A Walk in the Park with Nikki Sivils' Collections

The cards in this post were featured on ScrapStreet Magazine's blog. Further details about how to make these can be found there.


The Background:
My dear ol' Dad was visiting us from Taiwan during his annual Thanksgiving visit. We took him to high tea and to saunter the grounds at The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens which replicates gardens from around the world among its numerous offerings. We took some photos in the Chinese Garden, which is ironic since my Dad traveled half way around the world to see a replica of his home style.

Visiting the Chinese Garden at Huntington Library

The Details:

When I was choosing the papers to match my photos at Pages from the Heart, I was drawn to the pastel colors and cute designs in Nikki Sivils' "Summer" collection even though these are technically autumnal photos. 

My favorite part of the collection were the lil' cameras so I cut a strip of them and placed them all the way across the center of my page. I wanted to emphasize them further, so I cut out one camera, hand stitched on it, used Glossy accents on the lens and flash and popped it up around the title. 

To continue with the hand stitched theme, I used my Sew Easy paper piercer and stitched a scalloped border around the whole layout. To add the final cherry on top, I made some French knots in the white circles on the scalloped border strip. 

To tie in the garden theme, I had some tiny handmade paper flowers I purchased in Thailand this summer that I'd been waiting for the right time to use. This layout design was based on a one page sketch by Allison Davis.  

The Extras:
When I was done with this layout, I had quite a few pieces of scraps left over which I didn't want to waste. I'll give you a glimpse of my mid-process workspace.

I decided to make some cards with the leftovers. I added two pieces of solid cardstock for the card base, a Nikki Sivils "It's Your Day" birthday sticker sheet and some twine and here are the results.

I always need birthday cards during the year so now I am ready for three occasions. I began with three main strips in the background as my starting point and to make them different, I added a varying 3D birthday themed element. 

For my first card, I rolled a rectangular piece of paper into a tube and glued that onto my card as candles. For the flames I used an Imaginisce Glam Rock accented with gold Stickles glitter glue.

For my second card, I put a row of presents across the card in the middle strip.

 I tied some twine on a few of the presents and popped them up at differing heights.

 For my third card, I made a banner at the top for a festive touch.

 I cut the banner pieces from the patterned paper design, glued some twine at the top and popped it up over the sentiment.

This was a really cute collection to work with and it was really easy to mix and match between the two different themed papers.  

Take care,