We’ve come to our last day of Go To Designs. I hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration and the variety of working the same basic design in so many interesting ways. For our last design, we will turn to the Shelf. What exactly do I mean by a shelf? It's a horizontal border that does not span the full width of the page, used to showcase key elements. Think of a fireplace mantle with an attractive display.
The shelf lends itself very well to a clean and simple style. Both my layout about meeting a stray cat and Laura O’Donnell’s Christmas page are clean, yet colorful. Marnie Flores floats her photo on a shelf that mimics the brown paper packages, tied up with string. (makes me want to break into song!)
If clean and simple is not your style, the shelf is easy to dress up, as I demonstrate on these next two pages. Just add more patterned paper, throw in some border punches, embellishments and a bit of misting, for instance. Placing the photo on the shelf keeps it the center of attention.
Patterned paper borders are only one way to create a shelf. Lake Superior is one of my favorite shelf pages. I used a layering technique with paper scraps and tags, and I like the extra dimension the strings and brads bring to the page. A playful string of quilt shapes topped with wood veneer adds interest to my shelf on a layout about family heritage.
Cristina C. Scrap did away with patterned paper to create her shelf. A playful ribbon border is attached with brads to hold her page elements.
Finally, there is no rule that something always has to be sitting on the shelf. Sometimes hanging down is a fun option, as Cristina demonstrates.
If you'd like to see a collection of shelf designs collected from all over the online scrapping world, here's a link to my Pinterest board. So are you ready to give the shelf a whirl? Or maybe this is already a Go To Design in your arsenal? It's very handy and versatile!
