Week 3: Creating Clusters

Clusters are a great way to use non-matching stickers and scraps of patterned paper. Clusters are usually placed where you want the reader's eye to land and linger.  From my card making days, I rely on the number five as the minimum for layers related to a cluster. 

For the first page of this layout, I started with Tami Potter's Mosaic Moment approach  - seeing my page as a grid of squares.  I placed my enlarged photo on the upper left two thirds of the page.  The cluster below the photo is centered four inches from the left side.  

Cluster on first page with five layers of color.

The layering of the cluster:

1. Gray card stock serves as the first layer.
2. Patterned paper cut from a Kiwi Lane Design template is the second layer.
3. A cream colored scroll from a sheet of stickers for Hawaii adds the third layer. 
4. The mat cut from scrap pattern paper is the fourth layer. Edges have been inked.
5. The store's logo cut from their menu is the fifth layer. Edges have been inked and the image is on pop dots. 

Adjacent to the main cluster is a smaller cluster of fruit and squares with fewer layers.

1. Gray card stock is the first layer. 
2. Squares cut from scrap paper are the second layer. 
3. Cherry and lemon serve as the third layer. 
4.  A small Hawaiian flower tops the lemon to give it another subtle layer. 

For the second page, a small cluster is in the lower right corner. The ticket peeking out beneath the photo mat serves as the second layer in this cluster.  The matted logo adds two more layers to the cluster.

Cluster is in the lower right third.

As I continue to complete the remaining of the 52 layouts, I hope to use at least one cluster on each page of  my usually sparsely embellished pages.