Spring Traditions - by BethD488

Every year, around the first day of spring, a few friends come over and make pierogies with us.  Two are of Polish descent and my DH is partly Ukrainian (in case you didn't know, pierogies are a traditional dish in both countries).  And my kids usually get involved somehow for at least a little bit.  We make the traditional ones with potato and cheese filling, and some with a sauerkraut filling.  Then we switch it up a little bit and make a savory one with a sausage, mushroom, green pepper and cheese filling.  I find them all so YUMMY!!!!  This year, when we got together, we made 215 of them - WOW!!!  I think that's the most we've ever made.

When someone from the focus group requested ideas and suggestions on how to use some of the smaller transparencies we've been getting in these wonderful assortments from CC in layouts, I thought I would do that to highlight the concentration my 3.5 year old DD used in the process, as well as the pile o' pierogies we made.

CC products used:

MME Quite Contrary Jack and Jill (12x12 and 6x6)

MME Tre Jolie 4x6 transparencies - Je T'aime "Cute" and Mon Cheri "Give"

MME Bohemia transparency frame - Bliss "Pretty as a Princess"

MME Confetti titles - Surprise "Me & Mom" - friends

MM Slice

MM Slice Design Card - Spring

MM Design shop - cooking stickers

Non-CC products used:

SU Regal Rose cardstock

SU Wild Wasabi ink

SU Big Deal alphabet

American Crafts thickers - Patchwork

American Crafts elements - metal photo turns

Recollections cream cardstock

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - sunflower yellow

Vellum adhesive

Steps on putting together layout:

1.  Choose 2 different pieces of patterned paper.  One will work as your base, and the other as the accent.

2.  Cut the accent piece so that you have a 1.5 inch wide "c" shape.  The inner portion will be used on one side of the LO, and the "c" will be used on the other.

3.  Choose either one border (from pre-printed border paper) or cut strips from desired patterned paper.  I used a pre-printed border that is about 1inch wide.

4.  Choose pictures. My finished sizes include: (2) 3.5 x 6inch, 2.5 x 6inch, 3 x 5inch, 3.5 x 3.5inch, 3 x 3.5inch.  I went with the grid look here.

5.  Pick 2 or three pictures that you want to highlight and match those with transparencies of your choosing.  (See instructions/ideas/comments on this below).

6.  Instead of using another picture, I added a small rectangle of patterned paper to highlight the spring-y feel.  That was 2 x 3.5inch.

7.  Choose title and alpha(s).  I chose three different ones to spice things up a little.  And part of it is with a tranparency also - the "friends".  Use the vellum adhesive for this one.

8.  Add embellishments as desired.  I used one of the many sets of cooking stickers I got.  Also, I used my slice to make the butterfly and the bird to add some more spring feel.  I also added some of the stickers that match the paper set (leaves with buttons as flowers, and hearts).

9.  Add journalling.  Here I used a pre-printed journal card that matches the paper.

10.  Then I added the recipe.  I scored a piece of cardstock at 2.5inch increments, wrote the recipes on them, and then used the glimmer mist to give it a well-used feel.  Then I added a metal photo turn to allow the recipe to be folded out.

Instructions/ideas/comments about the transparencies:

5a.  Two of mine I used as all around frames, one of which I added a background piece of patterned paper (from the 6x6 pad) to help the pink and the bird stand out.  

 5b.  The flowered one was wide enough that I felt it worked well against the background papers. 

5c.  The viney one only had the vines on two sides, so I cut it down to match the width of the picture.  And then I added a background piece of patterned paper (from the 6x6 pad), also the same width as the picture, to help the vines stand out here also.  But it still acts as a nice frame for the picture.

5d.  I used vellum adhesive for the transparencies so that it doesn't show through.  I also only adhere the top edge to allow for differences in materials (this comes from my engineering mind thinking that if things are shrinking and expanding, the transparency and paper will do so at different rates - we don't want to worry about buckling later on, do we?).

5e.  For an idea about how to use a 12x12 transparency on an LO, see my profile.  There is a picture of a layout I did of my DD's first Christmas on there.

Enjoy the ideas, and feel free to make and enjoy the pierogies (my mouth is watering just thinking about them)!!!