All American Girl

I was cleaning out some old files this past weekend when I ran across this photo of my sweet friend Emily. It was the opening day of our Vacation Bible School several years ago at Trinity Baptist Church, and Emily was the flag bearer that day for the American Flag. I was snapping pictures and she and her buddy Darla were clowning around, acting silly for the camera. When I got home and loaded the photo onto my computer, I just fell in love. This is pure all American girl!

I never would have attempted those letters across the page if I didn't have a KellyCraft Get-It-Straight Laser Square. It's perfect for lining up those horizontal and vertical lines, but it just works magic if you need angled words.

And the Spellbinders dies - these are flowers but they sure looked like fireworks to me!

Here's how I did it.

Supplies
KellyCraft™ Get-It-Straight™ Laser Square 

Glue Dots®  •   Permanent Glue Dots® Dispenser  •   Continuous Glue Lines® Roll
Spellbinders  •  Grand Calibur
  •  M-BOSSABILITIES, Venitian
  •  SHAPEABILITIES PENDANTS, Snowflake
  •  NESTABILITIES, Adorning Squares

Die Cut Alphabet

Viva Décor Precious Metal Color
  •  Azure 600
  •  Pink 401
  •  Silver 902
  •  Gold 901
Viva Décor Pearl Pen, Gold

Clearsnap Smooch Pearly Accent Ink
  • Sassy Pink
  • Ocean Soul
  • Silver Fox
  • Gold Lamé

Cardstock
  • Dark Blue, 12" X 12", (1)
  • White, 8 1/2" X 11" (1)
  • Red, 8 1/2" X 11" (1)
  • Medium Blue, 8 1/2" X 11" (1) 
ColorBox® Metallic Petal Point®" Ink

Dark Blue Ink Pad 

White Glossy Paper, 8 1/2" X 11" (2)American flag, fabric, 4" x 5" 

Your favorite manner of adhering individual die-cut letters

Star Charm

Red Ribbon, 1/8" , approximately 6"

Instructions
1. Paint glossy paper with Precious Metal Color, two colors per page, and set aside to dry.

2. Cut cardstock and emboss red and medium blue Venitian M-BOSSABILITIES. Trim blue to  5 1/4" X 7 1/4" and use direct-to-paper method to add silver ink . Trim red to 2 pieces, 7" X 2 3/4". Use direct-to-paper method to add dark blue ink to red embossed cardstock. Cut off 3" of one piece of red cardstock and fold it around and adhere it (using Permanent Glue Dots® Dispenser) to the piece you cut it from to make a pocket. Set aside.

Cut and fold red cardstock to make a pocket. Use Glue Dots to hold flag folds.

3. Layer white cardstock (5 1/2 X 7 1/2), blue embossed cardstock (5 1/4" X 7 1/4"), white cardstock (4 1/2" X 6 1/8"), red cardstock (4 1/4" X 5 7/8") and photo. Adhere with Permanent Glue Dots® Dispenser.

4. On dark blue background, use KellyCraft Get-It-Straight Laser Square to align red embossed cardstock and red embossed pocket straight across page, and then add the photo layer on top. Cut journaling tag from white cardstock scrap and round corners. Cut a small oval of medium blue cardstock, punch holes and tie star charm to tag pull. Adhere pull to white tag and slide it into the pocket.

Align letters with the Laser Square and make a small journaling tag to slip in the pocket.

5. Cut letters for heading from red and white cardstock.

6. Turn your page so that the KellyCraft Get-It-Straight Laser Square beam makes a line that begins near the right upper corner and goes to about 4" from the top of the left side. Adhere first row of letters. Without moving the page or Laser Square, bring the beam down approximately 2" and adhere the last word here.

7. Cut several of the flower shapes from the painted paper using the Snowflake dies, approximately two of each color. Adhere them to the upper portion of the page.

8. Fold flag, adding glue dots as needed to help the folds stay in place.

9. Add gold Pearl Pen to the corners of the square die. Allow to dry, then trim to make corners for the photo. 

10. Add additional snowflake shapes as needed and enhance with Smooch.

I'm so happy with this page. I think I'll dig through my photo stash more often!