Featuring: Chili Pepper Grid Paper and Diamond Border Die Set
Tell Your Story: Derby Diamond
For our Tell Your Story feature this month our die is the new Diamond Border Die Set which comes in three sizes, 1×2, 1×3 and 1×5 strips. Also featured is our Chili Pepper Grid Paper which is a bright, warm red that works perfectly with the patterned papers that I chose just because the Kentucky Derby was a prominent feature in their design and the subject of my story.
The Kentucky Derby is one of those events we rarely miss. I suppose my interest began as a child when our family traveled in Kentucky and visited a horse farms and racetrack. Late in the afternoon on the first Saturday in May we’d gather around the TV to catch the “Run for the Roses,” the Kentucky Derby. When my daughter Libby and I were headed to Texas our path ran right by Churchill Downs and it seemed only appropriate to stop and take a look around.
For this layout I have a large 7”square piece of poster art that I wanted to include. A souvenir of our travels. To accommodate the piece it meant adjusting the sizes of the other photos I would be using. Being able to include the featured die Diamond Border and the Garden Path Die were important to me. So my first page departs entirely from our patterns in the gallery.
Because the race is known as the “Run for the Roses” the Garden Path Die suits the rose theme. Patterned papers from the Graphic 45 “Off to the Races” included patterns and cards that also carried the theme and complimented the Chili Pepper Grid Paper.
My second page began with Pattern #251 a strip pattern. I had a large panoramic photo of the entrance to the track I wanted to use. The rest of my photos are 3.5” x 5” so filling the 1” grid was going to be a challenge. I chose to use the three end squares to place another section of diamond border. The vertical space was adjusted to the photo and to match the photo on page 1. The 1×4 block is increased to 2×4 and used for journaling.
It was important to me to have a place to safely save the poster artwork from our trip. It had been displayed on my board, but I wanted a more permanent place and using it in this layout served that purpose. Plus it adds to the memory with place and date in a very creative way.
If you have special memorabilia from travels you’ve taken perhaps you’ll consider giving them a prominent place in one of our layouts.
As I’m writing this post the derby race will be this upcoming weekend and we’ll likely be watching to see all the pomp and splendor as twenty horses file into the gates for the annual Run for the Roses. My memories will return to the time my family first camped in the Blue Grass state, visited a horse farm and race track just to see those magnificent animals as they ran the track. Where my brother and I thought picking up the many colorful tickets of discarded hopes and dreams was the greatest thing going. Fond memories indeed of old and now newer ones made with my daughter.
Keep your memories alive in a layout and Tell Your Story about a family tradition.
Andrea Fisher