My Layout With Seemingly Not So Disparate Elements

So... recently I was creating some card or other piece at some time and I pulled out a baggy of stuff that Yvonne Yam had sent me after we had the final Lessology challenge (which I miss terribly by the way).  And it made me realize I had not been to her blog in way too long.  I don't know why... I LOVE visiting her blog... along with Mitra and Julie and Tracey, Yvonne has some of the yummiest layouts I ever see.

The post that was at the top was all about making layouts with seemingly disparate elements and making them beautifully "parate"..lol... yeah I know... I made it up... you can use it.  She had some really great tips on how to accomplish this and it made me want to create a scrapbook layout which I hadn't done in FOREVER!  So I told her I was going to make one the very next day... and of course I didn't... but wonderful Yvonne called me on it!  She actually came to check out this wonderful layout I had done and found some card or other and said... HEY!  Which prompted me to promise that the very next day I would create said layout... and I DID!  And here it is!

So... It's no Yvonne, Create More With Less, Yam, but I'm pretty happy with it.  And I cheated a bit... as a lot of my items are quite "parate" because they came together with the CTMH Falling For You Workshop... so I really didn't have to work too hard to put them all together... BUT!...

I did so love her tip about having cut out characters looking at your pics.. so I did that here with these cute little pheasants from the Falling For You Complements.

I did use up lots of scraps.. I really only cut one full piece of paper.. the white one with the flowers.. all of the rest were cut from scraps leftover from previous projects so that was pretty good!

And I kind of made a rule that although it was an Autumn themed page, I was not allowed to put ANY leaves on it... well... as you can see I broke down.. but I used only one because I needed something in the very plain center, but nothing too big or bulky and this leaf was perfect.

I also used some items I've had in my stash and never used.. the beautiful Happy laser cut chipboard from Make It Crafty (all the way from Australia); the wood pieces, like this circle with a heart cut out of the center, the other little hearts floating around and maybe an arrow.. and best of all, I dug into that baggy of items from Yvonne and pulled out that pretty bejeweled flower and the two stars that match it (all the way from Singapore!).

There is one of those cute little stars right there!  

My kids and I used to go to either Chestnut Ridge in Hamburg, NY or Letchworth State Park in Castile, NY every autumn and take pics... as they got older and had jobs, it kind of waned, but now when I go back to visit in the Fall, Corey will suggest a trip out to Letchworth (my favorite) which makes me very happy.  Maybe I'll use some of those pics next!

And yes, every once in a while I'd get in the picture... here Ryan wanted to play photographer so here I am striking a pose... not so photogenic as my kids...lol!

So if you like these types of layouts, please do visit Yvonne's post here!  I made mine with her post in front of me so I could scroll through it for inspiration.  And I will definitely be doing this again.

Come back soon!  We've got something special planned for the Cutting Cafe on the 7th!  There is going to be a Blog Hop with a chance to win a file at every stop!