Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Chevrons and Confetti

Hello there!  While y'all are reading this post, I'm probably still waiting at the oral surgeon's office for my post-surgery appointment after having had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled last week.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that everything checks out!

Continuing the birthday theme today is my all-time very favorite layout EVER of every layout I've ever done.

Happy Birthday to Me

This one is inspired by the amazing Lisa Truesdell who has taken the art of filling pockets with confetti to a whole level I can't even fully comprehend.  She is amazingly talented.  I took the idea of confetti filled embellishments and turned it on its head, people.  On its head!  Or at least added a little zig and zag to the mix.

I designed this layout for a Summer CHA challenge over at Two Peas in a Bucket.  The challenge was to include three current trends in your project.  I chose chevrons, which I love...confetti, which I love...and a banner, which I love, but not quite as much as chevrons and confetti...

I also used a bunch of October Afternoon's Cake Walk line, which may very well be my most second favoritest (there is so much grammatically wrong with that phrase, but I'm sticking with it) OA line EVER!  Just after Boarding Pass, which even though it's nearing a year in age, still makes me drool.

Here's the finished page.  It just makes me smile everytime I look at it!  I punched the little banner pieces out with the Fiskars/Jenni Bowlin ribbon punch.   It actually has three components in one, but I positioned my paper so it would punch a single piece each time.  I ran them through my Xyron before sticking them on and stitching across them to keep them in place.


My background paper was this very simple white chevron on kraft by Lawn Fawn.  It helped accentuate the bigger chevrons I created.


I actually had to make my own pattern for the chevron.  I wish I'd photographed them at the time, so this might be a subject for a later tutorial.  I used some old card stock, cut out a couple of rectangles and made a template which I then traced around and readjusted on another piece of paper to make a completed shape from an old page protector.


Filling these guys up with confetti (and punching the confetti) was very time consuming and I'm generally a pretty quick scrapper.  However, I'd do it again in a heart beat.  I started out by  sewing around 3 sides of each chevron, leaving an opening for the confetti.  Slowly, but surely, I got it all in there, using a thin wooden dowel to help nudge stubborn pieces of confetti down into place.  Once they were filled up, back to the sewing machine, I went to close the chevron pockets up.  I added these little flags and a diet cut by October Afternoon at the bottom of this piece to draw the eye down the page.


I did something I rarely do anymore, I typed up my journaling.  I felt like my handwriting is just too busy for a layout with so much busy-ness of its own.  I noticed as I was finishing up that the bingo card I used on the page, had a 35 right in the center of the bottom row, so I grabbed my pen and circled it up, as this photo was taken for my 35th birthday!  Kismet!  I felt like something was still missing, so I cut two thin strips from the green and white chevron paper and used them to tie the whole thing together.  One in the middle and one at the bottom.


Supplies:  patterned paper - October Afternoon, Lawn Fawn; flags, die cuts, stickers - October Afternoon; letter stickers -  October Afternoon, American Crafts; punch - EK Success Swiss Cheese; other - page protector, thread, confetti

Thanks so much for reading, everyone!  I hope you enjoy my little confetti chevrons even a fraction as much as I have!

5 comments:

  1. How clever of you!! I love those chevron pocket thingy rows. Too cute and I do agree, it was better to type your journaling. You did good!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love that page. How much fun!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lots of fun-those confetti pockets are soooo cool!

    ReplyDelete