Saddle Up!

Howdy!

I have another 12 x 12 two page scrapbook layout for you today. This layout is about my daughter, who was four years old at the time. She has always been very into animals of all sorts, but around the age of three or four, she became obsessed with horses.

At the time, we were living in Ohio, and I set out on a mission to find someone willing to introduce a four year old to the world of horses. It turned out to be a difficult task! Many of the people who I spoke with don't begin lessons until children are about age eight. We were a few years from there! Then I met "Mr. John". He was an older man, immensely patient, very unflappable and soft spoken. He agreed to take us on!

This layout depicts one of Rebekah's first times riding. We were just giving it a try, to see how she liked it, hence the bicycle helmet instead of a proper riding helmet. The proper riding helmet came later. :)

This horse became Bekah's first love. Dream was her name, and we had to leave her behind for other children to ride when we moved out of state. We have since learned that Mr. John found her another home with a family who have two little girls just about Rebekah's age. It is good to know that she is going to be loved and that there are other little girls to take over giving her peppermints on Rebekah's behalf!




On this layout I used a paper bag that I received when I purchased something in a gift shop. I kid you not....I think I had that bag in my possession for two years before getting to this layout! I knew as soon as I saw it, that it would be perfect for a horseback riding or western themed layout and I tucked it away in my 'idea pile' where things collect until I can get to them.

I have talked before about using the world around you as inspiration for your creations, and this is a perfect example of how I put that into practice. This is also the reason why I don't scrapbook my photos in order....gasp!! I have so many friends (I am talking to you Carol and Joy!) who scrapbook chronologically. I find that if I force myself into that box, then I don't enjoy the process or the outcome nearly as much. I work on whatever inspires me at the time. Sometimes the inspiration comes from a certain patterned paper or colour combination, other times it is a photo, and other times it is a paper bag!



You can see in this photo that I did my journaling on a tag that I tucked behind one of the photos. The photo was adhered using pop dots (otherwise known as dimensionals), allowing space between the photo and the page for my tag to slide in and out.



I used horse themed stickers from Paper House Productions and Flair Designs.



Here you can see a close up of the zigzag stitch that I used to sew the paper bag to the layout. I really like sewing on both cards and scrapbook pages. I find it gives my creations a little lift!

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to leave me a comment so that I know you were here!