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...

Get Ready for the Yeti!

I do a lot of Disneyland scrapping... I dare say it's my favorite.  We go every single year and I usually take in excess of 400 pictures (just ask my kids how annoying it is...).  My new favorite thing to say at Disneyland is "the faster you shut up and smile the quicker we can move along"...followed closely by "this is the happiest place on earth, paste a smile on your face right now and act like it!".  In reality, my kids absolutely love Disneyland and they have learned after all these years that there's no getting out of the photos no matter how bad they fight me.

The Matterhorn is a hard ride to take photos of, and it's also hard to scrapbook.  There is an awful lot of Disney stuff available for purchase, but I have yet to find embellishments meant for the Matterhorn.  So this page sent me in search of a yeti I could paper piece by hand.

I love, love, love this paper from Scenic Paper Route and I am very sad that they are no longer around.  The colors couldn't have matched the ride better if I'd manufactured them myself.  The blue snowflake ribbon came from American Crafts and matches the paper to a "T".  The white letters are from Adorn It and the snowflakes and tags are all from Making Memories.

I almost always put my pages on plain colored cardstock.  Not only is it cheaper than most patterned paper, it's going to be almost completely covered by stuff by the time I'm done.  There is no such thing as too much plain cardstock and you can't possibly ever think you have every color, because most assuredly whatever color you're looking for you won't have.  Unfortunately, it's one of those unwritten laws of the universe.

I love clear stickers, but I hate trying to make them work on a page by themselves because whatever you put them on, they get lost.  I like to use tags or other embellishments to make them stand out better.  These snowflake tags are hanging from the top of the page, almost like they're falling.  I've had the stickers for a long time, so it was fun to get to make use of them.  Besides the stickers I also had some snowflake buttons.  I cut the shank from the back and glued them on their own tag too.

But definitely the best part of this page is the yeti.  I love him!  I found this picture with a google image search and just knew he was definitely the one.  I made his fur out of fuzzy paper (I don't know who even makes this paper, but every time I find it anywhere, I buy up as much as I can--I love it and use it often!)  It is fuzzy on one side, a little like felt, only softer, and the backing is just plain paper.  I have also found fuzzy paper that is sticky-backed but I actually don't like it as well as the plain stuff.  I recommend picking some up if you ever see it.  All his other parts are just plain cardstock.  In a future post I will talk about how I paper piece these little guys by hand.  It isn't hard at all, but it takes some time.

I cut a hole for his mouth and glued the mouth and teeth behind him instead of on top to give it a little bit of proper dimension.  In this close up you can better see his fuzzy face.  I loved working on this page!  And I really love making these paper pieced items by hand--they usually turn out really cute and they are truly unique.  I can almost hear him growling...