Paper Garden for AHS #162

Hello and welcome back, scrappy friends.  I'm very excited to share today's project with you, so let's get right to it!  I started with the sketch the talented Michelle Stewart designed for this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog. Next, this project allowed me to combine one of my most precious photographs with a long retired CTMH kit called Paper Garden, which is my all-time favorite -- the first I ever purchased, as a matter of fact.  However, until I sat down to create for this week's challenge, it had never occurred to me to put them together but now I am so glad I still had some saved back.

details:  All papers and stickers are from the Paper Garden kit.  I cut the cream colored piece at 11 x 11", the photo mat at 6 1/2" on each side to allow a 1/4" border.  The "beautiful" title is a one-piece, preprinted sticker and for the matting, I simply placed the sticker on a strip of the same patterned paper as the base page and cut it down so that it left a 1/8" border.  The horizontal strip behind the photo is another preprinted sticker, and for just a little more visual interest I added the butterfly and pink flower stickers to the left of the title from the same sticker set (the flowers on the right side of the title are a part of that design).  For the corners, I took a 2 1/4" square and cut it from corner to corner in an "X" to form 4 triangles.

In case you are curious, the photo is of my mother and little brother when she had just turned 32 years old (he was 3) as she was explaining to us kids about the diagnosis she had just received of a rare and particularly aggressive form of breast cancer, which ultimately claimed her life.  At a glance, you might not think of this particular photo as "beautiful," but my mother had an amazing strength and grace and she was one of the most courageous, determined, and compassionate souls I have ever met...  a truly beautiful woman, and one I aspire to be more like every day.

Thanks for stopping by and please remember to check out all the fabulous projects from the other design team members and participants over at AHSC #162.  And don't forget, you have until 10 pm Central on Sunday, 6/3/16, to link up your project too, we'd love to see what you can do with this awesome sketch!  ~~  Annette