Lori Whitlock's February Blog Hop

Welcome to Lori's Fabulous February Blog Hop! Today the design team is featuring Lori's great page templates available in both digital and SVG cutting file formats.

 

For my layout I was immediately drawn to her Summer Season Layout available in her shop HERE (or in a digital version at Jessica Sprague's HERE).  Starburst designs can be tricky to calculate and I love that this file has it figured out for you! 

 

Another thing I love about this sketch is that it works great as just a one page layout if you prefer and the great thing about buying "layout" cutting files is it's like getting 5 shapes in one!  This one layout has a starburst pattern, a hot air balloon, 2 different clouds, a title and a wave border that could be used on lots of other projects! 

 

These templates have lots of flexibility too.   For my layout I wanted my photos to face towards the center so I removed the title and mirrored the rest of the design in order to flip it.   I also used a slightly different photo arrangement to match pictures I already had on hand.    

 

I used Lori's new "All About A Boy" collection that she designed for Echo Park and I have to say I'm smitten.  I don't actually have boys, but I was totally drawn to this collection.  I think it has tons of great basic colors and prints that will work for all types of projects (I must remember to stock up on the denim) and I am head over heals in love with the new washi tapes they are now making to go with their lines.  This blue chevron/arrow one is my new favorite--I love how the white stripe disappears on the background and takes on the look of arrows (it would have taken me forever to do this with diecuts and get them all lined up just right). 

 

The starburst cutting file is designed to be one piece and to be cut from a sheet of 12x12 piece of paper to make your life easy, but I knew I wanted to cut them out of lots of different patterns so I used the knife tool within my Silhouette software to cut them apart (sort of like spokes on a wheel so that I would know how to reassemble them).  I then separated them by numbering and counting out the rays by 6's and then separating all the #1's into a pile and all the #2's into a pile, etc. so I could cut each color out all at once and save a bit on paper (although as you can see from the awkward shapes some of them still used a fair share.  On a side note, for papers that had a stripe or grid pattern, I tried to only turn the shapes in 90 or 180 degree angles to keep them looking consistent on my layout.  To save even more paper you may consider using patterns where this doesn't matter.  Here's a screen shot of what the shapes looked like after I separated them out:

 

Hope this helped you understand my process a bit better.  I'm so happy you hopped by. Make sure to check out all the others girls wonderful layouts by clicking on the links below and then hop back to Lori's Blog telling her what project you loved or were inspired by for a chance to win a $20 Gift certificate to her store!  :)

                      

Lori Whitlock
Natalie Graham
Corri Garza
Joy Dickson
Lisa Bell

Mendi Yoshikawa (You are here)
Christine Ousley
Lisa Barrie
Roelien Van Den Berg