Layout #44 - Sketches in Thyme

As soon as I took this photo of Brenna at the grocery store for the June Photo Challenge (I don't normally take photos in the grocery store, believe me!) I knew I wanted to do an "apple of my eye" page. See, a scrapbooker's mind, always thinking of that next page! So I brought my printed photo into Creative Accents, and found this gorgeous Imaginisce paper to match! (Do you ever bring your photos into your LSS, or do you just buy whatever tickles your fancy? I do both!) With this sketch from Sketches in Thyme:

it wasn't long before a page was born! Do you wanna know how I made that red polka dot paper, do ya? I saw this in a magazine, can't remember which one, but I'm pretty sure it was Vicki Boutin who did it. Take an embossing folder, rub it with distress ink, spritz with water, stick your plain ol' white paper in there, and run it through your Cuttlebug (or other tool). Voila, coloured, embossed paper like none other! Can't wait to try this technique with more than one colour! The lime green paper is homemade, too: Distress Ink/Water mixture, then stamped over with a background stamp in the same colour ink. Very subtle, but again, unique. I didn't agonize too much over embellishments this time because I already had these little apple stamps I'd coloured in at Cheri's beginner Copic class I did a while back. Yep, must say I'm lovin' this page, most of all because of Brenna's squishy cheeks and "muscled" arm looking at me from the grocery cart!

Supplies: Imaginisce patterned paper, Close to My Heart cardstock, ink, stamp sets (the Works Alphabet and Intrinsic Backgrounds), and brads, Ranger Distress Ink (Fired Brick, Shabby Shutters, and Walnut Stain), Hampton Arts small alpha stamp set, Twinery twine, Copic markers, Heidi Swapp journaling spot, Creative Memories pen, unknown ribbon, trim, paper clip, chipboard leaf and apple stamp