Experimental scrapping

This is a project I created last November, not too long after I got my Gypsy.  I did post about this on the Cricut message board (http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=5728235&mpage=1&key=&#5728235), but I want to include it here as an example of non-traditional scrapbooking.

Steve and I have 4 cats (we each had two cats when we met), and we were able to catch glimpses of them starting to get along - my Pixel with his Fe, his Katy with my Pixel, my Simoon with his Fe.  (Pixel and Fe are the youngest and the most easy-going).  For the end of our "First year of marriage album", I wanted to show these pictures and created a double 12x12 layout, using a coordinated set of cat papers from Cloud9Design.

I have difficulties mixing patterned papers.  I even bought Ali Edwards's book, A Designer's Eye 2, which helps you work with patterned papers, but I still have problems, even with papers like these that are MADE to go together.  There are small dots, circles of different sizes, words all jumbled together, etc.  That doesn't even take COLOR into account!  The saving grace with this set of papers is that they are double-sided with solids on the back.  I have used them before on other pages with the solid colors as the background, but for this set of pages I "Mixed Me Up"!

Here are the full pages:

The pens that are meant to go with the Cricut die cut machine are really thick markers.  QuicKutz has pens for their Silhouette that are thin but also happen to fit in the Cricut blade mechanism.  I used the Gypsy (the handheld design tool for the Cricut) to create the title, overlapping the letters of "Mingling" to signify how our "families" are overlapping.  The text is from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, both regular and italic, and the frame is from Home Accents.  I drew the words and frame first then cut it out using the shadow shape of the frame:

I had tried to do a bigger shadow for layering behind, but with the little nubbins in the top left and lower right, it just didn't work.  That sparked an idea, and I used differently sized pieces for mats and frames, flipping them over to use the solid side, which also flipped where the nubbins were.

Here is Pixel and Katy with the shape used as a mat:

And here is Pixel and Fe sharing a meal in a frame:

I tried to have the patterns and solids evenly distributed across both pages, which was difficult because of what paper I had left.  I believe I made it work, however!

The tag in the upper left of the second page is also from Cloud9Design (this is how they getcha - embellishments to go with the papers!  I think I bought them all...), and it reads, "Cats have it all - admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it."  That sums up this household!

Here's an update - we have had up to 3 cats sleeping with us at night, and there has still been no cross-cuddling.  It's early days, though!