Happy Times for a Friend

Hello, again!  I went "old school" and spent a lot of time on this layout featuring the Happy Times paper kit for this week's challenge at Between The Folds.  This paper is so versatile and so much fun, but don't forget that it's only available for the month of May in honor of National Scrapbooking Month!

Basically, I used the diagonal barn board looking paper in this kit and cut it into strips which I reverse dovetailed for the picket fence look, along with a pair of 12 x 1/4" strips placed horizontally behind the fence for a realistic look.  I backed this with the lovely multi-colored floral paper.  The photo mat measures 6 1/2 x 4 1/2", cut from the variegated magenta piece.  I initially tried to use the   pale yellow/diagonal pinstripe piece for the sentiment but it didn't stand out enough, so i used the top piece of that same variegated paper instead.  The sentiment is from the Someone Special stamp set, done in Pomengranate ink.

So, I thought I was done with this one but I just wasn't satisfied with it.  I decided to enlarge the photo mat, overlap the sentiment/title a bit, and add a little "bluebird of happiness" from the March Stamp of the Month "Sunshine Birdies" and a happy little kitten from the Friendly Pets set, both of which I stamped on scraps from the Happy Times papers and fussy cut.  I'm not sure if it would look better to anyone else, but it's much more my style.   Isn't it fun what a few little changes can do to a project?

And that's all there is to this one.  Now, I just have to get a good photo taken of me and my best friend of 35 years!  Don't forget to check out all the amazing projects featuring this lovely paper over at the BTF challenge blog and I hope you will share your artwork with us as well.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette