside piece to help me line up the green strips on the second, larger circle.

Of course, I had to add lots of hand-stitching to enhance the look of the pattern design. I went with high contrast, darker colors of embroidery floss to draw attention to the whole pattern piecing of that watermelon background.

To finish the design, I added my title on the white strip and lots and lots of watermelons, hearts, and little word and phrase pieces around the photos.

When it comes to the design concept of covering a large shape in smaller pieces, think of the different possibilities! For the base shape, you can use…

  • square
  • circle
  • heart
  • star
  • triangl
  • hexagon
  • scallop circle

Then, for the pieces you had on top of that shape, you can use…

  • horizontal strips
  • vertical strips
  • squares
  • diamonds
  • hexagons
  • triangles
  • themed pieces/die cuts
  • a pattern made up by mixing different pieces

That’s just one concept with so many variations and ways that you can adapt it!

Watch the video below to see this layout come together! Click ‘watch on YouTube’ to open up the video in a new tab so that you can hit the thumbs up, leave a comment, and subscribe!

I’m so excited for this class, and I would love to have you join me! Class starts on May 2nd, so be sure to sign up today!

Click HERE to sign up for Design Concepts today!


Find more of Allison’s creations here: Instagram | YouTube | Facebook