Basic Grey Papers & Flowers for Special Memory

I had a special picture of my cousins from our annual family reunion.  As with all pictures with a lot of people, it is hard to know what to do with them.  I know from trying to sort out old pictures of my Mom’s that it is important to name the people because even though today we may be able to identify them all, 50 years from now people will say who is that?

Rather than simply putting boring labels at the bottom, I decided to put each person’s name on a flower stem. (The stems were cut from Oxford Deans List. The person’s name was written on it with a pen.)  I then used flowers (made in a variety of ways) to identify to which family each person belonged and where in the picture they are.  Let me explain.

My sister and I are flowers made from Tim Holtz Sizzix Tattered Flower die cut from Basic Grey paper.   (Both flowers are the same; the die contains four flowers.)  My Uncle Dick’s kids are also represented by flowers made using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Tattered Flower die, but I used a different paper and flower.   All my Aunt Joann’s kids are all Bazzill Paper Flowers 1.5 Primula French Vanilla.  (These flowers are great and ScrapbooksPlus has them in  lots of fun colors and different sizes.) My Aunt Marilyn’s kids are all blue BoBunny buttons and Uncle Tom’s are tan BoBunny Buttons.   (Smaller buttons the centers of  the flowers.)  I tied a knot in each of the buttons with blue sewing floss.  The flowers are placed vertically and horizontally to correspond to where the person is in the picture.  For example, my cousin Tommy is in the back row and the furthest to the left so his flower is one of the tallest and on the left side of the page.

I also used symbolism to enhance the meaning of the page.   For example, the #19 represents the total number of cousins.  It is from the Pink Paislee Daily Junque Mini Note & Label set, which contains 43 embellishments.  l  also used two cards from this set on the right side to provide balance.  In the upper right, I used a Kaisercraft Wood Flourishes leave to  provide two leaves to represent the two cousins who are no longer with us.  

This page was a lot of fun to make and will provide special memoires for years to come.

Stars of My Life

This month’s page map gives you lots of options for how to make it your own.    You have 9 squares in the center.  It is up to you whether you use them all for pictures, all for decorations or a combination of pictures and decorations.  My squares included some with pictures, some with embellishments and some words.   My page includes a picture of me with each of my aunts and uncles when I was young.  Since I have only four, that left me five squares to use as accents.   

I used the Oxford Frat House paper for the background.  To bring the focus to the center where the pictures are, I made a large photo mat (10” x 10”) to hold all the pictures and other décor. I printed 3” x 3” pictures and placed them equally on the grid.  I cut 3” x 3” squares from coordinating paper.  In the center square, I placed a subtitle made from letters cut from Oxford Fencing paper. Instead of a square in the upper left, I used a journaling block from Life Documented Flash Cards.  I inked it with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  All squares were inked with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  

 I inked ribbon (available atScrapbooksPlus) and Tim Holtz idea-ology trimming lavish flower ribbon with Peeled Paint Distress Stain and used the ribbon to decorate the squares.  If you haven’t tried Distress Stain, you really should.  It is so easy to make items the color you want .  I added a heart stamp and some flowers cut with Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Sizzix die. 

Since I had some chipboard stars, I titled this page “Stars of My Life.”  (I apologize that the picture makes it difficult to read the title. ) Although it goes with the embellishments, it is also true – my aunts and uncles played a significant role in my life.  They continue to today.) I used  a large chipboard star for the title.  I covered it with Versamark and embossed it with Peeled Paint Distress Powder.  The remainder of the title was made with Pink Paislee Daily Junque wood alphabet.  

This month’s page map is one that  is easy to adjust to the pictures that you want to scrap.  Simply gather the 3” x 3” pictures.  Once you have these selected and placed, pick paper and embellishments for the other squares that reflect the theme.  You can make them frilly and pink for a girly girl, bold and modern for a hip look, fill with sports symbols for the big game, or since it is September you could use a school theme with a back to school picture of each of your kids.   

Christmas Present

I said before I loved the trees in this month's pink paislee Tinsel Town Collection. I'm afraid I got carried away cutting them out and ended up adding them to this layout, creating a cheerful and elegant little forest across the bottom of the Polar Express paper. Initially, I wasn't sure about the color of this paper for Christmas, but it quickly grew on me and this is one of my favorite holiday layouts. I decided I really wanted to pull the color red out of the photo. The die cut paper was easy to trace, creating a nice red border. I loved that the red chipboard parentheses from Scenic Route were exactly the same shape as the die cut. They provided a unique way to add emphasis to my journaling. A little red ribbon, a few buttons, and a sprinkling of chipboard stars and sentiments finished it off - my reflections on Christmas Present and the gifts in my life have been saved for posterity.