Happy Girls Layout - Using Crate Paper

Happy Monday morning everyone!  With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I have really been focused on the people and things I love - and scrapbooking all about them, of course!  And some of my favorite papers to use have been from CRATE PAPER'S 14 COLLECTION, which is defintely on my TOP 5 Paper Collections List right now.  The papers are saturated with color and a little bit vintage-y and absolutely perfect for layouts such as this one featuring my sweet, lovely daughters! 

 

As my starting point, I used this fantastic sketch from CREATIVE SCRAPPERS.  Seriously, Kristine's crew comes up with so many awesome sketches, I don't know when I will have time to get to them all!

 

Let me tell you a little bit about this layout - because I had so much fun making it!

 

First, this banner was fussy cut directly from a page of - you guessed it - banners!  I just cut a few out and zig zag stitched around my pieces, then sewed them across the top directly onto my layout.  I initially had a second, different banner making a larger swoop below this one but decided it made my layout too busy - after I had already glued it down to my papers, of course!  So, I ripped the second banner off, sewed these little hearts on top of a few of the ripped areas, and decided that the other visible tears in my papers were extra distressing that I MEANT to have on my layout - hahahahaha!  Besides, they compliment my white paint spatters that really were put there on purpose.  (Yes, I am the Queen of Rationalization - that's how I am able to continue buying new scrapbook papers when I will never use up all the ones I already have.)  I left the threads at the end of my hearts long and uncut because I liked the way they looked.
 

I used one of the polaroid frames from a newer MAGGIE HOLMES' Collection (I LOVE her work!)  Obviously, my picture is not square-shaped and not meant to fit in a polaroid frame.  But I wanted to use it so I just angled it across the top as an accent.  The number blocks were originally part of a border strip on one of the 14 Collection papers that I simply cut up, outlined, and pop-dotted on my frame. 
 

Here is another view of the center of my layout and one of the reasons why I chose the Creative Scrappers sketch that I used - LAYERS!!!!!!  I love the layers!  And look how scrumptious these papers look together - almost good enough to eat!  Okay, not really, but these papers ARE perfect for layering...and for sewing on!
 

 

My title, "Happy Girls are the Prettiest Girls" is part of a fabulous quote by Audrey Hepburn.  It's overused now, but I still love it anyway!  And, like my papers, it was perfect for this layout.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out those small letters.  I also cut out a few of the negative outlines left over and used those in place of the letters.
 

And speaking of my Silhouette, I love using it and my small scraps of leftover paper to make little extra things like this tab that I added to my layout. "Waste not, want not," as my Grandmama used to say.  And what a super cute way to make sure my paper isn't wasted!

Last, but not least, is the bottom of my layout.  I didn't have quite enough of the green and white striped paper I wanted to use and I didn't like my picture just hanging off the bottom of my layered papers, so I took some of the thin cut-out strips and placed those under my picture to give the "suggestion" of a continued background paper. 

That's it for me today.  Hope you are staying dry and warm whereever you are!