My First ever "Border Swap"

My VERY scrappy friend, Leah, invited me to join her and 2 of her crafty friends in a "border swap".  We each create 4 of the following: a 3" border, at least one photo mount, and embellishments to complete a 2 pg layout.  Once a month, we'll have a swap -- and come home with three, double page layouts, plus our own.  I'm hoping this will give me a jump start in my overwhelming gallery of photos I have to scrap!  I went ahead and put my layout together, with it's card stock backing, stamping, etc., because I wanted to take it along to show how I intended to finish the layouts.  Here they are!

First I stamped the background 12x12" sheets of bashful blue cardstock, with Serene Snowflakes and white craft ink.  To make the borders, I cut two strips of Baja Breeze card stock in a wavy pattern, then tore strips of white card stock and layered them on, overlapping each strip slightly.  Then, I used my two-way glue pen and outlined each layer, then dumped Dazzling Diamonds glitter over -- so much sparkle!

For the SNOW letters, I adhered (retired) designer paper to chipboard, using the Big Shot Multipurpose adhesive sheets, then cut them out using the Serif Essentials Alphabet Bigz dies.  To make the "snowball letters" on the other side, I stamped the letters in Early Espresso and Real Red on white cardstock, punched them out with a 1" punch, adhered them to the layout, and then added a little border of Dazzling Details glue around the outsides to make a glittery snow ball.
I wanted to add a journaling element, so I cut out a little envelope using the Scallop Envelope die, and then folded a little strip of white card stock with a red ribbon pull, and put it into the envelope as a "pull out tag" to journal on.  I used the retired slit punch to make a "flap" to secure the folded tag.

The big snowflake is made using the Snowflake #2 die, layered Baja Breeze and Whisper white -- with three sparkly rhinestones in the center.  The little snow flakes, are from the Norther Frost decorative strip die.  They help tie the whole layout together, I think.
Last, but not least, that adorable singing reindeer in the lower right corner, is Jackie Topa's masterpc -- isn't he the cutest!!!  You can learn all about him here: Jackie Topa's singing reindeer card
One final side shot for the road!  Hope you feel inspired to try a little scrapping yourself!