Hi friends, it’s Theresa here with 3 really easy ways you can use the Traci Reed Designs I Voted! Kit to tell your experiences of this year’s election. Remember that your story is personal to you, so you get to your own who, what, where and why, but you can also do it and make it fun! After all, that is what we are creating for – the fun of it.

I’ve used three techniques to document my personal early vote at the polls, and I want to tell you a little bit more about how I went about it. This layout will be housed in my 2024 October Daily, which is actually a really unique place to put it! I’ve never done that before.

My first technique: Add Bling!

For October Daily I typically like for my pages to have a bit more sparkle and shine, so for this page I printed the background directly onto Silhouette branded glitter paper! It’s designed with a glitter texture and will go smoothly through your printed and your Silhouette for a really cool finish. I’ve printed my background with one of the beautiful mixed media backgrounds and love how it turned out!

My second technique: Include ephemera from your voting and/or election day.

Now, we typically go vote in person and they don’t give you much, only the little sticker. So I hung onto my sticker and placed it directly onto my photo! But other ideas of ephemera might be mailers from your favorite candidate, envelope tear off strip from your mail in ballot, or election guides. You can also print out maps and election districts.

My third and favorite technique is this simple interactive element: the pull-out ballot into the ballot box.

This ballot box caught my eye because it’s glittery and because this box represents a lot here in America. Especially in this election, the importance of the ballot boxes and the voting machines cannot be undermined. I printed an extra tab and before printing, I added a simple rectangle in Photoshop. I made the tab and rectangle into a Smart Object and then printed that. Once the ballot box was printed and cut, I hand cut a slit into the ballot box so the tab could slide in and out. I will go back and add journaling to that later.