First Words

Watching your baby grow up is the most amazing thing I could ever hope to witness.  Ever!  And although I sometimes miss that tiny little bundle that I used to rock and coo to, the time between 6 months and now has been so much fun.  It seems my daughter learns something new every day and I can't scrapbook her cuteness fast enough!  


Now she is starting to talk and communicate in ways other than crying (YAY!)  I have been keeping a running mental tally of the words she is able to say, but I wanted to record where she is now, because before I know it she won't be there anymore either!  So I put together a fun layout highlighting Grace's first words.

The idea to turn the photo itself into a speech bubble came from a layout I saw on the Scrapbooks Etc. website.  I was originally going to use some speech bubble stamps I have to contain her first words, but I saw this and knew it would be cute:

http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/theme/holidays/fathers-day/dad-scrapbook-layout-ideas/?page=4

I chose a photo for this layout before I knew how I was going to scrap the idea.  I decided to use this picture of my daughter at the dinner table because her moth is wide open like she's yelling.  And I think it is really funny that if you look very closely you can see a spot of guacamole on her face, which is why I snapped the picture.  

The only issue I had was that my picture was a portrait and the example layout had a landscape.  Easy fix!  Instead of matting a square containing the photo and title on the background paper like the original, I matted a tall rectangle.  This made everything proportional.

The green and blue papers I chose were from a recent purchase that I was just itching to use!  They are both from the Die Cuts with a View Cotton Bloom Stack.  I was so happy with how well they coordinated with her shirt!  The letter paper is Pink Paislee, and if you look closely you will see that it is a word find of sorts!

I was going for a very clean, graphic look without many embellishments so the focus stays on the photo.  But I did use a trio of embellishments, just like the sample layout.  This is an important technique to help draw your eye around the page.  I used rosettes on mine with the same DCWV papers and a photo in the center of one.  I inked the edges to help them all stand out against the background.

That left my title, which I used Echo Park County Drive letter stickers for, and my journaling which was done around the outer edge in white gel pen.

And that is it!  I hope you enjoyed this fun, cheery layout as much as I did.  I'll be back tomorrow with my birthday layout done in a sophisticated pink and grey combo.  Thanks for stopping by!