Cherish - The Paper Mixing Bowl Challenge #1

Welcome to my first reveal for The Paper Mixing Bowl Challenge Blog! I love participating in challenges and I am so excited to be kicking off my very own challenge blog with some great scrappy friends. I hope you enjoy this month's challenge and will hop on over to The Paper Mixing Bowl blog and play along! For my layout for this challenge, I scrapped one of my absolute favourite photos of my son....isn't he just the cutest baby ever?!?!?

Here is the recipe card for the challenge:

I have used the "main ingredient" - dark chocolate coloured paper - as the background page and in the flowers, paper ruffle and layering under the photo. I followed my sketch (i.e. the "measurements") fairly closely and I managed to use all six "utensils" on the layout too.  I used a combination of Pion Design, Fancy Pants Designs and My Mind's Eye papers for this layout. I've done lots of layering (in squares) and distressed the edges of all the papers. I also stitched a couple of the layers for a little extra detail. The title is a chipboard word by Dusty Attic that I treated with Distress Stain in Stormy Sky and Distress Stickles in Clear Rock Candy. The corner embellishments on the photo are also Dusty Attic and were treated with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain and Ranger Crackle Accents.

All the flowers for this layout are handmade and are based on a couple of tutorials you can find at Vicky Alberto's blog Simply Paper.

I also handmade the paper ruffle and added lace and a strip of distressed floral paper to complete the horizontal border on the layout. I think I might put together a quick tutorial of how I made this since I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

For my journalling, I used torn journal paper (or a close approximation using scrapbook paper) for a little handwritten letter to my son, which says: I love you more than the sun and the moon and the stars in the sky. You are my baby boy and I will cherish you always. I added some twine loops from the floral/journalling cluster to link the title and journalling visually.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! 

Materials Used:

Patterened Papers: Pion Design "Studio of Memories" Collection - Ornament, Anemone, Borders and Cut-out Sheet; My Mind's Eye "Lost and Found" Collection - Market St. Love Demure Paper, "29th St. Market" Collection - Mama's Curtain/Brunette Paper; Fancy Pants Designs "Lilac House" Collection - Weeping Willow and English Garden; Mulberry Paper (white flower); Dusty Attic Mini Corner #2 and Mini Word "Cherish"; Distress Ink in Walnut Stain; Distress Stain in Stormy Sky; Distress Stickles in Clear Rock Candy; Ranger Crackle Accents; Recollections Brads; Twine, Lace and Burlap leaves from stash; Glue Dots Memory Book and Mini; Memory Tape Runner XL; Terrifically Tacky Tape.