I made a page just to use some feathers

Trends are funny. Since this weekend is CHA, trends are going to be lighting up the message boards. I look forward to seeing what will be on trend this year.

Some trends I end up liking a lot. I love wood veneer, especially arrows. It took me a while to warm up to epoxy dots, but I'm finally there, especially now that they are different shapes. Mists and templates? Love it.

Some trends, though, perplex me. Take feathers, for example. They were everywhere last year: wood veneer, die cuts, paper, even actual feathers. I got them with some kits, so I had to figure out how to use them.

Now, I'm not a literal scrapper. I don't feel the need to scrap with feathers only if I'm scrapbooking birds. Heck, I love butterflies on pages about my boys since both are active and playful. Still, what kind of symbolic significance do feathers hold? Light, delicate, fashionable...not my boys. *sigh* Every now and then I put a feather on a page, thinking it might symbolize stories (you know, quills write stories...). Then I found the photos of myself as a child in front of the chicken coop my grandparents painted with the grandkids' names, and I knew what to do with some of the feathers. Here's the page:

You can see I started with my chicken wire misting template--I mean, if you're going literal with theme, go all out, right? Then I used my Studio Calico kit Cuppa to design the page. I added some SC die cut feathers left over from an old kit--not all of the feathers, but a few here and there but to add some plumage to the page. (I'm trying hard not to scatter bird puns all over in this post. Sorry. Couldn't help myself that one time.) Not the details:

I'll admit I don't often know what to do when I get seam binding in a kit. It's too thin to lay down straight--it's see-though--so I folded it into a ruffle as I lightly adhered it and stitched it down into a random ruffle. I love it.

This is the coop--if you look to the left of me in the grass, you'll see my nickname "Jenner" painted into the grass. The purpose for the page! Framed, of course, by four feathers.

I had some feathers left over, which someone in my scrapbooking group suggested I use on a page about Thanksgiving. I hadn't been planning to do a page about Thanksgiving, but finishing off the feathers made it worth it. Here's that page:

I now only have some wood veneer feathers left. I'm planning a trip to the raptor center sometime this winter to use up some of those babies, then will probably give the rest to a girlfriend who raises--you guessed it--chickens.

I'm curious: Have you ever made a page or done something just so you could use a scrapbooking product?