Best Friends

My BFF, Carmel, and I don't take photos together often enough.  

This photo was taken in early February at The Villa Italian Restaurant, 
in downtown Lake Charles (the city where we live).  
We showed up at the restaurant wearing the exact same colors!!! 

These little "coincidences" seem to happen very often with us. : )
(Note: Carmel is the gorgeous one on the left)

I created duplicate layouts so both Carmel and I could each have one.  I framed them ready for hanging.  

The only difference in the two layouts are the brick chipboard bits.  
I cut them as closely as possible.

This has been by far the most I have ever intently concentrated on a layout.   

Each one is virtually identical to the other. 

I began by stenciling small areas with white modeling paste.
Check out the layouts side by side with arrows noting the identical stenciled areas.

I later added more stenciling (identical of course) to the top area of the pages.

I chose the beautiful page Maçonnerie in the Blue Fern Studios Timeless collection.  

The roses are beautiful & I love the brick wall print (there's a brick wall behind us in our photo).

So, to accentuate the brick print, I used BFS chipboard Shabby Brick Bits.

I simply inked them in ColorBox Fluid Chalk ink Dark Brown and then randomly added a mix of 
"Express-O Yourself" & "Third Place" prills, adhering them with matte gel.

I die cut the piece behind the photo using the largest die from Spellbinders "Style Nouille" die set.

Here's a close up before it was adhered to the layout with the photo on it.

I fell in love with the design of this die!

The bottom left corner of this stunning paper has beautiful roses in burgundy tones.  

I fussy cut the corner piece from another page of the same paper, inked the edges in dark brown;
then adhered it with foam tape to add dimension and interest.  

A pretty arrangement with coordinating color tones using Wild Orchid Crafts flowers 

was placed above the dimensional cut piece.

I scanned the printed butterfly from the Maçonnerie page and cut out a couple of them to place on the layout.  I made them each a pair of antennae with 22 gauge black wire. 
They were placed on the page with foam dots for dimension.

The title is printed using the backside of page "Grand Sequel" in the BFS Memoires collection.

 The color of it is exactly what I wanted.  

I used Britannic Bold font for the word "BEST" and Freebooter Script font for the word "friends".   

The title was then cut using the smallest die in the gorgeous Spellbinders "Style Nouille" die set.  

The gorgeous corner chipboard pieces are Blue Fern Studios Symphony Corners 

that I heat embossed with their Imagine Ink color Garnet.

Here are a few close ups of the flower arrangements I designed.
Each also has Tattered Lace leaf die cuts in green and the smaller Meadow Leaves die in black.

The "42" represents the number of years that Carmel and I have been best friends. 

Imagine being blessed with a wonderful best friend that you trust unconditionally 
and have never even once gotten mad at each other....for 42 very strong years!!!  
Carmel is my Earth Angel because God knew I needed her in my life.

Adhered to the backside of each layout

Thanks so very much for stopping by!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Lisa : )

Products used:

Blue Fern Studios papers - 

for main page & leaf die cuts

Backside for under the photo

Backside for the title

Blue Fern Studios chipboard - 

Shabby Brick Bits

Symphony Corners

Blue Fern Imagine Ink embossing powder - Garnet

Spellbinders Designer Series Art Nouveau "Style Nouille" die set by Stacey Caron Design -

Tattered Lace dies - 

Ornate Leaves

Meadow Leaves

Sizzix Big Shot - 

Wild Orchid Crafts flowers - 

Red Mix Sweetheart Blossoms

Earth Tone Wild Roses 30mm

Red Mix MINI Sweetheart Blossoms

Red Mix Cottage Roses 25mm

Earth Tone Cottage Roses 25mm

Red Mix Trellis Roses 35mm

StampersAnonymous-Tim Holtz stencil - Splatters

US Artquest prills - 

Express-O Yourself (Rock & Roll set)

Third Place (Bright Ideas set)

ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink - Dark Brown

Nightfall set

Liquitex Professional Mediums - Flexible Modeling Paste & Matte Gel
1/2" Circle Punch