Hey Mister

Do you know that purple, green, and gold are the traditional colors of Mardi Gras? Purple represents justice. Green represents faith. And gold represents power. I know from experience that the colors of Mardi Gras are not the easiest to find in patterned papers, so when I discovered 2/3rds of them in the Oh Snap! kit from Scraptastic, an idea was born. By adding a few purple flowers to the yellow and green papers, stickers, and rub-ons in the kit, I was able to scrap these fun photos of my youngest before the parades on "Fat Tuesday".

As usual, I cut up my patterned papers so that the remaining portions could be allotted to other pages. That green border is just that...a border cut slightly larger than the yellow and both are adhered to a plain piece of cardstock. That way I don't waste an entire sheet of patterned paper and I am free to use the middle on another layout.

I had the idea to bring a little more purple to my page by cutting the title from cardstock covered with washi tape. The washi tape from my stash was a great shade of Mardi Gras purple. I laid out 5 or 6 rows of tape and ran it through my die-cutting machine.The idea worked and the paper/tape combo cut like butter. This is a technique I'm sure to use on future projects. 

Before I go, here's an interesting story about how Mardi Gras influenced the color choices of rival universities, LSU and Tulane. Supposedly, stores in the New Orleans area had stocked up on purple, green, and gold fabric in anticipation of the Mardi Gras season. Around this same time, LSU was deciding on its colors. They chose purple and gold and bought up much of the stock of these colored fabrics. Tulane then bought much of the fabric in the remaining color-green. (Tulane's colors are blue and green.) Sounds like a tall tale to me, but I'll go with it anyway.

Stay tuned, because I have one more page completed with the Oh Snap! kit...and it is the most colorful yet!