Anna At 11 Months : Scrapbook Layout & Glass Bead Gel Embellishments

Today I am telling a little story about Anna at 11 months.

This layout is a good example of combining a bunch of different techniques on one page: photo enlargement, hybrid scrapbooking (printing out some of my new twill strips from Designer Digitals and adhering them), playing with Golden Glass Bead Gel and UTEE to create my own heart embellishments. All this while telling a story about what's happening with Anna right now.

Here's a look at my process:

STEP ONE : Re-size an image to 12 inches wide in Photoshop (300dpi). Change the canvas size to make it a few inches taller to accommodate the twill strips. Open, drag, and drop the twill strips onto the large canvas. When I can I like to get a couple things onto a page at one time before printing.

STEP TWO : If you have an over-size printer you can print at home or upload to your favorite developer. Here at home I am using the HP Photosmart B8550 Inkjet Photo Printer
and the above image was printed on 13x19 photo paper from Office Max.

STEP THREE : Trim your photo and twill strips and grab a 12x12 sheet of cardstock for your background. This cardstock will be completely covered so it doesn't matter what color you choose.

STEP FOUR : After printing and trimming and cutting a strip of cream heart pattern paper I decided to play around with some of Tim's Grungeboard heart shapes (from the Elements package).

STEP FIVE : Paint all the hearts. I used Delta in Antique White.

STEP SIX : After letting the paint dry I coated three of the hearts with Golden Glass Bead Gel. Above you can see an image of what it looks like inside the container - essentially it's a gel medium (basically an adhesive) mixed with tiny glass beads. I applied it liberally with a paint brush and let it dry.

On the other three medium sized hearts I used a small dot stamp and embossed with clear UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel).

STEP SEVEN : I printed my journaling onto the cream heart pattern paper and after all the hearts were dry and the beads were set (I let them sit overnight) I adhered them with foam dots.

Here's a look at the scanned image of the layout (scallop ribbon from American Crafts):

click to view larger

JOURNALING :January 10, 2010 : My dear sweet Anna girl, today you are 11 months old and man how we love you so! Here are some of the things you are doing right now: (1) Crawling super fast, especially when attempting to get into your brother’s bedroom and get your hands on his legos. You are definitely speedy but you also like to stop along the way to see if anyone is watching - this is also a very quick stop + look move. (2) When you aren’t crawling you are standing & cruising along furniture and grabbing at anything and everything. You seem especially fond of magazines, books and computer cords. (3) You got a fun push toy for Christmas and have been having a fun time walking with that around the living room and up and down the hallway. (4) Eating so many things! You pretty much eat what I eat and you drink from a sippy cup (but you definitely want my glass of water instead). (5) You have developed a fondness for a white stuffed cat and a little giraffe-blanket we call your snugglie. (6) You LOVE looking outside and going outside and always seem ready to venture out. (7) And the books. One of my favorite things is your interest in looking at, turning the pages, and being read to anytime. It’s so fun to watch your interests changing and growing and your personality developing. Love you.