And then...

Today's challenge over at jessicasprague.com was about journaling, specifically to start with the words, "And then."  Well, that could lead to anything really!  I decided to take a look at our pictures from this past weekend when we were blessed to have some decent weather.  Of course, we took a lot of pictures of AJ and he did happen to turn 5 months old, so how perfect!

Aside from taking pictures, we had a great weekend by getting outside as much as we could.  We planted our vegetable garden and Matt did some general work around the yard while AJ and I played outside under the shade of his sun hut!  We took long walks and visited with friends- again, outside as much as possible.  We are all very anxious to have some more summer-like weather!

Enjoy the page - I created it using "A Walk in the Park" by Echo Park.

A little about behind the page.  I decided to draw the tree using the free-hand pen tool, then applied a paper, and a pattern texture (with low opacity).  I knew I wanted to use a lot of fun and bright patterns to make the page as cheery as the day, so I offset the different sections by bordering the elements of the page with solid color, as well as adding small details in the dark brown color to give the pages some "flow".  I really wanted the bird and tree to "pop" so I choose to use the bevel and emboss functions rather than just applying drop shadows to them.