Celebrate Spring At The Cuttlebug Spot

Hey yall! This week at The Cuttlebug Spot, we are celebrating spring. The challenge this week is to create a card, layout, or altered project with a spring theme. Here is the link to the blog so you can check out the challenge:

http://thecuttlebugspot.blogspot.com/

This week I decided to create a layout for the challenge. This layout is called "You Will Always Be My Sunshine." This layout is of my late grandfather, Leon. He passed away in 2002. To this day, it is still very hard for me. We were very close and I hope this layout will honor his memory.

The journaling reads:
"I love you Popa! I miss you! You are in my thoughts every single day! You will always be the light of my life! Love, Aymee 03/09"

This layout is also doing some double duty. I am using this for a couple of challenges on various scrappy message boards this month. One is on Treasured Scrapbooking. The challenge was to scraplift a layout from the 'We Love Our Members' Gallery. I scraplifted the concept of this layout from JB. Here is a link to her layout. Isn't it beautiful?

http://www.treasuredscrapbooking.com/gallerypp/showphoto.php?photo=16028&cat=654

I did try to change it up a bit for me. I hand stitched the remaining of the {} shape on the right hand side with blue thread. It took me forever and was so hard on my fingers, but I really like the effect it gives. I tried to do it with the sewing machine first and it did not work out for me. LOL. You should of seen my crooked lines. So I tossed it and decided to hand stitch. I also hand stitched the lines on the 'rays' of sunshine using yellow embroidery floss. I added an assortment of yellow buttons to my sunshine to add some dimension. I used the Cricut Storybook cartridge to cut out my clouds and top portion of my tree. I used the D'Vine Swirl embossing folder on the clouds. I used the Paper Doll Dress Up for my tree trunk, which I embossed with the Distressed Stripes embossing folder. I embossed the top portion of my tree using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I then stapled on some green pom pom trim for my 'grass and flowers' underneath my tree. I then used the stapler again to create pleats with some lace underneath the picture. I also did alot of distressing with my edge distressor, Colorbox Brown Ink, and Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Faded Blue Jeans. Here is my layout:

As always, thanks for stopping by! I can't wait to see all of your beautiful, spring creations!! Take care! Happy spring!!!