"Scrap Sisters"

Tonight we are cropping as part of Riverview's Sunfest activities. So much fun. I saw this sketch in a newsletter I received from CROPS PLUS, and thought it would be perfect for this photo I had of the girls & I.

The JULY Sketch from CROPS PLUS:

My interpretation:

Knowing this was the photo I wanted to play with, I knew right away that LIFE DOCUMENTED by SIMPLE STORIES was what I needed to work with. I oh-so-love the products from Simple Stories.

Did you know that with all the paper used on this layout, and all the layering, I've only used 4 sheets of pattern paper and 3 sheets of cardstock. Its' all in the way you make use of your paper.

Check it out:

Each piece, I've taken my Tim Holtz Distressor to its edges. I love the "quilted" effect it offers. On this layout, I've used my silver from Colorbox Cats Eyes stacked.

I used Bitter Chocolate cardstock as the background, and cut out the inside of it as a frame; so I could use the piece that was going to covered in my matting. (See photo at the bottom).

Life Documented: 100% Real Life is my next layer. I trimmed 1/4" from the right edge and bottom edge of this page. I used my journalling pen to do some faux-stitching all the way around the outer edge.

Now, the striped paper that you see in my layout was ALSO cut out from this paper - from behind the dark paper with the dots. The key to cutting this out ..... is to have all your other pieces cut and laid out so you know HOW MUCH ROOM you have to cut. You need to be able to "hide" all your pieces that are cut out.

NOTE: This does take practice and some mathematical calculations if you are working with a small amount of room to cut.

My striped piece is approx 8 3/4"w x 2 1/2"t.

Life Documented: Celebrate Life is used for the brown side with dots. This piece is 11"w x 4"t. This piece is used to hide the HOLE left in the background page when you cut out the striped piece above (8 3/4" x 2 1/2").

Life Documented: Life is Good is used for the light beige, dotted side. This piece is 10 1/2"w x 1 1/2"t. 

Next I cut out a row of banners from the backside of this paper ... and added enough banners to fill the space from the edge of my photo/mattes to the edge of the page on both sides of the page.

These are pop dotted for dimension, and I added Kaisercraft jewels to the top corners of each flag.

Life Documented: 4x6 Monthly Journalling Card Elements #1 is where I took the "REMEMBER THIS" journalling card. I added my journalling, and also used my green ZIG WRITER to add a fourth bracket box :)

I double matted this card; first on BAHAMA cardstock, and then on a piece of BITTER CHOCOLATE (cut from the background page). I only measured and cut each layer slightly larger than the first.

My photo is triple matted; first with FRENCH VANILLA cardstock - as I found my photo to be dark and didn't want to lose it with my darker mattes. Next I used another piece of the BITTER CHOCOLATE. Then a piece of BAHAMA cardstock, I trimmed it 1" longer than the bottom of the photo and tore the edge from left to right, going from "short" to "longer".

"Life Documented" is trimmed out from one of the cards, I used Suze Weinburg's "MERMAID" stickles to trace along the word "LIFE". Then pop dotted it over the empty corner of my photo.

NOTE: If your photo subject comes down to the bottom corner - you will want to move this over to the right edge of your photo so not to take away from your photo.

My title is using Kaisercraft plain chipboard letters. I took a black ink to them first, and then went back to the edges with the silver.

Just so you have an idea of what I'm cutting out, the back isn't very pretty: Good thing another page covers this on the other side!