Cousins - Sketch N Scrap's 13th Bday's Bash Sketch #1

Hello, everyone! Happy Saturday to you! I hope your weekend is off to a good start. It's looking like it's going to be a beautiful one here in SW Missouri. I think we will be spending lots of time outside enjoying it!

We are celebrating Sketch N Scrap's 13th birthday with a new sketch every Saturday in May, and since last week was iNSD, that means today is the first of four new birthday bash sketches.

Here is a look at the sketch:

And this is what I came up with:

This is my second layout for Sketch N Scrap this month, and the second layout that is a "then and now" type of layout! I didn't intend for it to be that way; those were just the photos that were speaking to me.

This layout is about the special bond Shane has with his cousin, JT. JT has always looked past Shane's autism to see Shane for who he is. Shane has always gravitated towards JT because of that. He has never been afraid to rough-house and play with Shane. Even though Shane has a hard time communicating, JT seems to understand what he needs. I wish more people could see Shane like JT does. It is definitely a special bond.

The photo on the left was taken in 2008, and the one on the right was taken on Easter this year. It had been a long time since Shane had seen JT, and before we left Shane walked up to JT, ready for a big bear hug and a bit of rough-housing. 

I will add some hidden journaling talking about the special bond these two have behind the photos or one of the paper layers.

I used one of the layout kits that I put together for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash this month. I'm pretty sure I cut into every paper in the kit, used some of the stickers, and the metal star dies that were in my kit. There's not much to put back in my stash, and that makes me so happy!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I printed off the "a special bond" phrase on a piece of vellum on the computer and layered it over the alpha stickers.

Lots of stars on this layout, but JT is definitely a star in our book!

Be sure to check out Sketch N Scrap for inspiration all month long.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!