My First Scrapbook Page!

I guess I'm officially a scrapbooker now - here's my first page!

I decided to start my scrapbooking career with a very special photo of my father's parents.  My grandfather died the year I was born so I never knew him - but he was clearly a special man.  My Dad was the oldest of 18 children - and quite unusually for that time in rural New Brunswick 17 survived to adult hood.

My grandmother (Mamie) was so amazing and my hero. There is little I can say about her that does her justice.  She never learned to read or write but taught all of us so much.  She was a feisty woman - I guess you probably had to be to raise all those children - and she loved to be surrounded by her family and friends - and strangers who she would quickly convert to friends.

I faffed about with the layout for DAYS before I got the glue out. I'd look at it every now and then tweak it a little and then ponder it a while and move things back and then...  well you get the idea.

The patterned papers are from an Anna Griffin floral collection, and the solid papers are my beloved Core-dinations.

I used an EK success punch on the sides of the picture mat and then thread through a couple of pieces of pink ribbon.  I wanted to be able to remove the picture easily, so I cut slits in the mat to hold the photo in place rather than pasting it down.   I had to be VERY CAREFUL when I glued on the roses (cut out of another piece of Anna Griffin paper) to make sure the photo was still free to be removed.

The scalloped edges were made with a Martha Stewart deep edge punch, and the title was cut using my trusty Imagine.

I ended up printing the journalling and I couldn't fit what I wanted to say in the space I had available with my handwriting!

It's far from perfect but I'm pretty pleased with my first effort.