This week, our assignment for the Heidi Swapp Media Team was to use Heidi’s Vintage Chic line with retro photos. I was REALLY excited about this one because Vintage Chic is my favorite of Heidi’s current lines…the colors, the designs…just the overall FEEL of the line fits perfectly with my style. I started looking through a box of old photos my Mom had around and came across two photos that I wanted to use. The first is of my Mom and me on my very first Easter…in March of 1973. The second is one of my Dad holding me on that same day, and is a little bittersweet for me to scrap. You see, my Dad died this past January after being sick for a long time and seeing him so young and happy and holding little baby me is a little sad…but wonderful, too.
I used a sheet of the Bookkeeping paper as the base for my layout. I seriously adore this design and I’m pretty sure that I could use this exact paper on every single layout I do…it’s just that perfect.
I cut a whole bunch of Heidi’s digital Banner Delights out using all of the different Vintage Chic papers, and used them throughout my layout to highlight my photos. The digital banners are some of my favorite digital files, so when I’m cutting them I cut tons of them in all different papers just so I have them when I need them.
I really love how the washed out colors from the photos fit so well with the teals, yellows and faded grungy papers in the line. The yellow bushes that my Dad is holding me in front of are the EXACT color of the B-side on the Worldwide paper.
I grabbed some Mint Green Color Shine and splattered it across the top of my layout for some added color…
I do this by simply removing the sprayer from the bottle and shaking it over my paper…it gives me just a little splatter without too many large ink blots.
The layout also has a pretty masculine vibe to it, so to “girl it up” a little, I added some butterfly punches (which I love…and add on almost every single project I make)…
To make the frames around the photo of me with my Dad, I did a number of things:
First I took a sheet of Worldwide paper and used my Silhouette to cut a Vintage Instaframe (from Heidi’s digi-files) from it.
Then I used one of Heidi’s digital words (from the Gratitude files) – MEMORY – and welded it to another Vintage Instaframe using the Silhouette software.
I cut the frame and word out of plain white cardstock and inked up the edges a bit with both sand-colored ink and some more Mint Green Color Shine (I used a Q-tip this time…I dunked it into the bottle and wiped it around the frame).
Then I did another fun thing with this frame – instead of completely cutting the word out, I used the perforation cut setting on the edges of each of the letters…
I took the perforations and used them as a template/embroidery guideline. I love the way this looks and thinks it adds some fantastic texture to my project…
I also added a few Sentiment Stickers around the frames. I adore these stickers because they say exactly the perfect things for any layout you’re creating…(for my layout I used “never forget” “i love love love you” and “i love you everyday.” And their weathered paper look, random shapes & antique typewriter font make them absolutely perfect accessories for the Vintage Chic line.
I’m so looking forward to diving back into the boxes of old photos lying around around…to finding more images that need to be scrapped and enjoyed on a regular basis. And I am so grateful for having been given this project…it was a wonderful chance for me to reconnect in a way with my Dad…and to remember, yet again, just how much I love him.
