Scrapping children's portraits

Title: you adore your teddy bears

[To see more photos and techniques click on 'read more']

Scrapping this double page was quite nostalgic for me. In these photos Adam was 13 months, and still had those soft baby curls. We have given him the nickname teddy bear, because his personality and looks fit the name. He loves to give and get bear hugs.He sleeps with a whole harem of teddy bears (even now at 3 years old), and well, he's just cuddly :)

Techniques: I wanted to incorporate a soft color palette, reminiscent of the fabrics and children's stories I grew up with (hence the use of the vintage "B" for bear card). Also, texture is a very important tactile element that furthers the theme of teddy bears. 

Texture elements are seen in the:

• Bear-like fur trim on the bottom of the page
• Machine sewing on both pages
• Teddy applique for children's clothing that is placed on a canvas tag
• Various ribbons
• Die cut word 'teddy' (cut with QK Grand Diesel dies) is cut from plush velour fabric paper and further hand-stitched to give the appearance of finer detail as common in children's clothing
• Shaggy twine string from the tag connects to the focal photo, and provides additional texture.

One cool thing I was able to customize, was the teddy gift card from TJMaxx stores. To hide the store's logo, I simply placed stickers 'our son' over the logo. See, there's a benefit to hoarding odds and ends like that ;)

Some of you might wonder why I leave the insides of the letter stickers (the white insides of the title words 'your' and 'bears'). In this case, I left the white insides to better balance the white color throughout the page, especially the top and bottom of the page. Using the same color accents throughout the layout creates a sense of repetition.

Thanks for taking time to look at my layout!

*** *** *** ***

Supplies:

Photo border: Narratives by Karen Russell; Cardstock: World Win (kraft); The Paper Company (brown suede texture and white); Patterned paper: Chatterbox (madras print); 7 gypsies (blue damask); Me & My BIG Ideas (blue fabric print), Sassafras Lass (yellow scallop border); Tags: 7 gypsies (yellow), Making Memories (green), October Afternoon (B is for Bear), JoAnn Craft Essentials (metal rimmed); Trim: May Arts (brown fuzzy), American Crafts (beige dot and blue gingham), Pat Catan Crafts Stores (floral); Applique: Wrights; Die cuts: Quickutz (title word 'teddy' and bottom eyelet scallop); Die Cutting Machine: Quicutz Epic Six; Border Punch: Martha Stewart; Letter stickers: Doodlebug Designs Inc. and Making Memories (tiny alpha); Flower: Doodlebug Designs Inc.; Dimensional stickers: JoAnn Scrap Essentials (fabric label 'son') and Making Memories (word definition); Stamps: Heidi Swapp for Advantus; Stamping ink: Ranger Industries; Thread: Coats & Clark; Pen: EK Success ZIG Millennium; Twine: Darice; Other: Consumer card and button (own supply).