CCC # 15: Engaged!

What perfect timing!  The two-week theme at Creative Cutting Challenge is "Weddings".  Another opportunity to finish up some projects for my own wedding day that is fast approaching.  (Yikes!)

I decided to take a step back and document our engagement story with this scrapbook layout.  I never scrapbook by myself, so this was a real challenge for me.  I had no one here to offer opinion!  That was tough, but I pushed through and am pretty pleased with the result.

(sorry, this story is just for us! J)

The Details:

• The diamond ring SVG from The Creative Pointe's "Wedding Set" made a perfect frame for our photo.  

• I cut the base from dark grey stock and the "setting" from a lighter grey, delicately patterned paper.  The "diamond" was cut from white stock.  I drew a few facet lines with a pencil and then covered it in a thick coat of Rock Candy Distress Stickles for the appropriate sparkle.

• I layered a large version of The Creative Pointe's "Bracket Element" SVG to break up the background a bit and bring in some more pink.  Since it was the whole story, I typed it out on grey-ish stock, formatting it into three columns and adjusting so that it would be the right size for my page.
• "Engaged!" was cut using "English" font and colored with a touch of Worn Lipstick Distress Stain to up the pink tone a bit.

• The rest was adding embellishments:  a strip of crocheted lace, suede leaf ribbon and some flowers.  An extra special touch is the corsage pin and beads stuck in beneath the silk flower petals..."inheritance" from my paternal grandmother's impressive stash, recently passed along from my mom.

I can't wait to see how the other designers have outdone themselves on their "Weddings" projects!  Click here to check out all the Creative Cutting Challenge Design Team projects and join the challenge.  Even if you don't use SVG files yet, it's definitely worth the visit for some great ideas!

Other Challenges:
Fairy Tale Challenges: A Very Special Occasion
Totally Papercrafts Friday Challenges: #164 - Flowers and Lace
Allsorts: Week 204 - Anything But a Card
Creative Creations Challenges: #9 - Weddings
Make My Monday: Anything But a Card
UnstampaBelles: Challenge #22 - Anything But a Card (papercraft no stamping)

Supplies:
Cardstock:	Stampin’ Up! ‘Sahara Sand’, ‘Ultrasmooth Vanilla’, ‘Ultrasmooth White’; Papertrey Ink ‘Smokey Shadow’
Patterned Paper:	Authentique ‘Blissful’ 6x6, unknown
SVG:	The Creative Pointe ‘Wedding Set’, ‘Bracket Element’; font ‘English’
Inks:	Distress Stain ‘Worn Lipstick’; Le Pen ‘Grey’; Distress Ink ‘Old Paper’
Embellishments:	Lace ribbon; leaf ribbon; paper flowers; silk flowers; Tim Holtz button; vintage corsage pin; vintage pearls; Distress Stickles ‘Rock Candy’
Tools:	SCAL; Cricut Expression; Fiskars punch ‘Corner Rounder’; glue dots; foam ink blender; TH paper distresser

Summer Vacation Scrapbook Pages - Day 3

And finally...August 2009 vacation #3!

As their 50th anniversary gift wish, my parents asked for nothing more than a family trip with all the kids and grandkids.  After some stressful planning, we settled on a weekend in cabins in Tawas, Michigan.  It rained most of the weekend and was not warm enough to swim...typical.  But we made our own fun with games during the rain and nature walks when the clouds parted.

At least I can say I got in the water...

It's stuff like this that makes me a very slow scrapbooker...  I can't help myself, I see each page as a little canvas and I strive to make something special about it.  On this one, the handcrafted "Beach" sign turned out just so cute.  The sand, grasses, and post are all scrap papers cut, torn, and folded to create the right look.  The top of the sign is a chipboard arrow shape.

Whew!  That was a lot of vacationing...by the time August was over, I was actually glad to be back to work and a normal routine...how sad is that!?

Summer Vacation Scrapbook Pages - Day 2

Continuing with the Traverse City, Michigan area trip with these pages.  On this day of the trip, we visited Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a beautiful and amazing stretch along Lake Michigan.

Full layout

Left page

Right page

The drop to the lake is astounding...450 feet!  You just can't image it until you've been there.  Seriously...I was NOT going down that hill!

I love journaling on vellum for my scrapbook pages.  It's so unobtrusive and you can still see a hint of the background.

Another section from a travel brochure / magazine telling the story of Sleeping Bear.  The color and size was perfect, so why retype?  The map on the right page is also from the brochure.

We had a great time "up North" on this trip.  Truly such a beautiful area of Michigan!  Tomorrow, I'll wrap up my August 2009 summer vacations scrapbook pages.

Summer Vacation Scrapbook Pages

In addition to cards, tags, collages, etc., I also scrapbook and since I haven't yet shared any layouts, I thought I'd start with some summer ones. 

August 2009 was a month packed full of vacations for me...in fact, I took three!  Now, normally, I would not plan these things on top of each other, but when you're dealing with mulitple people's / family's schedules, you take what you can get!

#1 

The first vacation is my usual week at my sister's house "up North".  She lives on a beautiful natural lake and we spend the week crafting, swimming (if the weather cooperates), walking the trails, shopping in town, etc.  This week is total relaxation and fun...we don't usually take pictures because, well, we don't do much with ourselves unless we're going into town!  So, no scrapbook pages for this one.

#2

The second was a trip to the Grand Traverse Bay region of Michigan's upper lower pennisula.  It is gorgeous there!  And if you like wine...specifically white wines...this is a place you want to visit!  While there, we took a sunset dinner cruise on the bay on the schooner Manitou. 

Full layout

  

Left page

Right Page

I love adding pieces of memorabilia like this advertisement clipping from a tourist magazine that I picked up during the trip.

During the sail, it rained just enough so that a rainbow formed.  It was beautiful...can you see it?

More layouts from this trip and from Vacation #3 coming in the days ahead.

Do you have summer travel plans?