This is the first spread in my Month In Review “My Hikes” book, though these 4-mile treks in the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden were more “walks” than “hikes.” At this point in this winter, though, where “freezing mix” is the order of the day, we take what we can get. The idea is to do a spread a month, with some supplemental spreads as needed.

To make this spread, I opened the January templates onto a 24x12 canvas—I actually print at 8x8, so immediately resized the text to 12 pt on 14 pt leading. Before populating the templates, I like to make any structural tweaks, and in this case I added the title next, amending WordART Cluster #1 with word labels from the #5 Cluster. I also added a metal word from the #5 cluster so I would have a triangle of big words to anchor what promised to be a spread full of uncoordinated photos. My last step in template preparation was to add the date boxes to the calendar—a variety of markers comes as a bonus with the MIR template set. My background is Enigma Solid 5 (duplicated, on overlay blend mode), with transfers #6, #8, and #9 atop. I filled in some of the stains with a terra-cotta color to pick up the pot in the Conservatory photo and added a button for embellishment.