Baseball: The Greatest Game in the World

Inspiration: January 2024 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory Challenge #705 (Favorite Tool = Sewing Machine)

My sister brought baseball tickets for her spouse's birthday and they sent me this picture of them enjoying the game. I knew it would be perfect to go with the Home Run collection from Carta Bella. I always love Steven Duncan's design style, even though I do find it hard to design with his patterned papers sometimes, as they tend to all have patterns that are the same scale and pretty busy. 

I picked a navy page from the Solids Paper Pack and I added my favorite paper for the main block: the pile of baseballs. I picked the red stripes for the side panel and included another favorite, the pattern with all of the typed quotes, to do a punched border. I decided then that I would like to ink some of the edges with Antique Linen Distress ink. I did not like the stark edge between the two, so I added navy washi tape there.

The next pieces I added were fussy cut from patterned paper. I added three blocks at the top to mimic the banners from the sketch, and I included the vintage ticket next to the picture because I thought it was really cool. I matted the picture with the green solid cardstock. 

I went to my sewing machine and, using navy thread, I ran a few lines of stitching on three sides of the large panel, following the sketch. I was not sure if I wanted to keep the hanging thread or not, but decided it went well with the grungy look of the line. I found this really cool Baseball sticker on the cardstock sticker sheet and really liked the like over the top of my picture, so I slid a piece of navy patterned paper underneath, added the large ball from the sticker sheet and popped up the sentiment on foam adhesive, and I decided this would serve as my title. 

I did need to find a place to add my journaling, though, so I decided to type it in red on manilla paper. I did try to use paper from the line but Carta Bella's cardstock is so thick, it just would not roll around the barrel of the typewriter, so i changed plans and went to my scrap bin and found something from another line that fit perfectly. (It's an old paper from My Mind's Eye and the colour is a perfect match). 

On a side note, I recently someone show how she decided to trim her leftover papers and cardstock to size and place them in a bin that she would place on her desk to pick from when she is designing projects. I liked the idea and I also happened to find a YouCopia divided bin on sale at Michaels recently and it works perfectly for this since I'm able to slide the dividers in the bin where I want them and have my different colours separated. It definitely came in handy here since I looked in the neutrals section and found exactly what I needed in a flash.

I was missing the date, so I went to my smaller alphabet stickers and found a red sticker set from Stampin' Up! that used to be part of their early pocket page kit collections. I used the numbers to write the date and added some enamel dots between the month and year. I'm pretty sure those enamel dots used to be white and they certainly cannot be called that anymore, but the yellowing made it perfect for this page. I also used Stampin' Up!'s resin stars, as their colours fit this line perfectly.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Solids Paper Pack, Cardstock Stickers: Home Run (Steven Duncan for Carta Bella)
Ink: Antique Linen Distress (Ranger)
Accessories: Round Binding Edge Border Punch (EK Tools); Sewing Machine;
Resin Star Embellishments, Stampin' Dimensionals, Designer Elements, Playing with Patterns Resin Dots,
Santa's Workshop Enamel Dots (Stampin' Up!); Mini Blending Tool (Studio Light);
Typewriter (We R Memory Makers); Washi Tape (Me and My Big Ideas)

 

Comments

[Sandy]

I love your baseball Layout. Great colour combination! I think the sewing machine is a great tool for our challenge! Thanks for sharing with us at Lasting Memories Layout Challenges!!!

[Cheryl E.]

Loved reading your description about the process you went through to create this layout, and you certainly did a fabulous job picking the right papers and embellishments for the page. The machine stitching was the perfect finishing touch, too. Thanks for playing along with us at Lasting Memories this month.