Then & Now

Today I am here with a sketch challenge from The Memory Nest.  I was really excited when I saw this sketch. I love this sketch. Then again, I love every sketch that Becky Fleck makes. Her and her Page Maps just rock!!!!

I had this single picture of my 3 youngest together from this past Easter. I really wanted to put it in my book and tell about their relationship. While I didn't add journaling to the front of the layout, I will add a pocket and a letter to the back expressing my feelings to them about how important each one will be the other as they grow older. I do this on a lot of layouts that are in their 8.5x11 books. Those books are more like "letters from mom", things I want to say to them, things I want them to know, things I feel are so important for guiding through this rough and tumble world.  I use their 12x12 books differently.

So because I was putting it in an 8.5x11 album I had to modify the sketch just a little bit. Because the actual sketch didn't call for a journaling spot I jumped at the chance to challenge myself into making it smaller.

Here is what I did with it:

 I stayed pretty true to the sketch. I had a lot of fun playing with Echo Park's new line Here & Now. I thought it worked great with what I wanted to do.

 I cut the large ampersand, arrows, artisan shapes and the notebook paper with my Silhouette Machine. I double layered the ampersand to give it some dimension. I also added some Hero Arts black pearls to it.

For the Arrows I just used the letter stickers to point to them then and them now.

I machine stitched it all together.  The honeycomb paper is from Basic Grey's Fact/Fiction line.

Thanks for stopping by. i hope you will stop by The Memory Nest blog to see what the other girls did and join us in the sketch challenge this month!

Michelle