Give your layout braces...

Hi, all! Jen here today. I spent yesterday morning at the orthodontist with my 11 year old son. Yes, we have entered the "braces" season of life.
I amused both of us during the process by snapping photos with my iPhone and showing him. When we got home, I thought: these really should be saved and scrapbooked somehow. I tend not to scrapbook with my phone photos, since they are not the best quality. My iPhone is probably considered antique. So that made me think about HOW to use those phone photos. And I decided that a photostrip is the perfect solution. The photos can be a bit grainy, or blurry, or even just plain bad and they still work as a photo strip. (I pulled out my "real" camera for the big photo.) After working through the photostrip decision, I started on the page design. An that is where I had some fun. There is not a lot to this page - just 2 sheets of cardstock, some adhesive, the Cricut, and a few trimmer blades. But it totally works with the photos. I started by glueing on my photo strip and big photo so I knew how much room I had to work with on the page. Then I cut the "wired" out of Black Cardstock with the "Tis the Season" Cricut Cartridge (using the Sleigh Ride Font), fitting the letters to the empty space on the page. Actually, I first cut out the letters in green. And then cut them apart. And then adhered them. And then realized that the elastics on Noah's braces are green - not the braces. That's how I work, you know.
So back to the black word ... I cut the letters in half and adhered them. I trimmed a sliver of black and adhered it in the gap. It's really cool that the sliver doesn't stay straight. It curves and bends a bit, just like the metal wires in the braces. Then I used the new pinking blade in my trimmer and made a super thin strip of green cardstock that were "pinked" on both edges. I cut off 2 "squiggles" and glued it onto the letters over the "wire". Presto - braces for my page! I will say that you should use your Precision Point Adhesive to adhere the tiny pieces. I get lazy sometimes, and I tried to do it with my regular tape adhesive. Yeah. Not really a good choice. So learn from my laziness and pull out the liquid glue. Makes this page a snap to finish. Font: Century Gothic

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Comments

These would make for some nice memories to look back to when he grows older. And he didn't even have to get any teeth pulled out! Just the braces, and he was done! He's one lucky guy for avoiding the teeth pulling part.

Posted by: Jenna Schrock | 02/20/2012 at 12:12 PM

Very timely in our house as well, Jen! I'm definitely printing this and scrap lifting it! Thank you!

Posted by: :Linda Wright | 01/19/2012 at 07:41 PM

Gonna use this - but want to try our platinum shimmer paper for the thin strip through the middle of the word!

Posted by: Wendy Lyons | 01/19/2012 at 05:57 PM

I LOVE this idea! I wish my mom had scrapbooked when I was kid but she barely took pictures of us. My son is about to get braces so I printed this out to use. Thanks for such a wonderful idea!

Posted by: Jennifer | 01/19/2012 at 12:21 PM

Perfect timing..My daughter gets her braces on Tuesday! Thanks for the fun idea.

Posted by: Jen | 01/19/2012 at 12:14 PM