Creative Expressions Papercrafting: 40th Wedding Anniversary

I have been working away on a 40th wedding anniversary album for a friend recently. It is a gift for her parents, and her father happens to be French Canadian. I was excited to be able to incorporate some beautiful French papers that I have had in my stash since I lived in Geneva. They are from a company called DDDesigns that operates out of Quebec, Canada.

I had some photos...but many of them were not great quality. I was trying to figure out how to make the most of what I had to work with. One of the photos is from 1968...and it is of the car that the bridal couple rode in on their wedding day. I wanted to incorporate the photo, since I didn't have many to begin with, but it wasn't a strong enough photo to carry a layout on its own. I knew I would have to be pretty creative with the layout.

Luke and Lexi (Sealed With a Kiss) is one of my favorite stamp sets from Paper Pretties. I am always trying to think of new and creative ways to show this cute little couple off. I had been thinking of portraying them kissing in a car....so when I received the old photo from my friend, the pieces came together.

I did a two page 8 x 8 layout. First, I sketched the car on bronze shimmery cardstock and then cut it out. I then stamped Luke and Lexi in StazOn and coloured them using SU! crayons and an aqua painter. They were then attached behind the windshield of the car. Rhinestone brads made cute headlights and a silver gel pen provided accents on the hood of the car and bumper.

The French phrase you see on the page is the equivalent to what we would say in English when pulling the petals off a flower....'he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me', etc. The more literal translation doesn't mean much in English....it is, 'I love you a little, a lot, passionately, like crazy'.

On the opposing page I used the old photograph. I made a black cardstock frame to help draw attention to the photo. I then covered a chipboard arrow with the same patterned paper used on the opposite page. Some heart shaped brads from Making Memories were fastened to each corner of the chipboard. The swirls next to the photo were made with a foam stamp from a Kit of the Month by Creating Keepsakes. A bit of black dashes, dots and checks ribbon was the finishing touch.