How I made my August Challenge Page

My version is called 'First Born' ... son of Charles and Margaret Banks 1933 - that's my Dad - Robert Charles. I love this old photo of him as a baby boy in his beautiful lacy gown.

To make this layout from the sketch I used:
3 Sheets Bazzill cardstock, Pinecone, Just Peachy and Patina.

2 sheets 12” x 12”, double-sided Bo Bunny Gabrielle papers -

Cameo & 

Promenade 

1m Ribbon 1/2" brown organza from Hobbycraft.
1m DMC embroidery cotton # 502
6 Flat backed pearls from Quixotic Paperie
Various chalk Inks and a black Memento ink pad,
Jumbo, large and small Retro daisy punches, pine branch punch
Gold glitter spray,
Bo Bunny - Gabrielle Butterfly stamps

Sizzix and Boxed Brush alphabet sizzlets
Glossy Accents.

I used the Patina Bazzill as my base cardstock, and cut papers in the following dimensions:
1. Promenade (white side) 2x4"
2. Cameo (white side) 9x9"
3. Promenade (peach side) 4x4"
4. Cameo (mint side) 8x3"
5. Promenade (white side) 4x5"
6. Promenade (peach side) 2x7"

I distressed and inked the edges of all these pieces and stuck down to the base cardstock. Then I added the 4x6" photo, also distressed and inked.

Using a template I drew an 11" circle lightly in pencil where I wanted the ribbon circle to be.

Next I made the flowers. Two large and one small peachy, and the same in pinecone Bazzill.
For each flower I punched two Jumbo, two large and two medium retro daisies.  Then I made them damp.  Then while damp I shaped them, I pleated each petal using tweezers to prevent damaging the surface of the paper too much.  Once they were completely dry, and this doesn't take long. I layered the flowers off-setting the petals as I stuck them together in the centres with a wet glue. As each layer is added they appear to come to life and become three dimensional. Once completed, I sprayed them with gold glitter spray for a subtle sparkle, then glued large flat backed pearls into the centre of each finished blossom.
Anita showed me how to make these flowers originally, and Linda will be explaining this in more detail on this blog blog in a few days, with a slightly different method. There is another excellent tutorial HERE from Gabrielle Pollocco, again slightly different method.
I arranged the blossoms on the circle where I wanted them and stuck them down.

The next stage was to do the ribbon work on the areas of the circle not covered by blossoms. I pierced holes at approximately 1" intervals around the circle. Then attached the ribbon firmly with a stitch out of sight under one of the blossoms. With the needle and DMC thread I came up through each hole, caught the ribbon down and went back through the same hole. I repeated this for every hole until the ribbon was attached all around the circle. Stopping and starting again to avoid the blossoms. I finished off much as I started with a few stitches hidden under a blossom.

I cut my title using the Boxed Sizzlets and the Sizzix, and Pinecone Bazzill. I arranged them and stuck them in place and added a little Glossy Accents to make them shine.

For the butterflies I stamped them directly onto the layout with Rich Cocoa Memento dye based ink. Then I stamped them again onto the scraps of patterned paper. I cut out the second set of butterflies, inked the edges and attached them by the bodies only over the butterflies on the layout. I folded up the wings, so you can see the butterfly images underneath.

Finally I punched a few pine branches from scraps of patterned papers and added these to the blossoms.

If you fancy having a go at entering our challenge by creating your own layout following this sketch, pop over to the 'R is for Ribbon' post on this blog for more details and check out the prize post too.