Life Is A Picnic At Heart 2 Heart

Welcome to the first challenge with a brand new Design Team at {Heart 2 Heart}. This month has a theme. All of our challenges will be "Life Is". This week is Life Is A Picnic.

I am redoing all my old layouts. And I mean old. I started crafting back in the late 90's early 2000. Before Cricut. About the same time that Sizzix came out with that old heavy, red, lever die cutter. This layout was made before I got my machine. So all of the letters were hand cut with an Xacto blade. I am pretty impressed with myself. I started making 8.5 x 11 layouts. And 90's style paper. This layout isn't that bad. There was no mulberry paper. "shudder"  And the only crazy pattern paper was cut out to be individual images. 

 I started scrapbooking because I wanted to showcase all my pageant photos. I did beauty pageants before the fad. No tv shows, no murders. I did northern pageants. Which are completely different than southern pageants. Just believe me. As a queen, I did many appearances wearing my crown. Parades, helping out with games or collections. I did two events on the 4th back in 1996. Yes, that is little old me. Almost 20 years ago. I did a matching two page layout for each city on one page.  I knew I wanted to redo this page for this challenge.

We have no papers currently that can be used for a 4th of July layout. None. So I had to make my own. I used image #M44B64 from Artbooking. I used contour to removes some of the stripes. I really like hows this looks.

 This was my 3rd attempt. First, I wanted to sponge the background using the cut as stencil. Was going to take a while. Plus, I need to work on my sponging. Take two. Decided to just use cardstock. Trying to lay that pattern to the background onced glued, is near impossible. It bunched up and was impossible to separate. The third wasn't perfect, but I made it work. I kept the overlay on the Cricut mat. Added the glue and placed the cardstock on top. Found out the cuts weren't lined up on the mat, so the edges were not even. But I made it work by cutting the white part off and adding it to another piece of cardstock.  

The title was just as much of a pain.  I used the double sided adhesive sheets again. Pulled of the wrong side of the adhesive. It wouldn't stick to the mat. So placed cardstock on the mat. I forgot to mirror the cut. Had a hard time cutting the backing. Once I got it to start cutting through, found out that once I mirrored it, it changed the position so it did not cut on the piece. Ugh. Try two. Pulled the right side so I didn't have to mirror. Found the right setting, fabric +. Still messed up on the position. Finally got them done. I cut them all in white. I was going to put the cities right on the blue mat, but I wanted the mat to be smaller so you could see the stripes more.  So I made banners. Since I didn't want to recut the letters, I sponged them red. 

The layout needed a little extra. I had to add fireworks. It is a 4th of the July layout. I used an expired stamp set for the fireworks.

I wanted to use this stamp set, it is a Cricut stamp so it is still available. I got the stamp back when it was a stamp of the month. But I could not find it, anywhere. So I had to use the retired set. 

I wanted a pop of color, so I used the ShinHan markers to color the white sequins. I had to use other colors than red and blue. Fireworks are always colorful.

I wanted to do a different layout. The original layout isn't horrible, but I wanted something more interesting. I found this {pin} and it worked perfect for my photos. I didn'thave to change a size. 

We hope you join us for our Life Is A Picnic challenge. Stop by {Heart 2 Heart} to play along. You have all month to play along. You will need to use some Close To My Heart product to play along. If you do not have any, go to {nikkageers.ctmh.com}.  Then come back to play along. 

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I offer one on one classes for Cricut Design Space. Stop by for more {details}.

If you would to like to recreate any of my projects, you can order the materials at {nikkageers.ctmh.com}.

Recipe:

Stamps - 

   Kaboom (retired)

Paper - 

   1385  White Daisy Cardstock

   X5927  Ruby Cardstock

   X5759  Pacifica Cardstock

Ink - 

   Z891  Versamark Ink Pad

   Z2170  Ruby Ink Pad

   Z2452  Golden Yellow ShinHan Markers

   Z2466  Vivid Green ShinHan Markers

   Z2448  Carmine ShinHan Markers

   Z2453  Lavender ShinHan Markers

Other -

   Z2068  White Embossing Powder

   Z3024  Coral Reef Sequins (White)

   Z1906  Artbooking Cricut Cartridge