FS paper class

I completed these pages using techniques from the FS paper class that just wrapped up. The CT outdid themselves with tons of great ideas that haved helped me punch up my pages!

In the first page here, I used a sanding technique to create the white flourishes in the background. I made the dark flourishes with chipboard and then heat embossed to give them some shine. I love this photo of Jack, and how he looks so peaceful. At 2 1/2, those quiet moments are sure fleeting!!

Journaling: Jack, even now as you run and play, talk and pretend, you are so helpless in the face of this enormous world of ours, so small in the shadow of the road that lies before you. And yet, you are content. You are so happy to place your little hand in mine, ever eager to repeat back to me the promise I have always whispered in your ear when the world becomes so dauntingly immense: "Mama, you will always keep me safe." And I will, sweet boy. I will always do all that I can to keep you safe, no matter where you venture in this astonishing journey of life.

The second page was actually inspired by July's FS word challenge (the word was "new"), although I didn't complete it till August. LOL! I decided it was time to use some of the professional wallets of Jack that I've accumulated over the last 2 1/2 years. :) The heat embossed stars are actually done using a stamp I made with hot glue. I handmade the metal star embellies with craft wire and glass beads. (Both ideas from recent issues of Scrapbooks, Etc.) Around the perimeter of the photo mat, I wrote the succession of all of Jack's milestones, all the way from smiling and rolling to running and jumping. The punched flourishes and star embellies (I mounted strips of scrap paper on hand-cut chipboard stars and then sanded the edges) were both ideas from the FS paper class.