Spring Swing Step x Step Tutorial

This is one of my favorite layouts  I'm showing you today. I created it for my 2nd term debut on the American Crafts blog.  It was a labor of love, from designing the cutting file to testing the cuts to popping different patterns behind the cuts and so on and so forth.  I read all the love on the American Crafts blog and I enjoyed reading all the emails that were sent asking for tips on how to recreate it.  THANK YOU! That said, I thought I'd share a tutorial to help you make a similar layout, if you so choose.

To create this layout, I did the following:

1. I purchased 3 different flowers from the Silhouette store and then made them into different sizes.
2. I flipped and turned them and arranged them all so that they would fit in the upper 2/3 of my page and within the pre-printed border.  
3. Tip: I used the slicing tool on the flowers at the bottom and cut them each along a line so that I could add a border to cover the seam and not have holes cutting out under the border.
4. Next, I did a text cut on a scrap 12x12 sheet. 
5. Once I had everything where I wanted it, I made the final cut on the pre-printed 12x12 paper.
6. I added a border over the bottom of the flowers.
7. Next, here's three ideas to help you back the die cut flowers:
1. Use one sheet of paper and adhere it using pop dots.
2. You can do what I did. I made all the cuts in the top paper and then I used the cuts that I popped out from the paper and used them as a guide, cutting the background paper just slightly larger than the die cut. I then adhered some direct to the back of the paper using liquid adhesive and others were adhered to the back with pop dots.
3. Lastly, you could offset the cuts on your die cut machine and make them slightly bigger and cut the patterned background papers with your machine. You could then adhere some direct to the back of the paper using liquid adhesive and others were adhered to the back with pop dots.
8. Once all the flowers are backed, adhere a 12x12 scrap piece of paper to the back so that you can easily insert it in your page protector.
9. Lastly, embellish the flowers, add photos, title and journaling.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. If you create a similar layout, I hope you'll share it with me here on my blog or send me an email with a link. I love to see different versions. It makes my heart happy!