DT Project – Note 2 You

I had always planned to write my daughter a letter on each of her birthdays, and to keep them all for her to read when she’s older. However, her first and second birthdays have flown by without me doing this. I keep thinking ‘I’ll make sure I do it next year’, but will I remember? To make sure she at least has one little letter from me, though it’s not a special date, I decided to make a layout with an envelope for a letter. Now I won’t feel so guilty for forgetting!

I started my layout by cutting an inch off two sides of a piece of 12×12 bright blue cardstock. I then set to work decorating it. Because the layout was on the theme of a letter I used lots of journaling stamps, most of which are from the Fiskars ‘Scrapbook’ set of clear stamps. I put them into my Fiskars Self Inking Stamp Press, some with Fiskars black ink, some with Glitzy Gold, and the stamped them randomly over the piece of blue card, leaving a space in the bottom right corner for my title. When I’d finished with the journaling stamps I then used the button and star stamp out of the ‘Scrapbook’ stamp set to fill in the gaps, and then doodled swirls in any leftover space with pink, yellow and gold pens:

I found the Self Inking Stamp Press really useful because it made it so much quicker to create my own patterned paper. I wanted a random look, and didn’t mind it going a little smudgy, but if you wanted a nice clean look you’d have to practice a little on a blank piece of paper so that you knew the right amount of pressure to apply and where the image would stamp. It would be really great for turning out lots of Christmas cards in very little time, and it’s easy to use – you don’t have to be really strong to push it down, and the ink pads and stamps slot in very easily.

After I’d finished stamping and swirling I layered up the rest of my page. I used a journaling block, and I handmade an envelope out of pink paper. I stamped the envelope with the journaling stamp which comes with the Self Inking Stamp Press Kit, and I drew some fake stitching along the envelope flap. I painted white acrylic around me and my daughter in the photograph, because the background was a bit cluttered. I’m not sure how this will survive over time but I really like the effect!

The title is a mix of fonts (Thickers – ‘Giftbox: Chipboard’, ‘Roller Rink: Glitter’, and ‘Rootbeer Float: Foam’), and I added some ribbon and paper scraps, and some brads.  I also added some of these to the top right of a piece of Bazill Basics ‘Blackbird’ cardstock, machine stitched a white border all around this black piece of card, and then mounted the blue card on top. I folded the edges of the blue cardstock up a little to add dimension, and inked them with a pink inkpad.  Finally, I added a handmade flower, which I did a tutorial for on my blog a while ago, if you’re interested you can see it here.

I’m going to write my daughter’s name on the envelope and then tuck my letter inside it. I hope one day she’ll enjoy taking it out to read, and will appreciate the effort that went into the layout! Thanks for looking; I hope I’ve inspired you in some way!

Jennifer xxx