My Lifetime Story - Challenge #1

Here it is! The challenge you have all been waiting for! Today is the day for the first My Lifetime Story Challenge at Faith Sisters! Here are the directions for the first challenge:

You are creating your own autobiography. This is the best story out there; it is your story. You have created many pages about your children, family, pets, vacations, and holidays. Now you can focus on you. The first challenge is to create a layout that will be the title page to your "My Lifetime Story Album." Since this is your autobiography you will want to make a special title page for your album. What do you want to name your own autobiography? This can be a photo collage page, or whatever you wish it to be.

Here is the title page that I created. (Click on the photo for a larger view.)

I decided to "go vintage" since that is what I love most. I used a sheet of black cardstock for my background, then added a sheet of Jenni Bowlin dotted paper. The number strip at the bottom was made by stamping Close to My Heart number stamps onto kraft paper. Then, I cut some black cardstock with a Fiskars scallop border punch to mat the numbers. I also matted my photo on red cardstock to make it pop. (The photo is of me at Christmas 1966. I am almost 2 years old, and I am riding the horse (Silver) that I got for Christmas that year. I will tell this story later in the album, when we get to the "My Childhood" section.)

I created the title on the computer (CK Ali Edwards and Pharmacy fonts) and printed it on white paper. I used Tim Holtz ink to distress the paper. Then, I dipped a pencil eraser into black ink and stamped polka dots on the title. I cut the title out with Nestie dies, and added a scallop oval behind it.

This collage at the bottom is just my thing! I stamped the bingo card with black ink and distressed it. I am not sure who makes this image...I got it at the Carson, CA Stamp Expo but forgot which booth. At any rate, my birth year is on the card...1965! So I circled the numbers with a red glitter pen. I cut a ticket with a Sizzix die and stamped the bar code in black ink (SU stamp). The flower is made from pages of an old book. I cut circles with Nestie dies, then grunged them up and stacked them with a yummy red button and some floss. I added the mulberry flowers for that "girly" touch. The red flower started as white, but I "colorized" it with some of my "Gloria glitter mist."

I hope you will join me in this year-long, 52-layout challenge! I can't wait to show you what I make each week. And...you get to see at least 52 scrapbook pages from me this year!

ETA: I am entering this layout in the Practical Scrappers challenge also. They asked for buttons.