Then & Now Layout

Hello once again fellow scrappers!  Phew...here in NJ we are starting to slowly recover from hurricane Sandy.  It hit NJ hard especially towards the south of Jersey and our Jersey shores.  Looks like our shores will never be the same again.  :-(  However, my family & I are thankful that we made it through without any major issues.  My small house hung in there--even though at times the gusts of wind were so strong that my entire house would shake & the lights would flicker.  We were also one of the very few lucky ones that didn't lose power (knock on wood)--and when I say 'few' lucky ones--I mean exactly that.

I found some time to scrap this quick page of my husband for the latest challenge going on over at Color...Stories...Inspiration (C.S.I) case file #43.  Who says you can't use flowers for a male page?  I found myself bold enough to do just that with this page & I think it turned out ok.  Even when I showed it to my husband--he didn't think it was too 'girly' at all.  I think it's all about the colors you use and the material of the flowers.  Using anything sheer may have given this page a bit of a feminine appeal which I didn't want.  So I stayed away from organza or sheer flowers.

Both of these photos is my husband.  The one in the background is him at approximately 12 years of age.  The main photo is him today.  My page is about letting my husband know to always keep the 'kid' in him living within his heart.

Here's case file #43 that my page is based on.

I used the following for my evidence: damask, ribbons, frames, something transparent & rub-ons

For my testimony I tied the past to the present.

I found this plate to hold my title.  I adhered some alpha stickers by Glitz Design to a bit of vellum for the title.

My journaling is stored in the scroll.  Something that has become a trademark lately of my pages.  All the pages I've been scrapping lately have a story to tell--& I find that storing my journaling in the form of a scroll is the most convenient way to store it & I love the cute little embellishment it provides my pages.  You can find a tutorial on how I make these scrolls here.

My journaling reads as follows:

I absolutely love this childhood photo of you.  At that point of your life --you were no longer a boy--but you were not quite yet a man.  You were approximately 12 years old here & it amazes me sometimes how I still see that young 'teen' within you at your current age of 42.  Yes, time has taken its toll & physically you are no longer 12--but I still see that kid in your eyes.  That's where he lives.  He also makes guest appearances once in a while within your playful personality.  You stress with the demands that adulthood brings--but once in a while you take the time to touch base with that 12 year old pre-teen.  He's a part of your past--but he still lives within you--don't ever forget to take that kid within your heart always.

I recently bought myself a splatter stamp by Vilda Stamps.  I instantly put it to good use!  Love the paint splatter effect it gave me.  I used Jasmine Mix'd Media Inx by Donna Salazar to stamp my image--then with a white gel pen I colored in some of the splatters to make them pop off the page a bit more.

The background is composed of some hand stitching & ribbons as shown here.

A close up of my cluster of flowers.  The flowers here are composed of Manor House Creations, Wild Orchid Crafts, I Am Roses & resin flowers from my stash.

This gorgeous large flower is by Manor House Creations.  You can see one of my rub-on frames tucked underneath the large flower here.  I applied the rub-on frames to vellum and then cut them out.

The flourish chippies are by Dusty Attic.  I kept the texture of these flourishes simple.  I first painted them with gesso, then inked them with embossing ink & finally heat embossed them with Star Dust transparent embossing powder by Stampendous.  In person, these flourishes give off a fabulous shimmer.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  Enjoy the rest of your week.