Both Sides of the Page: Engagement & Wedding

My readers are scrapbookers, so I know they'll understand what I mean about falling in love with a certain piece of paper.  The biggest dilemma comes when you love BOTH SIDES of a sheet of paper.  Which side will you use?  Will you cut it into pieces so that you can use scraps from both sides on a single layout?  Sometimes I do that.  And other times I simply make layouts on both sides of the paper.  This does require me to plan ahead a bit, so that the two layouts are related enough to come one after the other in the album.  But it usually works out just fine.  And I figure it's a little bit "green," too, since it's less wasteful to fully use both sides of the paper.  This is what I did earlier in the year, when it came time to use a sheet of Graphic 45 paper that I loved.  I used one side to write about my husband's and my engagement.  And I used the other side to write about our wedding.

First let's look at the engagement page...

Supplies: page protector (Office Max), background paper (Graphic 45), chevron paper & pink paper (Cosmo Cricket), striped paper (Crate), title chipboard & product packaging (Studio G), decorative chipboard & flagpole (October Afternoon), large & small alphabet stickers (Simple Stories), banner stickers (Lily Bee Design), bottle cap (Bottle Cap Inc.), rub-ons (October Afternoon), faux brads (Candi by Craftwork Cards), decorative stickers (Cosmo Cricket), glitter (Stickles by Ranger), tulle ribbon (Wyla), decorative scissors (Fiskars).

I only had one small photo for the engagement page, but I had a special engagement card, so I decided to make the card the focal point of the page.  I cut down an archival-quality 8.5x11" page protector from an office supply store and used it to house the card.  I also tucked some other, smaller cards and memorabilia in between the pages of the card, knowing that the page protector would hold everything together safely.

The card featured teddy bears and roses, so I carried those motifs on throughout the rest of the page.  I drew my color scheme from Color Room palette #95.  Below you will find a few detail shots.

The black and white bracket peeking out there is trimmed from product packaging.  I've tied some pale pink tulle ribbon through the hole.

It's always fun to create a banner!

OA teddy bear rub-on layered over a bottle cap.

Unusually for me, I journaled in alphabet stickers.  I used rub-ons to note the year (1997).

The butterflies are stickers, and I gave them bodies made of Stickles.

Whoah!  Went a little old-school and broke out the decorative scissors.  They might actually be from 1997.  :)

On the other side of my beloved Graphic 45 paper, I wrote about our wedding.  This time I drew my inspiration from CSI case file #3. 

Supplies: background paper (Graphic 45), grey paper (Authentique), journaling line template (Creative Memories), fussy-cut butterflies (Jillibean Soup), doilies (Royal Consumer Products), stickers (Bo Bunny), tulle ribbon (Wyla), pen (Creative Memories), beads (Vintage German glass beads).

I used the big block of journaling to tell the story of how my husband and I eloped.  Well, sort of eloped.  Is it still eloping if the couple has already been engaged for a year?  Maybe I'd better just tell you what the journaling says.  Here it is: "Although our beliefs are important to us, we found no fulfillment in planning a big church wedding. Are the "perfect" floral arrangements and the "right" caterer really the key to a great marriage? We don't think so. We had been engaged for a year and we just wanted to finally be married...to begin our "happily ever after"...to grow old together. So, we changed our plans and had a private ceremony in a beautiful park with just our immediate family present. Scott's mom is a pastor, and she performed the ceremony. The waiting was over and our love took flight!"

I still think that semi-eloping is the best decision we ever made!  I added some special details to the page to add a touch of romance.  Here are some closeup shots...

I made my own embelly from beads and knotted tulle.

I just had to turn up one corner of the grey paper, because I love how the B-side coordinates with the Bo Bunny stickers.

At the time, Scott and I were just humoring our photographer by posing for this goofy photo.  But now I love this photo, because it fits so well with the "taking flight" theme of this page.

All the stickers--the big alphas, the mini alphas, the border stickers, and the decorative stickers--were from Bo Buuny, which made coordination a snap.

And that's our wedding story!  Thanks for stopping by today to see both sides of the page.