Press on to Win ~ a layout

In 1948, my father was nine years old when my granddad took him to see the summer olympics in London. As the story goes, my father was so moved by the events that he decided then and there that he would one day compete in the Olympic Games. Already a natural athlete, he worked hard and eventually competed internationally in the 400 meter hurdles for Britain. He was to compete in the 1960 games in Rome, but injury prevented him from realizing his dream. He was never bitter and ever thankful for the experiences that he did have.

With Father’s Day tomorrow, I decided to make something for my father even though he is no longer with us. I wanted to pay tribute to the athlete that he was and scanned some photos of him to create a layout recognizing his athleticism and his faith – both very much a part of who he was.

I used this week’s sketch at Practical Scrappers, but turned it sideways to fit my vision. I knew that I wanted to use pennants for the letters of “PRESS ON” and wasn’t sure how I would make them look as one unit. Ribbon just wasn't the look I wanted.  I was really bothered by what to do and then saw the challenge at Frosted Designs to use something from around the house. I think that I was so focussed on what I knew I wanted that I couldn’t see outside of the box on this until I was encouraged to do so. I immediately thought of a wooden skewer and knew that was it! I painted it silver to match the colour scheme of my layout and am so pleased with the results. Thanks Frosted Designs!!

The pennants were cut using Everyday Paper Dolls and the font used for the pennants was Makin’ the Grade. I used Design Studio to cut the letters right out of the pennants themselves. I used a Clear Star Gelly Roll pen inside the letters. For the large pennant in the top right corner, I used Design Studio to add some stars from Home Decor. I hid some contours to add more than just the image given. I outlined the stars with the Gelly Roll pen. I then took the cut stars and put them in the bottom left corner and the loose stars were placed in the larger border, which I had previously embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The letters for “TO win” were cut using Printing Press. I used my Gelly Roll pen on “TO” and embossed the “win” letters. The photo corners are from Jasmine and were also embossed. The information under the main photo was computer generated. The letter pennants are popped and then glued onto the skewer. The large pennant, the “win” letters and the top layer of the information were all popped as well.

I will submit this layout at Fantabulous Cricut, where this week’s challenge was to create a masculine project to celebrate dear dad. I will also enter it at The Cuttlebug Spot, where we were encouraged to use embossing on our layouts this week. As well, it will be submitted at Practical Scappers (sketch) and Frosted Designs (use something from around the house).

Happy Father's Day Dad!  You were and are a star - in more ways than one. xox