This is why I have a hard time giving up my old patterned papers.  Because that pack of paper that you thought totally wasn’t your style and you have no idea how you would use it…. well, along comes a scrapbook layout that suddenly that paper is perfect for and you are so glad you didn’t chuck it in the recycle bin!  And today that paper is Big Top Birthday from Stampin’ Up!

Everytime we go to Fred Meyer, Nicholas *has* to ride the Fred Meyer kiddie ride truck.  We walk in the door and as we walk by the area with the truck he notices it and asks if I have a quarter so we can ride it.  Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t, but either way we invariably stop so he can at least sit on the truck and pretend to drive it.

And of course, now that Caitlin is getting older, she has to get in on the action as well and wants her turn!  So, I had to snap a picture a couple months back of each of them in the truck and create a layout just for this ride.

I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I started shuffling through my (I’ll admit) large amounts of misc patterned papers and cardstock and the bold primary colors in the Big Top Birthday caught my eye.  I had a hard time getting myself to use the paper when I was working on cards because it was so bold, but when used as an accent for a scrapbook page – suddenly it was a whole new paper!

But, one of the best things about this layout was creating my embellishments from random supplies around my craft room.  I especially like how this tag turned out:

It’s a simple rectangle of the Natural Composition designer paper that I snipped off two corners to make the tag shape.  Then I used on of my beloved Jumbo Eyelets (why did these have to be retired!?!) to give me a grommet for my Stitched Pacific Point Grosgrain ribbon.  Then I just used a little bit of linen thread to tie the ends of the ribbon together and added some matching cardstock trim to the bottom of the tag.  Add some dots with the White Gel Pen and some journaling and there you go!

I have to admit, I LOVE how this layout turned out and its kind of nice to do a layout that doesn’t involve pinks and flowers.

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Supples Used
Stamps – Rough Type Alphabet (retired)
Paper – Whisper White, Basic Black, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Going Grey cs (retired), Natural Composition designer paper, Big Top Birthday designer paper (retired)
Ink – Basic Black, Pacific Point, Real Red
Accessories – Large Star punch (retired), Small Star punch (retired), 2-3/8” Scallop circle punch, 1” circle punch, Scallop Trim edge punch, Crop-a-dile, jumbo eyelets (retired), Stitched grosrain ribbon Pacific Point, Linen Thread, White Gel Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers