Vintage Letter

I've decided to expand my horizons and do a few 12x12 scrapbook layouts occasionally. I used to be a big-time scrapbooker. In fact, I was a Creative Memories consultant for over 10 years. But I got sort of burned out on scrapping and went over to card making about a year ago. I love rubber stamping and making cards, but sometimes I just want a bigger "canvas" to work on. So I decided to combine stamping and scrapping. (LOL - another thing I said I would never do - add that to the fact that I said I would never be a blogger and that I would never SEW on my cards - eating my words AGAIN!). So in my seemingly endless quest to make beautiful paper art, here is my first set of 12x12 scrapbook pages in my funky junky shabby chic style. I learned one thing in this endeavor - it's really hard to take quality photos of a two page 12x12 layout. I'm going to have to practice on that. The photos really don't do the pages justice. They are SOOO pretty IRL!!

I started out by making the photo mats - triple layered. The first layer in Chocolate Chip is gold embossed with a script stamp. The next layer up is Creamy Caramel and is clear embossed in a flourish pattern (Baroque Motifs), not that you can really see either stamping, but it adds some texture and interest to the elements. The edges were distressed with scissors and sponged with Creamy Caramel ink. The top layer of all the mats is Very Vanilla and each one is stamped and gold embossed with a different vintage/toile type of stamp plus I added some paper piercing to one mat. The stitching is done in gold thread - did you know that gold thread is $15.99 a spool??? I almost had heart failure at the checkout register at Jo-Ann's earlier this week! Luckily I had a 40% off coupon but it was still $10! But I digress...the top right element is a new Spellbinders frame die that you can also use as a stencil so I stenciled with Versamark and then gold embossed that too.

Then I cut and matted a 12" strip. On the bottom strip I gold embossed a beautiful filigree pattern and then trimmed along the edge for a variegated type of effect and sponged the edge with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink. I added a pretty strip of crinkly ribbon and hand sewed a V pattern in gold cord. I topped it off with tiny little paper flowers that I punched with a CM flower punch. I spritzed all the paper I made the flowers out of with Tim Holtz gold alcohol ink for a golden shimmer before I punched them out. The large paper flowers were made with my CM heart maker by punching four hearts of two sizes each and fastening them together with a brad or glue. The centers of the largest flowers are gold buttons. I thought they were plastic when I bought them but was unable to snip off the shank so I had to pound it off with a hammer.

The main embellishment is a handmade letter, folded, embossed, distressed and stitched. I stamped a sentiment on it in gold that says "The world is but a canvas to our imaginations" - Henry David Thoreau. I used more of that pretty ribbon, added a stamped vintage tag and a stamped "photo" of a young woman, a piece of gold net and then made a vintage tag to slide under it that is for journaling.