September 15, 2007

Newborn Baby Scrapbook Layout

Happiness Is…….Scrapbook Layout by Stacy Brunner

Ah… nothing makes you happier than being a parent for the first time. Sure, the all the crying frazzles your nerves. A good way to deal with it? Snap some photos of your tearful little one!

I bought some new clear acrylic stamps recently. I consider stamps a good investment as far as crafting supplies go because they are almost infinitely reusable. For this layout, I wanted to demonstrate how to use the stamps to make your own embellishments. The stamps used in this layout are Stamp Flourishes v.2 from Autumn Leaves, available from Two Peas in a Bucket .

To begin, I stamped the images on cream colored cardstock using StazOn ink in olive green. I chose the StazOn ink because I planned to apply some wet items over the ink. I wanted to be sure that the ink wouldn't run when I did that. Stazon is a permanent solvent-based ink that is perfect for this. To make the images a little less stark, I brushed on a little bit of brown chalk. The effect makes the paper look like parchment.

After stamping the images, I cut them out using a pair of tiny, sharp scissors. My scissors are Cutter Bee by EK Success, but there are several brands of scissors that have very good quality precision scissors. Before you begin cutting, take a moment to consider the shape of your image and how you want it to display on your layout. This image has some very fine lines. At first I tried cutting around these tiny swirls, but it proved to be difficult to cut. The small sliver also highlighted my crooked cutting lines and left little surface area for gluing the piece to the layout. In the end, I decided to cut around the small swirls and leave more of the cardstock background intact.

For the final touches I added glitter and gloss. I used Stickles to add glittler to the ends of the swirls. Once the glitter dried, I applied Glossy Accents to the swirls. The Glossy Accents bottle has a fine tip applicator that is helpful in applying the gloss to the fine lines of the swirls. It also helps that it's clear, so if you do go outside the lines a bit, it isn't so obvious.

The final page conveys a heartfelt, whimsical message punctuated by shiny, glittery flourishes. Look for custom stamped embellishments to show up in many of my layouts as I spend less time consoling a crying baby and more time capturing our beautiful moments together!