Build a Bear Birthday

When the ONLY thing she wanted for her birthday was a new friend from Build a Bear, it made it super easy to fulfill her wish.  During our time in the store while she was making her new friend, I took lots and lots of pictures.  This was a very fun page to put together!

 The Build-A-Bear slogan (where best friends are made) is printed on a transparency, as is a cute little poem I found about building your very own friend that is on the page below.

It may not be that obvious, but the bottom two pages are shorter than the first two by about 2 inches. They are intended to go back to back in the middle of the layout, and by cutting them short, when the page is turned you can still see the title on the next two pages.  So when you turn that short middle page, this is what the first page looks like:

So you actually can't see the word "birthday", but the "Build-a-Bear" letters are actually raised on pop dots, and I needed the page to be just a little taller so I could fit all the pictures.

The paper I used for this page was some actual Build a Bear paper that I stumbled upon.  I added some Pebbles Inc. paper to go with it and bring in a bit more pattern.  The stitching and stitched letters on the page are rub-ons from DCWV, lest you think I used my sewing machine to make them.  Aside from the ribbon and slides, everything else is hand made.  Other than the paper, I couldn't find Build-A-Bear specific embellishments.

The bear and title letters were made using a pattern I printed off the company's website.  It took some time to hand cut the letters, but I really wanted it to be their actual logo if possible.  The bear is made out of fuzzy paper, just like the yeti in this post .

The little pictures in the slides are actually pictures I took of the signs hanging in the store.  I printed them slide sized because they were just too cute to leave off the page.

I made these tags using a tag template and I cute them from chipboard and covered them with paper, wrapping it around the back so the sides are covered too.  The little yellow pictures I put on the tags are some cute little bears I found online (they looked just like they do in the pictures with the words and everything).  I don't remember if they came from the Build-a-Bear site or somewhere else, but I sized them down and used them to make these decorated tags.  It was a great way to use a variety of ribbon, buttons, paper and fibers that added a lot to the page once it was finished.

My favorite thing about making all these handmade items is that it makes scrapbooking a much cheaper hobby!  When you have to spend 4-8 dollars buying specialty embellishments and they all go on one page, it makes for a super expensive scrapbook...(Not that I don't buy these things, because I totally do.)

When all else fails, look online.  You'll be surprised at what you can find to use when you can't find anything else...