Hello! This is Danielle with today’s “Designer Details.”

Paying special attention to details while crafting is really one of the things I love so much about it. I love to create little surprises here and there in my work and add lots of layers and details. Similar to home decor design, layers add much more depth to the design and make it more interesting. Layers also give your details a home to rest, so they aren’t “floating” on your design.

Since the autumn season is almost here, I wanted to put together a “Gratitude” album – things I feel grateful for right now in my life. However, I wanted to try something different and NOT use the traditional fall colors for my album. I used the brand new Nantucket line instead! Who said “Gratitude” albums had to be all brown? Make them fun and colorful!

For the base of my mini album, I cut several pages out of light kraft cardstock for a neutral base and built my pages from there. On the cover, I have added details such as the machine stitching around the edges of the papers. I’ve stamped the sentiments right on patterned paper instead of cardstock. The design in the papers shows through the stamping and adds yet another detail!

On the new Pink Paislee Wood Shop letters, I chose to dress them up with a small sentiment stamp that says, “life is beautiful”. Keep in mind the scale of the stamp. Since the letters are rather skinny, I chose a small font for the sentiment on the wood letters. I’m not sure what it is about dimension, but I can’t get enough of adding dimension to my work. These new Wooden Spools you see below (black) are adorable! I couldn’t wait to use them in my album. They are dimensional, but they don’t stick up too high, so they are great for layouts as well!

The next detail I wanted to add are these tabs to the top of the album. When making a mini album, I love to see things sticking out of the book to really entice the viewer to want to see what’s inside!  Again I used patterned paper here on two of the tabs and machine stitched across them to add another dimension and detail to them.

On the first inside spread, I wanted to use this big photo of my daughter Taylor and write a note to her about what I’m grateful for. Since she is the older daughter, sometimes I feel like I don’t give her enough attention and love compared to my little one who needs more help with things, and therefore gets more attention. I wanted to write a special note to her to tell her just how much I love the young woman she’s growing into! I chose to write the note on vellum instead of the patterned paper. I love, love this patterned paper on the left and didn’t want to cover it up!

On the second page spread, I used a photo that I really love of my girls spending time together to show how grateful I am for the happy moments we have together!

I used a little strip of a paper doily and layered two of the same stamped images together, just in slightly different ink colors.

Another photo I treasure here. I used another of the Wooden Spools and a button and twine to create a faux “enclosure”. I think it helps draws your eye to the photo.

To add depth to the envelope, I stamped it, flicked white paint on it with a toothbrush and added some hand dyed seam binding. I wrote a little note about the picture and tucked it inside the envelope.

An inexpensive detail you can make yourself is a little tab. Just stamp a sentiment three times onto kraft paper, add some white paint splashes and a bit of machine stitching. Trim with decorative scissors. I even like to leave the ends of the thread attached and dangling.

I plan to add many, many more pages to my book, however this is the last page I will show you today. One of the details on this spread I want to talk about is the patterns I used.  Adding three patterns – one large pattern like the to/from sticker, one medium like the green/blue paper, and one small pattern like the Chevron stripes, will really add interest to your design. I wrote another note inside the vintage book paper, folded it in thirds and added it to my book. I love tucking notes and things into my books that my girls will find one day and be able to read from me.

I made my own little tab to adhere to this sticker and added some Daily Junque – Twine.

Repeating a stamp is a fun way to add detail to plain old cardstock. When finished with all of these pages, I tied the book together with embroidery floss, an inexpensive way to do so!

I hope that gave you some inspiration to add more details to your work as well! Please let me know if you have any questions. Almost all of the products here are Pink Paislee. The Gratitude stamps and ribbon are made by Papertrey Ink and the envelope is by Maya Road. Thanks for reading today!