Imaginisce Blog: Guest Blogger: Samantha Hauzer

(We love all the little details Sam puts in her designs that we asked her to blog for us today and tell us about her favorite techniques.)

Samantha Hauzer: I would have to say one of my very favourite techniques is to outline the papers with black pen. I think it makes them stand out just that bit more and gives my layouts more of a handmade look. And it's so quick and easy to do too! One thing to remember is dont worry about being neat. Put those rulers away! I think layouts are much more appealing if they aren't perfectly neat, and that it's the little flaws that make them look unique and which put your own personal touch to it.

For the Life is so Fun layout, I took inspiration from the scalloped square of the cupcake stamp and in the papers, to create a hand drawn scalloped square to base my layout on. I drew around it in white pen a few times and then outlined the white border with black pen to make it really stand out. I couldn't resist filling in all those scallops with the Sweet Cheri Stickers, and cute images cut from the papers, and I backed them all onto hand drawn circles. For the Sweet layout I just used the reverse sides of the paper, and outlined them all with black pen. Outlining the journalling strips with black pen helps them to really stand out too. For the Sweet Friends layout I outlined the photos with pen to really make them stand out.

Another favourite technique of mine is to use lots of layers. The papers always go together perfectly, so any combination works well, and I even like to use the product packaging too. It usually has a different pattern than the papers but still goes really well with the other papers. The pale pink card on the Sweet Friends layout is packaging that I have punched with a border punch and used on my layout. Another thing I like to layer is the stamps. Imaginisce makes the absolute cutest stamps, and they are perfect for layering. All you need to do is stamp the same image onto 3 different papers, cut out the first image, and then cut pieces from the other two stamped images to layer with. Just add foam tape between each layer to make them really dimensional. They make the perfect embellishment and you can colour co-ordinate them every time. On the Sweet layout I even used the parts of the stamped images that I didnt need for layering - the scalloped cirle outline and the heart outline.