Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Layout of the Week - My Birthday


Delaney loves to cook! For birthday last year, she decided she & Dad would bake me a birthday cake. The cake was a first for both of them. I stayed completely out of their way. they baked, frosted & decorated my chocolate cake with chocolate frosting all by themselves. They even took photos of each other as they went.

They were both pretty proud of their creation and I of them. We all had a HUGE laugh when we realized the frosting on top was thinner than the flour on the bottom of the pan!! Just so you know, we've had a "grease & flour the pan" lesson since, stressing the need to dump the excess flour out!

All in all, it was a great cake & a great birthday for me!

In designing this page, I wanted to include all the photos Delaney & Dave had taken of each other during the cake making process. Lately I've been working with the "less is more" philosophy with my layouts, trying to lower the number of photos I use on each page, thereby letting the very special ones stand out. But this time, I just couldn't leave any out. So, I decided to print all the photos of my bakers as wallets. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I really do love the fact that I can easily choose to print any of my photos as wallets, 4 for only 13 cents, on Costco's website.

With photos in hand, I made a trip to Whimzee's. (Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio, down the street in Beaverton, where I work part time...check out the blog I write for the store, Whimzee's Girls Online...but I digress....) Right there in the front of the store was a new collection that had just arrived, it was perfect. It seemed that Early Bird from Cosmo Cricket had jumped right off the shelf & into my basket. This collection is kitschy & retro, bright & full of pattern, all things I love in scrapbook paper. The cute tags & sayings would be just right with my birthday cake photos. I found two pieces of Bazzill's swiss dot paper to match, dark red & butter (these probably aren't their real names). Loving ribbon the way I do, I loved the way the dark red twill from Creative Cafe reminded me of apron strings. And since I've been caught up in an inking frenzy lately, I grabbed a dark red ink from Studio G's $1 line. Never being happy with just a couple embellishments, I added some mini buttons from our bulk embellishments on another visit to the store.

While I was working on this layout, all the ladies at the store reminded me that I should be very thankful for my wonderful family. They couldn't believe that my husband, first of all, baked a cake with his daughter and second of all, remembered to take photos for me as he did it! Thanks honey! And thanks Delaney for coming up with this great present for mom! :) I love you both!

Tips

I haven't used my corner rounder in a long time, but I had a feeling that rounded corners on my papers would go nicely on this layout. I used my old Creative Memories rounder for the tags, but I wanted a larger curve on my larger paper pieces. Not having extra money in my budget right now to go out & buy a cool new tool, I looked around my work area and found something that would work just as well. For the rounded corners on my larger paper pieces, I flipped them over and traced the curve from the lid of an acrylic paint bottle onto the paper and cut along the line with my scissors! Another MacGyver moment for Julie! I do kind of come by it naturally...you should see what my dad can do with a pocket knife & duct tape!

One more tip...if you're looking for a way to create a cohesive look on your pages, try inking the edges of your page elements. Here, I used a dark red ink to ink the edges of almost everything on my page, including the background papers. Try it sometime, I love the way it brings everything together and gives my pages sort of a "worn" feel.

Supply List

Cosmo Cricket Early Bird Collection: Elements, Ribbon Sandwich, Sunrise & Apron Strings

Bazzill Swiss Dot dark red & butter yellow

Studio G ink dark red

Mini Buttons unknown manufacturer

9 comments:

Annette Piper said...

Its wonderful when kids first start to cook 'creations'! A great memory for all :)

Forgetfulone said...

I love that layout, and especially your tips! How do you keep your page elments from smearing when you ink the edges? That's been my problem. I love this paper, too! Why don't you come link up with us on Sunday Scrappin' some time? www.sundayscrappin.blogspot.com
I'd love to have more people link up their cool layouts!

Martha said...

Happy Birthday! Thanks for stopping by for VGNO. I also host a meme at the Krazy Kitchen on Saturday. Here's a link to my Pesto recipe I posted there a few weeks ago ...

http://thekrazykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/07/simple-supper-saturday-pasta-with-pesto.html

Enjoy! :-)

Nancy@ifevolutionworks.com said...

You are so creative. This page is beautiful!

Anonymous said...

How sweet! And what a special birthday!

Tim said...

Thanks for stopping by The Fort Julie! Happy Happy Birthday to you!!

I love what you have going here, and will be back!

Love and Prayers,

Tim

Glynis Peters said...

Love the layout! DH frosted all of my daughter's cupcakes for her wedding in July, we had been let down the day before. He was a star and it was lovely to see them both so happy working together. Your layout has given me an idea.
Thanks for dropping by New Scribbles, nice to meet you.
Happy Birthday.

Native American Momma said...

I didn't know that about Costco that is great to know.

Christina-Marie Wright said...

So cute! I love the little electric hand mixer at the top. :)

Happy VGNO!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...