As promised, here is my tutorial on how I make a double page layout seem like two 1-page layouts (this tutorial is using the "No Limits" Pattern). I apologize to those that like video tutorials but with a house full of 3 boys and an 8-month old, it never gets quiet enough that I can do that...lol.
Click on "Create a new project"
Click on "Create Your Own Custom Layout"
Choose Your Paper Packet ("For Always" is what I used) - they are alphabetically listed
Choose your Pattern ("No Limits" on this one) - they are alphabetically listed
Choose your kit mix - it doesn't really matter on "No Limits" but for some reason I always go for Kit Mix 2...lol
Hide the rotate buttons - right click on either one of the rotate icons in the top left/right corner - click on "show/hide rotate and swap buttons" - this has no benefit other than I don't have to look at them and since you're building your own layout, you don't really need them.
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We'll work on the
Left Layout first:
Change photo well to text well - the "No Limit" pattern contains two 12x12 photo wells so we need to change them to text wells so we can add cardstock. Click on the left layout and an edit box will pop up - you want to select the "Convert to Text Well" icon at the top right (to the left of the trash can icon)
Delete Text - You should now see a text well that says "Add journaling" - Click on EDIT TEXT in the editing box and "Add journaling" will be highlighted as shown below - type a space using your space bar on your keyboard
you will now see a blank page with no text...
Add Paper to your text well - Click on the PAPER tab on the left sidebar - all the coordinating cardstocks will be shown as well as the B&T patterns that come with the Kit - choose the one you like (in this case, the black doily-looking B&T) and drag it over to the blank text well.
You should now see a 12x12 piece of B&T (basically) - if the editing box isn't shown click on the B&T and it should. I chose to change the color of the B&T so I could adjust the "density" of the color which would make it easier to do the pennants. At the bottom left of the editing box - you will see a color box - click on that and choose black (shown below)
Now you can
change the density of the color - to the right of the color box there is a rotate button and then a percentage window - click on the arrow to use the drop down menu and select your density percentage - for this layout I used 15% as shown below...
Now we start adding layers by using text wells (ALWAYS ADD THE BOTTOM MOST LAYER FIRST) - Click on the TEXT tab on the left sidebar - I usually use the "Journaling Area" box but you can also use the "Title Area" box (this is mainly for use when you're actually going to add text - the "Title Area" box allows the font to get much bigger I've noticed.
Drag and Drop Journaling Area over to your layout
REPEAT THIS STEP FOR EACH LAYER (text well) YOU ADD - in the editing box that appears for the text well you just drug and dropped, click on EDIT TEXT - "Add Journaling" will be highlighted - type a space using the space bar on your keyboard...this will get rid of the text.
You will now see this - a blank text well
Resize your text well to the desired size - there is an arrow in the bottom right corner of every text well...use that to resize your text well - drag and drop into place
Add B&T to your text well - click on the PAPER tab on the left sidebar - choose the desired pattern (this one was done using the chevron pattern) - drag and drop into the text well...you will see a GREET PLUS SIGN letting you know where it's dropping (this will be important to know once you get a lot of layers and are trying to swap out papers)
Change Color - the editing box will appear and you will want to change the color to slate (that's the darker gray color) - click on the color box at the bottom left - choose Slate
Add next layer - Again...click on the TEXT tab on the left sidebar and drag and drop a "Journaling Area" on the layout.
Resize and Change the color - Resize using the bottom right arrow and change the color to Sorbet using the color box
Position where you want it - finished it should look like this
Making Pennant Shapes - drag and drop a new "Journaling Area" on the layout
Resize to a square shape - resize to square using the arrow at the bottom right and start to rotate using the rotate icon at the top left
Position the Journaling Area - rotate 'till it it is the position below (don't worry if it takes a while). Drag and drop into place - if it's centered you should see a blue vertical line as shown below.
Add B&T to the Journaling Area so that it blends in with the layout base - Here's where the pennant shape takes place. Click on the PAPER tab on the left sidebar. Drag and drop the same patterned B&T as the base over to the "Journaling Area"
It should now look like this
Change the density of the B&T so it will match - YOU ONLY HAVE TO DO THIS if you did so on the B&T you used for the Base. I did because with changing the density, you can't see that the patterns of the B&T don't match up. THIS WILL NOT WORK FOR ALL B&T PATTERNS! If you're using cardstock, all you have to do is change the "Journaling Area" to the same color of cardstock as the base. See how well it blends in!
Make the other side of the pennant - It's easiest to copy and paste for the other side of the pennant. While the "Journaling Area" is highlighted in blue, click on COPY on the top toolbar
PASTE - Click on PASTE on the top toolbar and you will see another "Journaling Area" with the same B&T and density pop up...it will be ON TOP OF THE ONE YOU COPIED but a little skewed so you can see it (I moved the one shown below for illustration purposes)
Rotate and drag into place - you kinda have to play with it to get it just right. If you want to see how it looks, click off the page to view
Here's how it looks after rotating and dragging into place...
Add you next layer - Click back over to the TEXT tab on the left sidebar and drag and drop a new "Journaling Area" onto the layout
Resize and change the color to Lagoon using the color box...
Copy and paste one of the text wells used for the Sorbet pennant
Drag into place
It should now look like this...
Add the journaling pennant - Click on the TEXT tab on the left sidebar and drag and drop into place as shown below
Change the color to White Daisy...
Copy and Paste one of the text wells used for the pennant shape...
Drag over the White Daisy pennant...
Rotate into place to create a pennant...
Add the next layer by dragging and dropping another "Journaling Area" to place shown below...and change color to Whisper by using the color box...
Since we are using this piece as a photo mat for a 5x7 photo - this is what I do...I position in the upper left corner and eyeball the 6" mark at the top and at the left side - I want to make the Whisper Photo Mat about 1" longer than that 6" mark at the top and about 1" shorter than the 6" mark on the side...
Drag into place...
Add a Journaling Area on top - type the size of the photo and change the color to NONE using the color box (denoted by red arrow below)...
It should now look like this...
Add embellishments - you can click on the MY STICKEASE tab on the left sidebar and add coordinating stickease to your heart's content...keep in mind that these stickease cannot be changed in color but can be resized by either dragging the arrow or by adjusting the "scale" in the editing box for that image...
Keep embellishing...
Right Layout - totally different look
This part of the tutorial will be brief since most everything was discussed in the steps above.
Grab your second layout inspiration and get to work.
Convert the right layout to a text well like we did above...
Add you bottom most layer by dragging over a "Journaling Area" from the TEXT tab on the left sidebar - resize to the desired shape...
Add B&T by clicking on the PAPER tab on the left sidebar and dragging and dropping..
Change the color by using the color box and adjust the density percentage to the desired...
Copy and paste and rotate to look like the picture below...
Keep adding "Journaling Areas" and add the desired B&T and change color...copy and paste and rotate...
Add some more...
My new favorite thing is the stitched circles - click on EMBELLISHMENTS on the left sidebar and use the drop-down menu to "stitching" - you'll see some straight stitches and then as you scroll down, you'll see some shapes, find the circle (medium) and click on it. You can change the color of the stitching by choosing from the color icons that coordinate with the paper packet OR once you drag and drop the stitching into place, the editing box will have a color box - you can change it there.
The next thing I want to point out are the "SEND BACKWARD" and "SEND FORWARD" buttons across the top toolbar - these are used for the layers - below you will see a black cardstock box - behind it is my white photo mat labeled with the size photo I will use.
By clicking the SEND BACKWARD button, the black cardstock is now moved behind the white daisy photo label...
If you followed my instructions, you should have something very similar to what you see below...
Here are the exact layouts with a little more embellishments added and some titles and quotes...
Here's a look at the left layout with my pictures attached...
Here's a look at the right layout with my picture added...
Thanks for checking out my picture tutorial! Please let me know if you have any questions!
Head over to
Studio J if you'd like to give it a try!
