Posted by happayscrappay (Rachel):
Today, April 11 would have been my grandfather's birthday. He died a few years ago but my memories of him did not. As you will see, none of the pages I made this month are of him but, this paper reminded me very much of him. When I was a child, I would visit him and my grandmother in Michigan. They lived in a mobile home and had bunkbeds in the room where I slept with my brother.
On the bed was an Emmett the Clown doll. Thinking of the circus or things related to the circus reminds me of that clown doll. Ellie's Tale is not circus paper in the most traditional sense of the word, but it has a whimsical circus appeal from the elephant, to the feathers, to the sprays of flowers, to the pennants and other banner sticker shapes this line screams at me of the circus, good times, cotton candy, elephants, and clowns.
The colors are cheerful, the patterns uplifting, and the papers so very filled with fun whether you scrap boys, girls, children, or adults. Take a trip with me to carefree, good times as we look through the pages I made with Ellie's Tale by Sassafras Lass.
The first page that I made is such a treat. As soon as I saw the flowers one of the (Play By Play) sheets of paper, I knew what to do. I pulled out a picture of my son at the fair carrying a bag of kettle corn that is in competition with him to see which is the tallest! I cut shapes of off white from one of the papers, folded them at the corners and drew "X" in the middle. The idea was to make the flowers look a little like popcorn spill from the bag down the page.
I framed the page by cutting out the center from the paper and laying it over the feather paper (btw, those feathers are my favorite paper of the whole line!). I added a sticker from the label sheet that I cut and placed above and below the picture on the page. Another fantastic feature of Sassafras Lass is the borders on the paper. They've added to it with sticker borders that also coordinate. I've used one of each here.
Another good time we have around here is during the local firetruck rally. We're lucky to live a very short walk from the start of the parade and I was able to capture a picture of the boys with the color guard that leads the firetruck procession down Broadway.
While the black spray on the the background may look tedious or detailed it was really made with very little care. Choose the spray ink that you want to use, aim it at your page, and spray away until excess liquid is visible on the surface of the paper. Then, simply pick up the paper, allowing the ink to run down the page. Layer stickers, strips of paper, and the newest addition to the Sassafras Lass product line - foldies die cuts, over the sprayed area and your photos.
History is a very important part of the area where we live. Our house is over a century old and we often attend events that celebrate the history of our our area. The music note paper (Score) reminded me not only of circus music but of patriotic music - marches and anthems - and all the thing that go with it. The canon demonstration at the local fort provided the perfect patriotic themed pictures to go with the paper.
I roughed up the background by gluing the paper to the cardboard that comes with all of my ACOT shipments and then ripped the paper off to distress it. I also cut a thin strip of cardboard and glued it sideways to the lower edge of the white paper to ground the page.
The journaling tags provided just the right punch of color for under the pictures so I cut them up and layered them in with the Sweet Treat shaped stickers. The real treat of the day was watching that canon fire a real canon ball and hanging with my boys while we celebrated our city's heritage.
While this line has been great to work with, I have to admit, I saved the best for last.
The large circle of Simply Stated reminded me of a very large target and the yellows of my son's scouting shirt were a perfect match for the yellows in the Play by Play paper. They simply all had to go together. To create this page, I cut a circle of Play by Play that fit inside the target area of Simply Stated and then I ripped out the middle of the circle .
I decided the placement of the gears, stickers, and title before sewing the circle onto the background. To ground the page, I added the border stickers along the bottom and a border strip along the bottom of one of the pictures. The absolute last thing I added to the page was the sewn and torn teal circle around the outside of the target area.
I thought the page needed an additional pop of color. So, I tore the edge off a piece of cardstock, laid it on the page at the edge of the circle, and sewed on the line in the red part of the paper until I got to the end of the teal cardstock where I tore the cardstock off leaving the sewn part behind. I continued this process until I made it around the edge of the circle.
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Rachel is a Chemistry Professor, mom, hiker, wife and knitter extraordinaire! She has been scrapbooking since 1998 and resides with her family and two dogs in Missouri.
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