Blog Hops with Heart celebrated our one year anniversary in January…AND we missed it! But it is better to celebrate late than to not celebrate at all, so for our hop this month we are creating anniversary themed projects! You would have come from Amie Kiger’s blog if you started at the beginning of the blog hop, but you can still make your way around the entire hop by clicking the link at the bottom of my post.

For my project today I thought it would be fun to document older photos of my husband and myself from when we were dating. We went on our first date 15 years ago and these are some of the first photos we had taken as a couple. And seriously, 15 YEARS?! How does time go by so quickly?! We were 18 years old and fresh out of high school when we went on our first date. We worked at the same restaurant (I was a waitress, he was a cook) but we had known each other since we were little….growing up in a small town will do that for you! We ran in different circles in high school, but knew each other and would say hi in passing. Mutual friends set us up on a double date and the rest is history. Andy hasn’t aged a bit, but I sure have! HA!

The photos I planned on using were taken before digital was a thing or at least before it was popular. I didn’t have the negatives and jpegs of these photos don’t exist so I snapped photos of the photos to convert the images to black and white using Picmonkey. This way the photos are cohesive and flow together well on the layout. The originals are a wide range of colors and never would have mixed well together without converting them to B&W.

For my title I used the chipboard sentiment, Happy Heart, from the Crate Paper-Maggie Holmes-Chasing Dreams Collection. The sentiment is large and large pieces can sometimes be a little overwhelming to me. It can be tricky finding a place for these large pieces on a layout, but because my photos are so small I needed large elements to help fill the page.

I started with a black polka dot patterned paper from Maggie Holmes Gather Collection. I also grabbed a few die cuts from the Pink Paislee Oh My Heart Collection designed by Paige Evans & white Baker’s Twine from CTMH. After I had all of the main elements I went to work putting the layout together.

I positioned the title just slightly off center on the Maggie Holmes patterned paper. I added three strands of white Baker’s Twine above and below the photos and used my CTMH mini stapler to secure the strands to the page. I then added a couple floral die cuts from the Paige Evans Oh My Heart Collection. For a little added dimension I also added a floral sticker from the Oh My Heart Thickers sheet.

For final touches I added a few dipped wood veneer hearts from Pinkfresh Studio and an adorable puffy bird sticker from Hip Kit Club that I’ve been hoarding! I heated embossed the dates on vellum using white embossing powder and adhered the date to each photo. Vellum can be a bit tricky to adhere because pretty much all adhesive shows through, but I’ve found that using my Xyron Sticker Maker does the trick!

I did record a process video for this layout and will be posting it soon! Be sure to check back or subscribe to my YouTube Channel so you don’t miss it!

Thanks for joining us on our “{Oops We Missed Our} Anniversary” Blog Hop. Now it is time to head to Becca Whitham’s blog and I have no doubt she will WOW you!

-Kelly