Studio Calico NSD Challenge offering - Wish

I am really proud of this layout. I've submitted this for the Studio Calico (http://www.studiocalico.com/) National Scrapbook Day Challenge for hand-stitching on a layout (see Davinie's blog here http://davinie.blogspot.com/2009/04/in-honor-of-nsd-may-2-challenge.html) and to use 3 different patterned papers on a layout (this one has N-I-N-E on it!!) (see Nicole Samuels' blog for that challenge http://nicolesamuels.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/calling-all-scrappers-who-love-sc-kits/#comment-1954). My Studio Calico gallery can be found here (http://www.studiocalico.com/forums/galleries/show/9815). Be sure to take a look at all the offerings in the Member and Designer Galleries. There are some really talented people out there!!

The story behind my layout is that I've never really been a girly-girl and never had a really close relationship with a mother-figure, so my hope is that my relationship with Kins is how I think a mother-daughter relationship should be. (Basically, the ideal is my friend Kim's relationship with her daughter Jennifer.) So I hope that Kins always thinks of me as a friend but that she'll always be proud to call me Mama.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a really good shot of the awesomeness that is the patterned paper that I used for this layout. It's all from Prima Marketing Inc's The First Blush Collection. It's glossy and lightly glittery. The colors are amazing IRL. So, I've included a couple different angle pics to try to pick up on this quality of the paper but have included a flatter, "matte" version to show the overall layout. I do have to say that the two pics below best show the true colors of the layout (it's a bit more orange-y than IRL on the pic above) but I felt in the pic below I couldn't get a good overall shot of the paper, picture, and embellishments. Oh, well.

I'm really proud of my handmade flowers. They're both a series of nesting circles, clipped, and then hand-sewn together. Then I roughed and inked them up to give them dimension and character.

You know me by now...gotta have me some fussy cutting, too. I've brought forward some of the flower designs that would've disappeared behind the picture. (And, by the way, don't you just love the pic. I know I'm biased but would you look at those lips?! This girl is gonna turn some heads! Daddy better get the shotgun ready! Ha ha!)

Details: Paper: Prima Marketing Inc. The First Blush collection, VersaMark ink, Barbara Trombley's Art Glitter, Stampendous embossing powder, Cricut Storybook font, SU! circle punches, Creative Memories circle cutter, Diamond Glaze, Autumn Leaves stamp, SU! ink, and I think the chipboard corner MAY be Fancy Pants, but I can't be sure (it's been in a jar for a couple years). I'm also not sure who the ribbon belongs to...I bought it like 3 years ago.

Thanks for looking.

Heidi