What more (could I ask for?)

Well when I saw that the challenge at Use it Tuesday was birthdays, I decided it was about time I did a birthday layout about myself. I think I have made one of everyone else in the family at one time or another, so it was my turn. My last birthday was really good too. I think I had been feeling a bit down and my husband sent me the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers at work, then we went out for dinner at a beautiful local restaurant, I got quite a few presents and Kyaa made me cupcakes so what more could I ask for? It's was just too bad that Logan was away at a school camp for a few days.

Everything on this layout was from my stash. That's mostly what I'm doing these days. I do still buy little embellishments from time to time when I see them on special, but I hardly ever buy anything else.  The papers are from Basic Grey and TLC, the kraft background cardstock is Stampin Up! and the red embossed cardstock is from Core'dinations. The yellow mulberry paper is ancient and has been in my stash for at over 7 years! The only thing that is new is the star bling by The Paper Mill, which I bought on special last week.

I recently found a link on Pinterest to a tutorial about making the edges of mulberry paper "feathery". It's simple really, just wet the edge and pull the end of the paper away. Then in the tutorial they used a toothbrush to brush out the edges, but I simply "combed" the paper between my fingers and that worked fine for the look I was after. As I didn't want the tape to show through the mulberry paper, I stitched in down instead. It added a great frame to the paper rectangle as well. 

For the banner across the top I used the My Favorite Things banner day die and stuck them onto some bakery twine that I bought at the Sydney Paper Craft Festival last November. I've tried o use this twine in several layouts recently and the colour has never been right, so I'm glad I finally go to use some!

I used this great sketch from Sketch Support. They even provide printable directions with the sizes of all the paper pieces for the layout so it's very easy to put together. If you haven't seen them before, be sure to check them out - there are lots of finished layouts as well for great inspiration.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine