SPECIAL SCISSORS

This was a funny page.  I couldn't fit these pictures together any way I liked.  So I stuck them in there, then let the jounaling be a focal point for the page.  Because this was a birthday party,  I found a template with a balloon shape and drew several balloons in the empty space, leaving the shiny spots white and adding strings.  Then I cut two shapes to journal in.  The lower rectangle I cut using some fun design scissors.  I wrote using a light blue 'Milky Gel Roler'.  These pens are made to show up well on a dark page (especially fun when you're using a black background paper).  When I ran off the edge of the upper triangle, I continued writing using a darker blue on the whit page.

I decided to mat the journaling rather than the pictures on this page.  I used some mini-antique scissors to cut the mats and the decorative line in the lower box.  I cut a circle around the picture in the middle on the right, stopping at the edge of the presents.  Then I 'fussy-cut' around the presents.  This is a great way to fit in an item that sticks out away from the main picture.  I finished the page with cute border at the bottom.  I used a strip of plaid paper (I got a whole package of these last fall and have used many of the colors already).  Then I cut large stars using a punch.  I wrote the 5 main themes of the day on each of the stars.

For this page I chose a dark green for the backgrounds because of all the green in each of the photos.  I had such a great time with the picture in the middle on the right.  It was dark up to the horizon, then the sky was quite light.  I matted just this light portion of the picture using a dark colored paper.  This line seemed to match the strap of the chair in the picture to its left, so I continued the line all the way across the page.  I cut the picture out using some fun scissors.  Then I used the same scissors to cut the top of the mat for the top right picture, and the underlines for the journaling in the lower left.  Continuing the same design like this makes the page look very interesting.  The picture in the upper left is of some kittens that were born in our barn, so it seemed only fitting to use plaid for the mat because it looks so much like gingham.  I was pleased to find this green that matched the other green mats perfectly.