I have been inspired to use the Curators Botanical and Essentials collections to capture a special moment in my summer garden. Each season I leave my artichokes to go to flower as the bumblebees love them and spend lots of time with their heads buried in the flowers buzzing contently. I decided to use the collection to create a layout that looks like I have my gardening books open with some flowers and bits from the garden spread around – this has attracted some local butterfly friends. The layout turned out exactly as I had in my head!
I started with the B side of the Flutterlolgy Paper from the Botanical collection which is available in the Collection Pack and separately. I retained the salvage strip – turning it to the left side and then trimming the page to 12 inches. I then layered a 12 inch border piece from the Curators Essential Laser Cut Elements along the salvage strip.
I positioned a stack of three bookplates along with two of the larger pieces that look like old magazine pages from the from the Curators Essential Bookplates on the page to work out how the page would look. I then used that to determine where I should layer the various rubons from the 12×12 and 6×8 Botanical Rub-on Transfers that I wanted to use in the top left and bottom right corners of the page. I then applied the rubons before I stuck any other elements down so it was easier to apply them. The rubons easily apply in layers so it is possible to combine various rubons to create collage effects.
I then attached the stack of book plates and advertisements as I had previously determined. I used foam tape between the layers of bookplates to give dimension. I used a beautiful flower picture from the Curators Essential Ephemera Pages on the left page of the top book and my photo of the bumblebees on the right hand page.
The layout was then finished off with a cluster of laser cut flowers from the Botanical Laser Cut Elements on the right of the book stack, along with labels and bookplates on both sides. There is a strip of text along the bottom of the books which I have distressed – this is from a salvage strip from a patterned paper in the Botanical Collection. I added a strip of Botanical Laser Cut Elements tickets to the vertical elements along the left hand side of the page and then completed the layout with some of the Washi Tape Stitch Set which has become a fast favourite of mine.
49 and Market products:
 Curators Botanical Flutterology |  Curators Botanical 12×12 Collection |  Curators Botanical Laser Cut Elements |
 Curators Botanical Ephemera Pages |  Curators Essential Laser Cut Elements |  Curators Essential Bookplates |
 Curators Botanical 12×12 Rub-Ons |  Curators Botanical 6×8 Rub-Ons |  Curators Essential Washi Tape Stitch Set |
I hope you have an opportunity to get some creative time in soon.
Happy scrapping
Kim x
