From This Day Forward

Okay I finally broke down and forced myself to open my box of wedding photos and pic out one of the precious moments from that day and scrap it.... yes I put sticky glue all over the picture, front and back! I know some of you are gasping... Oh my!!! But to calm your nerves and mine... lol. I used a duplicate and I have the negatives. This is one reason I chose the photo I did. Now, the anxiety I had about beginning this project stems from the importance of this event. It was one of the happiest days of my life and I still seven years later tear up as I look through these pictures. I did not plan this but I finished this layout the morning of our seventh year anniversary. The date on the LO though is for our formal wedding in September not the Justice of the Peace one we had in March. Technically we have said our I Dos three times and I joke with my hubby that we should renew our vows in every state we live so we can collect the licenses... hehe if they would issue them to us that is. Lol. Well with out much further adieu here is the layout that begins a very large project for me and opens up my scrapbooking world to the elegant, romantic and sophisticated side instead of the playful, childlike youth side.

I created this for the monochromatic challenge for the Coordinates Collections March Madness Cyber Crop I attended this past weekend. I was shocked when I was done to realize I used only two.. yes TWO pieces of Cardstock. No patterned paper... just cardstock. I did lost of new techniques in this and I will be filling you in on those in a minute. The trick in my opinion with a monochromatic layout is to balance texture, patterns and dimension. I will go over these in a bit. Lets get started on the juicy details.

Background:
Ok this is an easy one... white cardstock... NEXT... just kidding I actually have to type techniques in the area this time. So here it goes. I took a thick cardstock scrap and cut a diamond out of this. I used it as a template to create the cream colored diamonds with Stampin Up Cream Craft ink. I did this about 1/2 of the page leaving the few diamonds in the center of the page to fade into the bottom right half. This is best seen right above the upper left corner of our wedding photo. After waiting for this to dry I took my piercing tool and my hole template and poked holes all along the edges of the diamonds. I threaded cream DMC floss through these holes and added one iridescent bead to each stitch. This took forever! Literally ... about 1 1/2 to two hours. But it looks great and it is so elegant.
Out of the cream cardstock I used the cricut to cut a 4" damask type pattern. I created this three times to back or mat the photo and to add a pattern and texture to the right side of the page. I took my white pen and added some doodling on top of this die cut patterns. I adhered them to the page.
Lastly on the main cardstock I took my Tim Holtz mask and used it along the bottom of this page. Once in place I used a cosmetic sponge (they are cheep at the dollar store) and applied versa mark ink around the mask. Once this step is complete I quickly removed the mask and sprinkled an iridescent glitter embossing powder. Heated it up with my handy dandy heating tool and wow... I love the result.
Embellishments:
Upper right: of the layout I have a journal box that reads "To have and to hold from this day forward." This is from a pre-printed wedding embellishment pack from Creative Memories... it was part of my old stash. I added some dry embossing onto this piece of paper and edged it in gold.. up.. you guessed it ... my gold Zig Painty Pen.. which by the way is dieing and drying out... I don't know what I am going to do. I think I got it from Stampin' Up, I cant find them in the stores. Sorry I just panicked there for a second...lol. Back to the subject. I embellished this box with an American Crafts chipboard shape I edged in gold also and some cricut die cuts from the Home Accent cartridge. The little heart with the DMC floss stitched around it is a punch from Martha Stewart's Valentines line. Last but not least.. a prima flower centered with a pearl, in the corner. I popped this up off the background cardstock due to the thickness of the beading. I used the foam squares to do so.
The Bottom Left: The main focus of this cluster is the large 4" damask pattern behind the embellishments. All of them by the way are the same as the upper left. This pattern is the same as the ones I used behind the photo, however it is cut out of white cardstock. I finished this one with spray adhesive and Stampin' Up's clear micro beads. I lifted this off the page with foam squares cut into little pieces due to the intricacy of this design.
Right side: The rhinestones are prima say it with crystals. After putting the photo on the page over the cream damask pattern I also added the shear ribbon along the right of the page. Placed the crystals over all that and embellished more along the right with the cream velvet ribbon, cardstock hearts and flowers. Some of the hearts are stamped with versa mark with a toile type design from Stampin' Up. I also added the frame embellishment with our wedding date in it. Again this was a cricut die cut shape cut in white cardstock and backed with the cream.

Thanks for looking and sharing in this huge step for my scrapping. I feel better knowing that I can scrap this event and I like the result.