By Design's August 2009 Kit

It was with great honor that I was selected to be on the By Design Scrapbook Boutique's design team. BDSB launched their first Le Bistro Rose Kit Club August 2009. Not only was I selected for the team, but was privileged to submit design pages for the first kit. My initial thoughts were that I was unworthy to submit anything. However, after borrowing Regenia Kerr's granddaughter's Easter photos and some long hours of guessing as to whether this looks better or would that help make the page pop, I reached for the stars in order to meet Jessica's challenge. Thank you Jessica for pushing me past my limits. I love the layouts and am proud of their outcome. Although my three (3) layouts are for the most part intuitively obvious, I’m betting that a few hints from me would be useful as to how I managed some aspects. Particularly the origami figure in the black & white layout.

This layout of my daughter Peri is pretty simple for the most part. The exception is the origami figures at the top and bottom of the layout. For the general layout I distressed all the edges then used Distress “Black Soot” ink to darken the edges a bit. For effect, I sanded the Doily paper (included in your kit) before attaching Peri’s photo. The photo itself is matted with black card stock overlaid on a piece of beige dotted Swiss card stock. The flourish is a digital image printed onto transparency paper. You can also stamp a flourish onto tranparency with black Staz-on ink and then cut it out. The pretty ribbon with pearls can be found at By Design.
So now let’s talk about those origami figures. In this case a picture is worth a 1000 words so look at the attached photos. I used what was left over from the Doily paper. The flower ( is actually two folded pieces that are stacked together.

The photo to the left shows how I cut a large and a small section from the pattern of the laser paper.
To me, the small section looks a bit like a beach sand dollar hiding in the laser paper pattern so look for it in between the larger sections of the paper’s overall pattern.
The larger origami figure is, of course, made from the larger pattern pieces of the paper. Note, you will be unable to cut out the larger piece of the paper’s pattern without cutting through one of the smaller sand dollar sections. So your smaller sand dollar must come from some other location on the paper.
Cut out a large section and a small section of the Doilies pattern as shown. I literally pinched the four sides of the pattern pieces together into a soft folded position. For the larger figure I flipped it over and used black pop dots cut in half( ½) and placed up inside the folds to hold the folds into position. Then I flipped them right side up and used small glue dots to secure the smaller piece to the middle of the larger piece. Have fun!

For the second layout, Reece, I used many flowers cut from the floral patterned paper.

Here's the recipe:

• For the following two photo layout, I did purchase 2 sheets of teal card stock. 1 for the background and 1 for the mats.
  
  
• I accented all of the flowers and leaves with Stickles by using various colors choices:LEAVES: Icicle & Lime Green & FLOWERS: Candy Cane, Crystal, Orange Peel, Patina, & Yellow
  
  
• Orange ribbon purchased from By Design
  


• R stamp is From Tim Holtz's alphabet set. Use black Staz-on to stamp on fabric tag.
  


• I also used the packaging from the Prima flowers as a photo mat!
  

The last layout, You are Amazing, showcases a beautiful photo by having the butterflies flutter around the photo.

Here's the recipe:

• Precision tipped scissors are your best friend for this one! :) All of the butterflies and flower petals are cut out as close as possible to their edge. Attach them to your page with glue dots then bend your butterfly wings up for a 3D effect.
  
  
• I curled the petal edges on the 5” yellow flower on the bottom right of the page and then adhered the yellow Fiesta flower on top of it.
  
  
• The yellow Fiesta flower has an orange lace ribbon bunched behind it for a nice contrast. You can purchase the ribbon at By Design.
  
  
• The large butterfly at the top left of the photo has the round pink jewel in the center. Use a jump ring to attach the small red crystal to it. Adhere with glue dots.
  
  
• You can also cut off the small hole on the silver butterfly charm and use glue dots to glue it in the center of the whte butterfly. There is also a red crystal attached to the butterfly to the left of the photo.
  
  
• Cut apart the tiny bunch of red flowers and glue to the pedals of the flower to the right of the photo.
  
  
  
  Thanks to all of you for tuning in to Arthur's Court's 1st design team post!