Use Your Paper Features - Ribbon

I find it helpful to really take advantage of the features of my scrapbook papers, and I'll be talking about a trick I used here in a minute.  First, though, let's talk about the punching. 

The background paper on this page came in a scrapbooking kit.  It wasn't a full 8 1/2 x 11, so I trimmed it a bit so it would fit on a plain green paper that had been punched with corner punches from EK Success Card Creators line of punches ("Basket Weave" is the one used here).  Before inserting the page, I cut a hole in the green paper in such a way that it would be hidden once the page was in place (I often do this when placing a large photo on a page - no point in wasting all that paper behind it that no one will see, and this gives me more of the paper to use for embellishments!).  I punched the corners of this and cut these punched pieces to create the faux corners on the photo and it's white mat.  I also used this piece and a Nestability die to cut and emboss the piece used for the title (I hand-lettered the title and drew around the embossing with a pen as I often do).  I then cut a bow from it to be used later.

The trickiest part of this page is the ribbon going across the photo near the bottom.  This was a part of the paper!  I just took an exacto knife and cut along both edges of the "ribbon" leaving some of it un-cut at the edges, but making room to slip the photo (and its mat) in behind it.  Before slipping the photo behind the ribbon, I took the little bow shape I had cut from the leftover piece of green and attached it and a little white flower with a green brad to my paper ribbon as shown.