Sisters

Please click on any image to see a larger version!

Wow! This layout is somewhat of a departure for me. Does this paper look familiar? See here for the tutorial where I made it.

I've got a lot of 'Firsts' in this layout:
1) This is the very first time I have EVER glued a photo directly to the base layer. I'm a matter, no question about it, as you can no doubt tell.
2) I had never before done an entire page with just ONE photo.
3) I 'invented' (to my knowledge) a new punch flower (see tutorial).
4) Prior to this layout, I had never freehanded every bit of title text.
5) This is the first time I've used such elaborately stamped paper as my page base.**

Ingredients: Whisper White (base), Bordering Blue (title), Ballet Blue (flower), and Not Quite Navy (mats) cardstock, Small Oval and Five-Petal Flower punches, Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, 1/4" white grosgrain, SU! paper snips.

Did you notice that the title text is kinda wobbly and uneven? Yep. I picked up scraps of Bordering Blue and my papersnips and just started cutting out letters. So they're a little... UNuniform? Each letter taken by itself looks rather questionable, but put together, they look great, I think!

Now here's a close-up of the Hardware on the right-hand page:

And here's a close-up of my totally groovy flower:


And... here's the sketch (available only to demos with access to the demo challenge forum at SCS, and to visitors to my blog) I did for the July 15 Demo Scrapbook Challenge:


**By the way, a friend asked me about my using dye inks to stamp the background paper. Yes, I did use dye inks, and yes, dye inks are at a greater risk of fading over time. I have had Lavender Lace ink fade after two years in indirect sunlight. However, I have a box full of cards and goodies that I made ten years ago (when I first discovered SU!) that are still as vibrant today as when I stamped them. So I'm thinking (i.e. confidently hoping) that the ink formula hasn't changed much in ten years, and that storing stamped art away from harsh light (as scrapbooks generally are) will preserve the integrity of the ink color.