Autumn Leaves

You got to just love this new paper from Basic Grey called Indian Summer. The palette is so diverse you can make so many different styles of layouts from it. The line is filled with black browns, oranges, reds, pinks - including fushia!. This layout is featured this week at Scrapbooks-Plus as their Wednesday Make-and-Take two page layout combo. One of the pages in this layout was designed by Basic Grey. The instructions can be picked up at the store on Wednesday. Just be mindful that Basic Grey instructions often have errors, so I have identified those errors and corrected them for you. The second page is my design to compliment the first page. It includes the make-and-take (below). It is a small date tag (or you could journal on it - just not much!). The leaves were punched using three Martha Stewart leaf punches. You'll use a Krylon leafing pen to add the gold.

Make and Take - Mango Style!

Scrapbooks-Plus is celebrating their 9th anniversary in business the last week of August. In their celebration week, they have a variety of specials at the store, including special discounts on certain products - a different special each day - as well as daily make-and-takes, classes, and more. Tuesday August 28 is my day for a make-and-take; I'm also teaching my "Dog Days of Summer " class that night. The make-and-take that I designed is a simple tag, using Mango Luau paper from Bo Bunny and Doodlebug ribbon. The special discount on Tuesday is on all acrylic stamps in the store, so I've used an Imaginisce stamp on my tag - the flip flops - to a way to use stamps on projects.

To compliment the free make-and-take, I've designed a two page layout to show how to use tags as journaling block on layouts. I will put a few page kits for sale as well - complete with all the papers you'll need to complete the layout along with color instructions. The cool thing about this layout is how I got the LONG sticker title to be straight without having to draw a line on my background (something I HATE to do!!)

I used my Tim Holtz clear center ruler to attach the bottom half of the letters with the top half hanging off. This allowed me to line them all up (with no lines!). When I got them all on, I placed them where I wanted them on the layout and pressed them down. I then carefully (released the bottom half from the ruler) and pushed them down...perfectly straight!!

The Big Easy

A wedding in Lafayette, Louisiana this weekend gave my husband and I, along with a few of our good friends, the opportunity to party a little in the Big Easy. New Orleans is such a fun town. From Bourbon Street and the French Quarter to the garden district and the wonderful shopping, we had such a good time. Here we are after a HOT walk down Canal street to the Mississippi River for lunch (which would have been a lot cooler had we stayed at the hotel!).

I'm waiting for our friend Kinga to send all of her pictures of us out on Bourbon Street on Thursday night. Those photos should really be interesting!!!

Here's Kinga showing off one of those masks we saw along Canal Street for sale.

Of course the wedding two and a half hours away out in Cajun country along the Atchafayla Swamp, was a way different experience as well. (I have never seen a seven-tiered wedding cake before in my life!!)


It was a beautiful ceremony and a reception party like none I have been to before either. Quite the experience - a really good time with great food and ambiance.

On the Shore

We left on Friday for our annual trek to Bald Head Island - a lovely barrier island at the mouth of the Cape Fear river south of Wilmington, NC. We have been coming here since 1994, and although the community here changes, the beauty of the nature here never does. I did bring some scrapping stuff (just in case of rain), and plan to work on my beachcomber book a bit. Meanwhile, we've been enjoying the beach with the kids and the dog. I have taken a ton of pictures, so I'll have plenty to do evenings! . And, this is the first year that we've stayed in a house with internet access (albeit slow!) so I can post if I want - although I'm sure I'll be checking work email more than posting!

Beach Comber Book

I've had this idea for a project for a while now, but only when Scrapbooks-Plus had all this Creative Imaginations product left over from the make and take layouts did I began to pull it together. It is not finished yet, as I am still decorating the inside pages. I do plan to do this as a class the last Saturday of August. And I may sell kits - depending how challenged I become in getting it all together. I have two other classes (layouts) scheduled in August, so we'll see if I can get kits together or not! This will be my first "project" that I've taught. Hopefully it will go well!

The book, which is an altered hardback novel, has 30 pages inside that you can fill with your photos and journalling. We are leaving for vacation in two weeks, and I would like to get another one of these together to take along as my photo journal for the trip. That way I'll have two samples for the class - one will be complete with photos and the other blank (the blank one will be the store sample which I will have at the front on display sometime this week - definitely by the weekend!)
Hope you like it!
Sharon