Daddy is the Hero

I finally had the opportunity to scrap some of our blizzard pictures. Now I know, 22" is nothing for some but it's the most we've had in quite a long time. The last big one I remember was 1996. Back then, I didn't have a handsome, strapping husband to help shovel the snow. This time, I did and boy did we pamper him with hot chocolate, a yummy meal (and quite possibly a few beers) for all the work he did. Wouldn't you know all 3 snow blowers on our street went down and so it was each neighbor for themselves. And yet, I still observed the caring quality on our street, that I love so much. Neighbor helping neighbor to finish off their driveway or sidewalk.

So below is more goodies from my Swirlydoos kit. The top left picture was just halfway through the storm. You should have seen how tall our vehicles looked the next day. The second picture - 20 something degrees...oh man it was cold.

Add insult to injury....we have a double driveway. Every other day of the year, it's just fabulous. In 22 inches of snow, it can cause quite a few aches and pains.

The letters above and the purple snowflakes strip below are from the Bo Bunny Snow Serenade sticker sheet. I have never been one to just put stickers directly on my layout, because I like to move things around until I get the placement just right. The letters are easy because I usually back my title letters in an opposing color (light - white in this instance) so they are easily seen on the layout. The other elements I put on transparency paper. Typically, I will cut carefully around all the edges but as you can see these have a lot of detail. Since it is transparency, I cut close to the edges. You can see it along the bottom in the photograph below but once you get your layout into your photo album and page protector, they disappear. Also notice, I mangaged to sneek in a Martha Stewart border punch....the partial snowflake strip along the bottom.

The icicle border at the top was my favorite part of this layout. Tattered Angels sells packages of Glimmer Screens, which are in effect masks for their sprays. However, they can also make good stencils to create your own shapes on paper. I took a plain 12x12 sheet of purple paper and on the back lay down the Icicle Glimmer Screen and traced around the whole thing. Now, this Glimmer Screen is not 12 inches long, so I placed it at the end of the one I finished tracing at a similar point and continued tracing. It took about 2 1/2 tracings to cover the full 12 inches. Once you cut it out, flip it over and you can never tell that it wasn't one long border to begin with.

I inked it with Dusty Concord and Broken China distress inks and then for the fun part. I used a paint brush to spread glue on the icicle border and then liberally sprinkled Martha Stewarts Crystal Coarse Glitter all over it. The glitter is clear so it still brings out the color beneath while capturing the sparkle from the light.

More to come soon....