Mother LOAD, Days 12 and 13

Hello blog readers! I've got a couple scrapbook layouts to post today. I have to admit I haven't been doing that great of a job keeping up with the scrapbook marathon. I've been skipping every other day or every third day. But I think I'm okay with that. Considering that I wasn't really doing ANY scrapbooking before I started this class, I think that what I have accomplished has been a great improvement in productivity! =) Here's the first layout:

This is a photo of my parents and I at my pharmacy school graduation party. My mom made me get all decked out in my robes again. I hope it's not presumptuous of me to assume that my parents are feeling pretty proud in this photo. =P The design of this layout was inspired by Shimelle's scrapbook starting point, which is a really cool challenge she started on her blog recently. Oh, and speaking of being proud, there are a couple of embellishments on this layout I'm fairly proud of. The first is the flower medallion in the embellishment cluster. It was made using a resist technique I just learned in Jennifer McGuire's Inspiration Showcase class. This has only been going on for two days and it's already been really awesome. It's kind of hard to see but here's an attempt at a close up:

Also I'm pretty proud of this silver flourish:

I cut this out of Grungepaper using the Elegant Flourishes Alterations die. I knew I wanted it to be silver, but then discovered to my horror that I don't have any silver paint! I don't how this is possible, but I will be fixing it as soon as I can. For this, however, I had to improvise. I managed to get a pretty awesome metallic effect by first painting with a Jenni Bowlin Weathervane paint dabber and then spraying with Perfect Pearls mist in Perfect Pearl. I feel like the MacGyver of scrapbooking. =)

Here's a quick close-up of my little butterfly:

He was cut out of paper from the Out of Print 6x6 paper pad, to match the large papers from the same collection on the rest of the layout (except for the top left corner, which is from Basic Grey Basics). The large butterflies are embellishments from that collection as well.

On to the second layout:

This one was quite simple. You can't really see it, but I drew a grid first using a green pen, then cut out 6 photos and 6 squares of paper (from Basic Grey's Sweet Threads) and then inserted them into the grid. Fairly quick and simple. I comtemplated more embellishments but decided I liked this clean look. =)

I think that's all for today. As always, thanks for looking!

*~M~*