Story Play Dogs + Cats | Special Guest Denine Zielinski

Hey friends! It’s Denine, and I am here today to share a spread that I created with the Story Play Collection: Dogs + Cats. I guess you can say that I’m a cat person x5, so working with the cat components from the kit obviously made sense for me. Of course, you can totally do this project with a dog or dogs.

At first glance, it’s a pretty simple spread. But the viewer gets a little surprise when they look inside. I added an Avery Index tab to the right hand side to alert the viewer that there is more fun stuff to see. I stamped “look inside” on the insert.

The flap opens up to reveal a little pop up home for some photos and additional journaling details.

You can see how this fun interactive page came together for me in the video below.

It may be a bit premature, but my brain is already starting to dream up ideas for December Daily. To be honest, I’m not sure that it ever stopped. I have really been enjoying the creative challenge that goes along with the kinds of interactive pages that I like adding into my DD albums. Inspired by a card from Instagram, I was excited to translate the idea to a scrapbook page.

For the first page of my spread, I used the 7x8.25 prompt paper to add my journaling directly to the paper using PSE and then running the paper through my printer.

On the day that I typed up my story, I may or may not have been a tad annoyed with my furry overlords which caused my writing to be a bit on the sarcastic side. I was totally okay with that because it was a true reflection of me in that moment (and it made me laugh while I was typing it and when reading it afterwards). The photo below shows a closer view of that story.

Another fun element on my first page is the collection of little cats that I added to the white box in the upper left hand corner of the paper. Using the digital version of the Todays Story Cat 3x4 Journal Card, I isolated and recolored four different versions of the cat in PSE, each to mimic the coloring of my five furry friends. I printed them, fussy cut them out, and arranged them into a group inside the white box. They came out so darn cute!

The second page of my spread began with one of the papers from the Q+A Storyteller Kit. As I was considering what I would do for the background of this page, the storage box that holds the Q+A Storyteller Kit was still on my desk. I decided to start there, and my search ended there, too. I had used the digital version of the Scallop Border + Stripes 7x8.25 Paper, but the physical paper was still in my box. I personally have no problem using a design/element/paper more than once. I was pulled in by the orange color, and it just felt right.

After I had created my interactive photo holder (more details on this are available in my video) using white cardstock, I felt like the white was just too bland for me. I ended up resizing and printing out the design from the Cats Pattern 7x8.25 Vellum Paper to cover up most of the white.

To add some color to the inside, I cut the top of the Cat Story 3x4 Journal Card off and added it to the front of the stand up photo holder.

I printed out 5 photos (one of each cat) to slide into the photo holder, and I also wanted to put a few details on the backs on each photo. I chose to keep it simple with their ages, gotcha dates, and current aliases (I say current because they have to change their aliases every so often to protect their identities). LOL! Seriously, though, I don’t know about you guys, but I seem to randomly change their nicknames every so often just because. The below photo shows the pictures of each cat.

In addition to the details about each cat, I used the Alphas Are Awesome Stamp Set #19 to add their names to the journaling pieces on the backsides of the pictures. This is one of my all-time favorite Alphas Are Awesome Sets, and I look for any excuse to add the letters to my pages.

To the top of the interactive photo holder, I adhered a piece of the Cats Pattern 7x8.25 Vellum Paper and the I Love Cats 3x4 Journal Card. I did add small magnets to keep the flap closed. I know that time will flatten this out (always does), but a few magnets always help.

To finish off, I added the Avery Index tab to the flap, three phrase stickers in the lower right hand corner, and the date in the upper left. Here’s how this spread looks in my album.

I had a lot of fun working with this mini kit, and playing around with interactive goodies is my jam. If you want to give this a shot, my video has more details, dimensions, and my thoughts on how you can replicate the photo holder. It would definitely make a fun addition to any album (DD for sure), and practice makes perfect. A few pieces of cardstock + cutting tools is all you need!

Thank you so much for joining me today as I told my crazy cat stories!

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below. I love hearing from you guys! You can also find me on Instagram @denine2 and YouTube @Denine2.

Happy storytelling, my friends!