Using Feathers - Pretty Little Studio

I will tell you a little secret - sometimes I am scared to try new things.  Even with scrapbooking.  Crazy, right?  Especially since I pride myself on trying out and staying on top of all the latest trends.  But the trend with feathers, even die cut feathers?  We-e-e-l-l-l...I wasn't too sure about that one.  Oh sure, I have seen some really cute things done with them but I have also seen some projects that I did not care for at all.  So, I wasn't entirely sure feathers were for me - even though I had not actually tried working with them yet.  (I can still hear my Grandmama at the dinner table asking me, "How do you know you don't like it if you haven't even tried it?") So...the point of this long intro is to say that I was a little anxious but mostly relieved to see this week's inspiration ad challenge at PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO that featured lots and lots of feathers.  It was time for me to pull out my feather die cuts from the brand spanking new NATURE WALK COLLECTION and put them to use on a layout! 

 

Wanna see a close-up of those feathers that I was so frightened to use?  Here they are:

 

 

So....yeah, they were absolutely perfect for this layout of my Kelly and his little girl Lula, and they look great!!!  They provided the accents I wanted around this photo without being too girly, although I am sure they would work just as well in a girl's layout.  Because they are diecuts, they lay perfectly flat and were easy-peasy to layer behind and against the fringed edge of my paper frame.  I left the ends of my thread from my sewn border long and uncut and tied it around the tops of my feathers.  (Note: the arrow that you see was a leftover scrap on my work table from American Crafts; but it coordinated so beautifully with the papers on my layout that I decided to sneak it in - shhhhh, don't tell anyone!)

 

Besides the feathers, this border is one of my favorite parts of this layout!

 

 

I did lots and lots of fussy cutting with my Pretty Little Studio Papers and tags, which is one of my favorite things to do!  First, I cut the triangles out of my paper and set them close together, but not flush with each other, to creat a mosaic look.  The bunting flags were created from a journaling calendar card and scraps left over from the fringed frame around my photo.  I simply used an existing flag from my PLS collection as a template to trace and cut out these. 

 

That's it for me today, but be sure to head over to the PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO BLOG to see this week's ad insipiration and, while you are there, check out all the lovely new 12x12 papers, journaling cards, and crazy cute die cuts (including fantastic die cut feathers)  that are in the STORE!

 

And if you want to see the Becky Fleck sketch that I used to create this layout, click HERE.

 

(Psssttt - how do you feel about feathers?  Is there a new trend that you have been afraid to try out?)