"Butterfly Gardens" from Polka Dot Whimsy...

I really enjoyed working with the March "Butterfly Gardens" kit from Polka Dot Whimsy. Even though the kit appeared really feminine color-wise - lots of pinks, pastels - it worked perfect with my spring and Easter photos. When I saw coffee filter shapes included with the kit, I wanted to mist them with some of the new Mr. Huey mists I had recently picked up at CKC. I thought the scalloped ones looked like clouds. Now that I have the layout posted, I realize that they look much better in person (trust me!)... This layout of Blake shows him crowing the Virgin Mary during the May Procession at church last spring. I was so proud of him. I used a mixture of papers by Echo Park, Kaiser Crafts and Pebbles.

It was fun grouping some embellishments for my title placement. I layered a couple flowers with a sequin. I also opted to keep the Jillibean Soup corrugated frames in their natural kraft state.

The only thing I used that wasn't in the kit was a section of Pink Paislee baker's twine that I wrapped around the larger photos to hang a tag (from the kit).

I love making 2-page layouts, but since the kits only come with one sheet of each color of cardstock, I usually stick with single page layouts. I really wanted to use our egg decorating photos from last Easter with this kit, so I got creative. I decided to split up the 'strip' paper by Kaiser Craft across a sheet of polka dot patterned paper and a solid cardstock. The solid pink cardstock was a bit bland with the rest of the spread so I placed some of the corrogated Jillibean Soup shapes on top of the cardstock and sprayed them with white Mr. Huey mist. I thought the cardstock tied into the layout better after creating the mask.

I loved adding the row of buttons to separate the two rows of photos. I have a confession to make... I'm a bit OCD when it comes to buttons. I MUST have them either sewn on the page or at least tied. I can't have a "naked" button on my layouts.

For my title, I again layered a couple die cuts. I did do something that I hadn't done in years though - I got out my old Creative Memories pens and added "Coloring" to my title in multiple colors. I thought it tied in with the theme nicely. And, even though the background paper wasn't ruled, I was still able to journal (a lot!) directly on the page.

The next page is a lift of myself. A few weeks ago I had created another layout using Easter photos. I liked it so much that I decided to stick with the same design, but flipped, for this layout.

I have another confession to make...I really wasn't a fan of the Basic Grey papers in this kit. BUT I really liked the finished product here after using the brown/floral pattern I used as the large back piece on this page.

I used a border punch on the dot paper, but then cut the scalloped edge off to give it a postage-stamp edge. Isn't the felt bird, cute?

Oh, and what good is a pastel/floral-y kit if I don't finish a Reese page with it? I loved these shots of us together in August. "2 Fun" seemed like an appropriate title.

I used one of the Jillibean Soup frames to frame a butterfly from the fabric piece included in the kit. I thought it gave a bit of a "quilted" look.

This was a fun kit to work with. I still have a lot of products left so you may see more with it in the future.