Take my advice!

Howdy---

I was meandering around the internet when I saw this Anniversary Sketch Challenge #3 over at  Sweet Peach Crop Shop Blog and knew I absolutely had to try it. A little later, I saw ScrapFit's  Workout # 42:  Back in the Day, where you had to scrap an older photo of yourself.  Both the sketch and the idea were very inspiring to me.  Here is the sketch:

I love the balance in this sketch.  Here is how I interpreted it:

This is me, circa 1971.  Cute, huh?  Incidentally, this layout is perfect for a little something else I am thinking of doing---I will tell you more at a later date.  Check out the folded half-flowers. There are several things I wanted to tell you about this page.

 I love ruffles!  Since I have two girls, I use them A LOT!  Lots of folks don't like to sew, or may not have the right ribbon.  I used two scraps of 6" paper, connected them together and folded it to look like ruffles---then I pop-dotted a border over the ruffle.  BTW, the paper I used on this layout is Echo Park's "For the Record" collection.  LOVE. 

I had some journaling I wanted to do on this page that was private. Someday, when I am dead, my girls can read it, but till then, I am hiding it.  I sort of camouflaged it to look like part of the scallop above the photo.

I have heard people talk about layering rub-ons, but never tried it till now.  I put the bird and the branch on top of some gold dots and really liked how it looked.  You can also see that I stitched a border.  At first, using the sewing machine on a scrapbook page seemed like using pepper on ice cream.  But like lots of things, once you try something, you may end up liking it.  I actually would not advise you to try pepper on ice cream, however. 
Another great thing:  I love buying stuff, but I can be really cheap.  I love the look of doilies, but refuse to pay the prices I have seen.  I got a huge package of them, different shapes, at Michael's for a couple of bucks!  I inked this one to age it a little.
I hope you liked this layout and can try some of these ideas.
Talk soon!