It feels tremendously good to bring a new project to the table for once rather than just tiny snippets of my day to day life. In maneuvering the schedule, I was able to take a couple of moments over the weekend and dedicate them to crafting. And even though this particular subject matter, "Swimming", is ancient news, the layout simply had to be made. At one point, just prior to finishing the layout, the photo dissappeared. Ethan stole it and adhered it onto a project he'd been working on. Thankfully, he adhered it to paper and I was able to remove it in a safe and sufficient manner. Laugh. He loves to sneak into my scrapbook room when I'm not looking....
I was so sad upon hearing that Sassafras was closing their doors as a "product producer". Over the years, I've managed to collect a sizable pile of Sassafras wares, including their felted embellishments. This cute lil' strawberry is of their making - I tucked it inside the opening of a K & Company die-cut frame. The jellie on top is KI Memories.
There might now be a lot of "water" showing here, but the blue flowers more than make-up for the lapse in aqua-friendly embellishments and papers. Once again, these stitched cuties are from Sassafras. Carefully deciding how best to use them since they've officially been retired.
A great, trendy Summer-ish font from American Crafts - the layout didn't quite call for a large title - didn't want to compete the photo or the colassal number of embellishments already dominating the layout.
I took to making these paper strips from October Afternoon's latest pattern papers. They're layered with mini-picketed Vanilla strips that are hand-trimmed with the help of a decorative fiskars scissors. I tacked them down with both adhesive and olivine button-like brads.If you're wondering what the pattern paper is with the half circles, that would be October Afternoon as well. A fave pattern of mine right now...
These plastic transparency circles aren't necessarily noticable from a distance. I thought I'd give you a closer look at them to see how I went about adding them to the layout. Above and below them are circles of various sizes. I stapled them down with Ranger's mini staples.
In working with a signifigant number of circles like I've done, my best advice is to start with the largest size circle first and progressively work your way down. It's a lot easier to position small sized circles around larger sized ones rather than the other way around. The large circles also are great for dictating movement and direction. Using them as guide in deciding future locations for the remaining circles and embellishments makes the process of creating a balanced composition a breeze! Work in odd numbers, repeat patterns, and always pick a direction!
Moving along to another topic, I attended a long-time friend's wedding this weekend. It was absolutely spectacular as the wedding venue sat right next to the roaring Mississippi. The sky surrounding the area was of a golden hue because on the constant stream of leaves falling from the trees and also, the sun was just setting along the horizon line. The attendees that I dined with were insanely fun - I made some wonderful new friends and wouldn't you know it, they're from New York City!! Maybe someday I'll get over there now...the bride was a best friend of mine from high school. I hadn't seen her in seven years!! We've plans to get together before she leaves on Wednesday. I can hardly wait to find out what she's been up to....too long since we last chatted!!
I'll bring wedding images to you either tomorrow or the following day - for now, I'll leave you with the new project and allow myself to rest for an hour! So good to hear from you!! Thank-you for all the kind words..appreciate your support :)
