Jackson's pineapple, slime-making luau this Saturday was a big success! We had pineapple and strawberry cupcakes, luau decorations galore, sweet and sour chicken, lots of friends and family, and one super happy 11-year-old. As a mom I always enjoy making their birthdays as special as possible and seeing them so happy and being celebrated gives me a case of the warm and fuzzies!
One of Jackson's favorite and most memorable birthdays was his 6th birthday when his teacher did a lot to make him feel special on his special day. The part he liked the most was that he got to wear a birthday crown all day. I would totally be down for wearing a birthday crown all day too!
Jackson also got a big birthday surprise when he found out I was the special guest reader for the day. I arrived with his favorite book to read to his class (Hot Rod Hamster) and some cupcakes. The added bonus for me was that I was able to capture some cute pictures of him at school in his birthday crown.
I really wanted to highlight my favorite picture of him so I went big. BIG, big with an 8 x 10" photo.
On of the easiest ways to design when using an 8 x 10" photo is to create a block that has the same 10" height as the photo and connect them together to create one large block that has equal margins around the whole layout. (1" from each edge.)
On the large block I added some smaller photos, banner strips to fit the birthday theme, and my title.
I added the journaling and a few embellishments to the bottom corner of the 8 x 10" photo. That is another awesome thing about using such larger photos, you almost always have some room to add some embellishments or other elements on top of the photo.
Do you ever use enlarged photos on your layouts?
Is there a particular punch you use on the banner strips?
I adore this layout!!