My first Design Team! The Layout is "A Fun 5th"

I am so excited that Liz from The Scrappiest Blog has announced the Design Team positions. It has been something I have wanted to share with you all yet I have not been able to say a word! The suspense has been killing me. Thank you Liz for not waiting till March 1st... LOL. Well I am very excited to see my Design Team members who are the fallowing:

• Renee Griffith
• Melita Chow
• Melissa Ferguson
• Darlene D'Eon

Well lets get down to the challenge here. The Scrappiest Blog is a sketch blog. I will be challenged to come up with two Layouts a month with the Sketch that Liz provides. Here is the first one:
If you know me you know how much I love a good scrapbooking challenge. This was it for me! I usually use Asymmetrical layout designs and this one being symmetrical posed quiet an obstacle to cross. Here is the ... drum roll please ... first Design Team Layout!
I have been wanting to scrap these photos for a very long time. I love the color combo the provide and the way my son is looking at the camera in the picture on the left is ... well ... uniquely him. These were taken on the day of his 5th birthday party. We created Knights of Vacaville theme. His invitations were hear ye hear ye type wording printed on parchment and rolled into scrolls. The same parchment I used in the harlequin pattern BG paper. But now I am getting ahead of myself. So lets begin shall we.
The Background:
The Background patterned paper is a very old paper from my stash. I edged this with a thick gold marker just to finish off the edges... I don't usually use stripes because I don't like the edges that allow the stripes to lead your eyes off the page. Then I added some black corner boarders with gold doodles to really frame the Layout. The parchment Harlequin pattern I created by measuring out the diamonds and creating a template to match. Then I used the template to mask the alternating diamonds with a brown chalk.
The Photos:
The red and gold paper used for the mat of the photo with "The Look" is red rice paper with a gold embossing on it (purchased that way). The pic on the right was printed on vellum to give it a sheerness and to create an asymmetrical depth and weight while maintaining a symmetrical shapes. This was the hard part for me.
The title and journaling:
The center title "A Fun 5th" was created with chipboard inked in gold, a harlequin stamp inked in brown on the yellow parchment and these fabulous adhesive rub-ons that you use foil on top of it to adhere the foil in the rub on design. I love the way this turned out.
The journal box is unusual for me I love to incorporate the journaling into the design of my Layout not in a box. So This took me a while to get right. I inked the small harlequin stamp with versa mark and did a watermark pattern on the Tan color. Then journaled over the top. I finished it off with a bracket lined with gold and tipped with some bling.
The Embellishments:
Ribbons, ribbons and more ribbons. This is how the layers of ribbons were created... hehe simple but I do love how I got a rub-on to stick to the red suede ribbon. I learned something new today about rub-ons. LOL.
The flowers are made by Prima and I love these. I have started to collect them in every color. In this LO you can see the Tan and white sets. They are centered with black brads.
The bracket and the black architectural piece are both cricut images topped off with my favorite pen the Zig Painty gold/silver oil paint pen.

I hope you have enjoyed looking this LO as much as I have making it. I hope it or this sketch inspires you. Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping!

~ Grace ~