My Life in Pictures

This week’s challenge for Scrap Wars was to create a two-page 12×12 “then and now” layout showing yourself as a baby, at graduation and today.

I loved this idea and immediately thought of photos I wanted to include.  I printed a few and then over the next few days, until I had time to actually sit down and create, all sorts of ideas came to mind.

What I ended up with was a mosaic page (using techniques and papers from Tami Potter) that shows the important events in my life and the people and things that contributed to making me who I am today. I also included some of the things I love — like hot-air balloons, Winnie the Pooh, scrapbooking and chickens.

I used papers by My Mind’s Eye to frame the empty squares along the border and to fill in journaling blocks, the title and extra spaces. And used my Cricut to cut out the title.

When I finished, my daughter looked at it and declared she had never seen so many pictures of me in one place her entire life.

She’s right. Most layouts do not feature me at all. In fact,  I had trouble even finding pictures of her and I together. It seems I spend too much time on the other side of the camera. With a timer and a tripod, there is no reason for that, so my new goal is to make sure I am in some of the photos — with and without my family.

For now, stop by Scrap Tales in Brighton and vote for my layout. I can use all of the votes I can get!

Fun with Stickers

When I was young, I collected stickers. I had an old photo album that I filled with my finds and I looked forward to meeting and trading with other sticker collectors.

Even though I no longer put them in an album, I still enjoy playing with stickers and I love using them on my layouts. Besides reminding me of my youth, they are quick and easy and often provide just the right accent.

I have some friends who disagree. They never use stickers.

But, stickers do not have to be flat and, according to them, boring. With a few simple tricks, you can make your stickers fantastic.

On this page, using products by Basic Grey, I added dimension to the stickers by adding foam squares underneath the stickers.

The process is simple.

1. Take the sticker off its backing and turn it upside down.

2. Place foam squares on the back, but leave the paper covering the top layer of adhesive on.

3. With a small paint brush, or your finger, apply baby powder to the back of the sticker. This will render the adhesive useless, so your sticker will no longer be sticky.

4. Then, remove the backing off your foam adhesive and stick it to the page.

I used this technique on both the title and the owl to add dimension.

Stickers can also be layered, trimmed off the edges and accented with glitter, Stickles, brads and other things.

Or, you could buy already embellished felt stickers, like the butterfly on this page.

My cat, Winnifred, certainly loved this page. She came by when I was trying to photograph the page.

Every time I tried to take the page, she grabbed hold of that butterfly. Silly, kitty!