Little Black Dress July Kit

Well, I managed to get my projects done for the Little Black Dress July kit.  It was a fun kit to work with, lots of different elements!

My first project is this layout of my husband and son.  I'm sure in this photo, the only thing my husband is reflecting about is; I wish I had a boat right now(he loves fishing)! :

For the background paper, I lifted this idea from a gal (pea name - Fevvers) on Two Peas in a Bucket.
Fold your paper in sections, first in half, then in half again, both ways, until you have a three inch square.    Sand all the edges and then either ink, paint or glimmer mist.  I inked the edges here in a green.  Unfold, and lay flat, ready for the rest of your layering.  A Glitz stamp was in this kit and I decided to make an embellishment with it.  Take a small square of fun foam(the kind you buy in sheets in the kids craft section) and heat it with your heat gun.  I placed it on my non-stick craft mat and waved the heat gun back and forth until the foam curled up on the edges and then back down flat again.  Quickly take your stamp and press firmly down on the foam.  It took me a few tries to get it done properly, so don't give up!  I then trimmed it and inked it with green and brown ink.  There was a package of acrylic "Thicker"
letters in this kit which I used for the title, but I wanted some numbers in a different color, so I alcohol inked the 2 and 3.  Just a few drops on the acrylic pieces and they are stained a different color!

For this next layout, I pretty much cut up one whole flowered sheet of paper.  For those of you who know me, you know I love hand cutting paper! I don't know what it is, once I start, I just keep going!  After my shape is cut out, I usually shape the edges a bit, curving them with the blunt end of my exacto knife and then ink.  I loved this piece of yellow ledger type paper included in the kit too.

I had a bunch of photos of my youngest son, Devin's first time at the exhibition (summer fair) with his big brother and sister.  Most of them weren't the greatest photos, they are over 20 years old. Yikes, when I say that, it seems so long ago, Devin is now 24 and he was 3 1/2 in in these!  Anyways, I decided to make a mini album with these photos.  I haven't done my journaling yet.

  I started making  accordion flowers, but instead just curved them into half circles.

I alcohol inked the acrylic letters here
with black alcohol ink.

I used the Bingo card like a piece of paper.

I had a flash card with the word get, so
I tried to think of something to say, including that word on the card.

I used one of the stickers as a frame for the photo on the right.

I  like to use embellishments, a smaller photo or sticker to cover up things you don't need or want to see on a photo.


With the leftover paper and embellishments, I made these two easel cards.

To make an easel card, I take a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock (I usually make two at a time) and score the paper at 4", 6" and 8".  I then cut the paper in half.  Here, you can decide how wide you would like your card, I trim the 6" width to 5 1/2".  Fold along the score lines. Take adhesive and apply to the 2" section directly below the large 4" section.  This section will be adhered to the back of the top panel (the one that will be standing upright). Decorate your card.  You will need to place something about 1 - 1 1/2" away from the top edge of the bottom 4" section.  I usually place ribbon, or a strip of paper with buttons, brads, anything that will allow the card to stand upright.

I used a Tim Holtz diecut to cut  the piece of corrugated cardboard.  Painted the edges with crackle paint and inked.  I diecut the butterflies using the ledger paper and stamped them with the Glitz stamp.  I used my Slice for the flowers also.  I punched a strip of paper for the bottom strip.

I used one of the stickers for the background and covered the lines with plain white cardstock. I cut out various sizes of the same flower using my Slice, glimmer misted them and used that for the center of my plain white flowers.  I hand cut some leaves and florals from patterned paper and placed them underneath the flower, along with the Making Memories vintage foil ephemera.  I cut out the Happy Birthday with my slice.

And that's everything I made with this kit.  Actually, it was quite a bit, considering the only things I added were, a blank Basic Grey chipboard album, one piece of white cardstock, the white flowers, white fun foam and a small piece of dark brown cardstock for happy birthday.  I probably have enough left over for a couple of cards or one more layout.  Check out Little Black Dresses' blog for some great ideas and inspiration!

Have a great week!