The greatest love...

For me, having children is the best thing that has ever happened to me and the reason I started to scrapbook. When Taylor was born, I wanted to create a baby book for her and tell the stories of her birth and how she was growing and learning each month. Then somewhere along the way, I discovered a passion for creating while preserving our memories. I've always been into creating things, drawing, etc. and took several art classes in high school and college, and actually wanted to go to college for my art (but somehow ended up in teaching), but I love now that scrapbooking combines all of that for me...and I get to create keepsakes that hopefully will be meaningful to my girls down the road! Today I made a layout with some hidden journaling and wrote little love notes to my girls under the flaps/tags. I really want to let them know how much I love them and have it written down in words for them. (kinda sappy, I know)
I used some of the new Fresh Twist papers from Melissa Frances and several other items by MF: border stickers PP09, border stamp set ME10, Fontastic letter stamp set ME17, Mom transfers FW043, and the Summer Breeze floral stamp set ME12.

Other supplies: brads - Making Memories, pink flower - Maya Road, other flowers - silk from craft supply, black ink - StazOn, olive ink - Stampin' Up, dimensional paint and a metal stencil by Anna Griffin.

The little swirl on the top tag was created by using a metal stencil and some dimensional paint. My dimensional paint was white, so first I added some tan paint to it and mixed it up on a paper plate. Then I laid the stencil where I wanted it on my layout. Using an old credit card, I picked up some of the dimensional paint and scraped it across the stencil, then carefully lifted off the stencil and let it dry. After dry, you can chalk over it a little bit with brown chalk to get darker and lighter shades of brown.

Here is the stencil I used. Any kind of stencil would work for this.
I used this technique about a year ago on this card (on the chipboard) and then painted over it with red paint....
Here are some "how to" pictures:
Lay the stencil over the chipboard or paper....
Give it a try, it's really fun and a great way to put those old stencils you have in your stash back to use! I'll be back on Monday with some Pink Paislee creations. Have a wonderful weekend!