"Two Months Old" Layout

This is a "lift" challenge that I undertook- a little out of my comfort zone- trying to coordinate at least 3 different patterned papers. I tried flocking for the very first time on the letters and the flourishes- I just sprinkled the flocking over the wet paint (I painted the chipboard), then tapped off the excess and poured it back into the bottle. I used Martha Stewart's flocking- individual bottles at Michael's- I think I like that better than buying a pack of them with colors I'll never use. I hand stitched around the vellum squares since I don't have any vellum adhesive and my regular stuff will show through otherwise with vellum. I also handstitched around the white mat- inking the white paper slightly with pink ink, then distressed the pink double matting. I like how (to me at least) it kind of looks similar to the texture of the pink blanket. I used handstitching on the center of the flower too- stitching more on vellum. The little pink acrylic half-round I found at Craft Warehouse- a good size bag of them which I shared with some scrapbooking buddies of mine. The little felt hearts- I cut out of felt and stitched to mimic the arrow point- and I used a glass to trace little stitch lines to follow with more hand stitching. If you have the chance to try flocking- I recommend it, it's a lot of fun and adds more texture to anything you use it on. :)

Easter Sunday 2008 Layout

This layout was based on a sketch challenge in a super inspiring scrapbooking group on Cafemom- Julie, you and your scrappy ladies ROCK! Part of the challenge was to use the sketch, but to also incorporate some felt on the layout, in addition to some hand stitching. This was the first time I've used stitching on a layout, and I have to say that I am HOOKED on it now. For whatever reason, there is something calming and therapeutic with the stitching- now I'm just talking the basic stitch (not fancy embroidery), for the record- THAT would not be calming to me... :) Anyhow, I stitched around the pictures before I matted them- I used a single strand of embroidery floss for that. I stitched around other various aspects of the layout too, with more than one strand. I used my edge distresser (oh my, how I love my edge distresser! thanks to my best buddy Katherine for giving it to me- I have used it SO much! ). The distressed edges really soften up the look of the layout. Here's a secret- the paper actually says "growing boy" along the top of some of the leaves of the flowers. I used more stitching along those areas to hide it, because the paper and the floss and pictures all coordinated so well, and I couldn't find anything else suitable- so I improvised... I bought 2 sheets of the flower paper, so I cut some of the flowers out and used pop up dots to raise them out of the background to add depth. I then stickled the centers of them. I cut out more flowers and put them along the bottom of the pictures with rhinestones and buttons that coordinated. And then there's the felt- my first time working with it. To make the scallops, I used my corner rounder punch on a piece of paper to make it scalloped and then used it as template with a little bit of dry adhesive to stick the paper to the felt and cut around it . All I had to do was remove the paper and there you have it. I used beads that coordinated with the colors and sewed them on the felt, and I stitched around the border of the scallops with coordinating embroidery floss. It was really fun to do. I have to say that I'm really pleased with this layout- and that doesn't happen too often for me.