Make it yours

I'm here with a Moxxie post for you today. (You can see this entire post on the Moxxie blog here)

I got to work with the oh so awesome Happy Camper line. These papers, element and border stickers and die-cut sheets are fabulous to work with and the colors are perfect for camping or any fun outdoorsy activity. First off here's my layout:
These photos are of my husband and oldest 3 kids roasting marshmallows over the camp chef fire so they could have some tasty s'mores! Who says you need a camp fire??

Now I'd like to take you through my layout process. The uninterrupted version that is...

I used the front and back of Stick-y (that's such a cute name for this paper!). I just cut it about a 1/3 of the way up and flipped it over so you are able to see the fun marshmallows on the stick and the great brown w/ polka dots pattern from the back. Then I put a few pieces of tape along the back to help hold it together while I worked on the front. I pulled the wood frame from the die-cut sheet, added some metal brads right over the top of the screw marks and inked the edges with 2 colors of brown to give it a little more flare, cut my photo to fit the frame and attached it all with one layer of pop dots.
 These border stickers are so fun and easy to use! Just pull and stick. I used one along the bottom edge, 2 along the top and half of 2 different ones for the middle, since my photos were going to cover the other half of the page. That way I still have the other 6 banner flags for another project. :)  

 In the past I've been afraid to change an element to go with my project, but instead of waiting for the perfect lo or project to use it on, make it yours! I took the fire, s'mores and both marshmallow on a stick die-cuts and trimmed them down for my page.  Making it easy to get that roasting marshmallows over the fire scene at the bottom of the page and then I used the s'more to spruce up my title and journaling area.

 I loved the "s'mores" die-cut for my title so all I did was layer the brown ink around the edges to give it a little 'roasted' look and pop-dotted it onto the oval shaped plaid die-cut. Then I cut a few slits in the bottom of the oval die-cut and the top of the journaling die-cut to make it easier to thread my string w/o tearing them. The string actually came off of the packaging from a toy my son just got for his birthday. Tie your knots, add your journaling; I used 2 brown markers to journal, adding the darker brown to a few words to give them a little more interest. I put the entire title down with pop-dots also, so I triple stacked the pop dots for the edge of the s'more to get it up there with the rest of the title.
  To finish it off I added the 'this is the life' sticker to the frame and inked the edges of the layout. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little of my process and that it inspires you to 'make it yours'!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  :)Ange