Scrapbooks, Crafts, and Cards, Oh My!: Countdown to Paper Bag Album Completion ... Begins!!!

Hey Everyone! Happy Sunday! Hope you all are enjoying your day! I normally don' t post on Sundays but I happened across the calendar this morning and almost freaked out. For some odd reason, I was under the impression that New Year's Eve was Wednesday. Don't ask me why but I could have bet money on it. I have been in my own little world since the holidays started. With crafting and having the girls and hubby home, I haven't bothered to give the calendar a look. So the countdown to finish this paper bag album has begun. For today's post, I have the next page in the album completed. I was able to finish it up yesterday. I think it turned nice but I'll leave it up to you to decide. Here's the pics for your perusal:

For this page, I used a pink patterned paper from the ColorBok paper stack "Delilah" as my starting base. As with all the pages in this album, I cut it down to 5 x10". To tone down the color of the page, I went around the edges with a Creamy Caramel inkpad. I wanted to add a fun border to the side of the page and in the stack there is a fun blue patterned page with strips of lace running across it. I thought that cutting out the lace strips and layering it would give the page a nice ruffly texture. I also used my inkpad to go around the edges to give the lace an aged appearance.

I liked the aqua and pink color scheme that was going into the page but I thought I needed to bring in another color to break it up a little. I found a yellow patterned paper in the stack and cut out three 2 " circles and randomly adhered it to the page. I think it adds a nice dimension of color and brightens the page just enough. I also used my inkpad around the edges before adhering. I used a coordinating aqua paper cut at 1 1/2" for the middle of the page. I used my Fiskars Heart Border punch to give a decorative edge to the top and bottom of the paper.
Since I didn't add photo mats to my previous page, I thought this page needed a few.
So I added two 3x4" photo mats to the top and bottom.
I cut the photo mats into a curly label design.
I don't own a cartridge or die cut for this shape, so I drew it freehand.
I adhered the yellow polka dotted paper to an aqua background paper and tried my best to draw a 1/4" border around it. I think it turned out alright.
To adhere the photo mats to the page, I used some foam tape for added dimension.

I knew I wanted to go with butterflies for embellishments for this page.but I don't own any butterfly stamps. Weird?! But I knew of someone who just received some pretty sweet Melissa and Doug stamps for Christmas. So with my five year old's permission, I used her large and small butterfly stamps on white cardstock using Rich Cocoa VersaColor ink and set to work watercoloring them to bring them to life.
I used coordinating colors to match the rest of the page and added some sparkle with my Copic Spica glitter pens. I only adhered the middle of the butterflies to the page. I folded the wings to give the apperance of them floating across the length of the page. I think it adds a nice effect.

I finished off the page with some doodling and stitching using my white gel pen.

And I opted for a stamped sentiment across the middle, "Big Hugs!", "hugs and kisses", and X"s and O's came from my CardzTV stamp set "Encouraging Thoughts".

And voila! my page is complete!!

I also made a coordinating 5x10" double sided tag.

I added some butterflies and stitching to both sides and a sheer blue ribbon to finish them off.