Challenge for this week...

Happy Family day! It felt so good to sleep in this morning! I don't have to work today, and even better, I don't have to make my girls a school lunch for a whole week! :) They don't complain too much, and they aren't even that picky, but I hate having to make lunches.
So, I'm assuming that you, like me, don't have to work today, and that will leave you time to do one of our weekly challenges. Your challenge for this week, is to cut apart your background paper, like I have done in the following layout. The swirly-flowery patterned paper is from My Little Yellow Bicycle, and I've had it since the summer, knowing I'd want to do something special with it.
Now, if I had been thinking, I'd have taken a before picture of it, but I think you can see how I cut out the main portion. Use a sharp blade, breaking off the point once it seems to start dragging on the paper. And if you use a glass cutting mat, it will go much smoother. I cut out the inside portions first, and then used my little scissors for the rest of it. It may seem tedious, but the effect is worth the effort. Besides, I enjoy the process of scrapping as much as the finished product. It gives me time to think, or not think, as the case may be, lol! Here are some closer peeks at it. Dontcha love the little Maya Road envelope? I wrote my journalling on a little bit of cardstock, and stuck it inside. A little ink on the edges, and it looked fantastic!As you can see, I also had cut my title. I used Tim Holtz's mask letters on cardstock that I had sprayed with misting ink and then dried. I traced around each letter with a black pen, and cut them out. A little bit of bling, and, ta-da!This layout is from when Nicki and I went shopping for her grad dress. There are a few extra pictures of dresses that didn't make the cut in the envelope matt behind her. I stapled a little bit of ribbon so that they're easy to see. On the journalling card, I even mentioned that there were more dresses to see. Hiding extra photos when you don't have a lot of space is a favorite trick of mine to highlight the ones that you do want seen.

So, give it a go, have fun! Cut up some pattern paper for your background! And, if you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section. I love hearing from you guys!

~RonniH.