What exactly IS a Power Palette Layout?

On New Year's Eve, you may have seen my Facebook post that said this:

"I did it! 156 photos scrapbooked in an album in less than 4 hours, using the Power Palette Layout method. This is so cool!

It's true, although I can still hardly believe it. While I was at my parents' in Wisconsin, my dad and I pored over 1,000 photos of my niece, Kira. My dad is an uber-excited grandfather who takes hundreds of pictures every time he sees his granddaughter, but he has never taken those photos out of their comfortable home in iPhoto! I think we all know at least one person like that (perhaps it's you... come on, I won't judge).

Over the course of 4 hours, I put together a 30-page album with 156 of these pictures. It's called the Power Palette Layout method, and it's a very precise and structured, assembly-line process of putting together a whole album at once. Each layout is a little different, so it doesn't necessarily look like you put it all together at once.

There are a lot of details and rules to follow (yes, rules!), and I'm not going to cover all of them here, so consider this the condensed and illustrated version.

First, all of your blank pages (12x12 size) and Power Layout Guides are spread out on a table. Not sure what a Power Layout Guide is? It's a 12x12 plastic sheet that comes in the Power Layout Kit, which you will need in order to participate in this workshop. I can fill you in with more details if you ask!


Then, all of your pictures are placed onto those guides and pages, so you can see what you're working with. During this time, you can weed out unnecessary or duplicate photos, and place the pictures on the page in the approximate place you'd like them to stay.


After doing this, you will need to crop some of your pictures. You can crop some of them into circles or ovals, or simply crop some extra inches off that aren't needed, as shown here.


Next, you'll choose the paper from your Power Palette that you'd like to use. The paper comes in 12x12, but we'll be trimming it so that one piece of paper is used for two pages. This saves you paper (and therefore, money) and eliminates the problem of having a heavy album from background paper (or "wallpaper") on every page. When you put your cropped pictures on top (you can mat some along the way, as you'll see here), this is what the page looks like.

Doesn't it look like there's a full sheet of paper behind? There isn't- it's a wide strip and a thin strip. The techniques I'll be teaching at the workshop will show you how that's done so it's quick and easy (and requires no rulers for measuring, don't worry).

Add a couple of stickers in the blank spaces....


... and VOILA! A layout is complete.


But not just one layout. THIRTY layouts. Since you'll be doing this in assembly line format, before you know it, your pages will be DONE. And you will be astonished. No lie.

So what are the tools involved in a Power Palette Layout workshop? Well, here is what I used:



You might have some of these already, but if not, there are a few ways we can handle it. You'll need to purchase the consumable products, which include just the Power Palette (that's the set of pages and stickers, which you'll see in the top/center of this picture, in pastel colors), and a tape runner. All of the other tools can be borrowed from my supply, although if you're planning on doing ANY scrapbooking after this project, I will recommend that you purchase a couple of tools that are essential. And listen... once you complete a full album in 4 hours, you WILL want to do another!

Here are my workshop dates:

Thursday, February 11th @ 6-10pm

Tuesday, February 16th @ 1-5pm

Thursday, February 18th @ 9am-1pm

Saturday, February 20th @ 1-5pm

Are you ready to try it?? Comment here or email me at Marianne241@gmail.com to view your Power Palette design options and book a spot! Your order will need to be placed 2 weeks before your workshop, and I will help you figure out what you need. Each workshop is limited to 4 people. However, if you have at least one other friend who would like to try this with you and you'd rather do it at your own house, I will come to you, and we can set a date of your choice. Just let me know!

Happy Scrapping!