Goings On

I had a blog post all set to go this Monday and, well, life happened. I will preface this by saying that everyone is okay. Having said that, this week, which started out normally on Monday morning, has included an overnight ER stay and some kids' school-related crises - large and small - that demanded much of my attention. Okay, all of my attention. There are weeks like that and this has been one of them. Thank you to all of the friends and family who pitched in this week, either helping with the kids or lending me an ear or a shoulder to cry on from near or far.

Now that I have caught up on all of my sleep, dealt with all follow-up and fall-out, I am going to try this blog post thing again.

August was a very busy month for me scrapbook-wise so I'm going to recap here. Please be forewarned - this is a lengthy post with lots of layouts/cards and links. Lots. It's good stuff, though, I promise! :)

First up, I guest taught at:

 
Debbie Hodge has put together an amazing site with terrific teaching and inspiration. August was a "Smorgasboard" issue and I participated, along with Celeste Smith and Erin Clayton, in the "Clean and Simple Pages" feature. It was terrific fun to do, and my favorite part was chatting with everyone during the webinar. The issue is available in the archives for those of you who missed it. I was lucky enough to be asked back to participate in September's "Design Play" issue, which debuts tomorrow. The best part? I got to participate along with two of my fellow amazing Denver-area paper scrappers (there are a lot of us here!): Emily Pitts and Lisa Dickinson. The three of us were joined by digital designers Kayleigh Wiles and Amy Mallory.

On August 1, the Write.Click.Scrapbook. August gallery launched with a "No Photos Required" theme. I created a layout about my childhood penpals. 

There are lots of other great "no photos required" inspiration layouts in the gallery - I highly recommend checking it out here.

I contributed to the October Afternoon and May Arts product swap blog post on August 3 with this layout (and yes, I misted, and I've been misting a lot since then):

On August 5, I did a "Summer Reading" post at Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog. The timing of the post coincided with the arrival of the new October Afternoon Sidewalks collection and enabled me to make a very cool layout and an equally cool project (if I do say so myself!). I'll post the layout here, but you'll have to go to the blog post at Write.Click.Scrapbook. to see my project. :)

On August 15, I posted a (video, filmed by my 9-year-old) tutorial on the October Afternoon blog, featuring a quick and easy invitation/card design:

On August 20, I was back with an "In the Back Yard" post at the Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog. The post has three layouts, but I'll share my favorite here, which features the Hometown Summer collection from Collage Press Studio/Pink Paislee. (You know the drill...go to the Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog post I linked at the top of this paragraph to see the other two layouts. :))

On August 29, I participated in Amy Heller's challenge on the October Afternoon blog, with a layout on everyday travel:

I was back on the October Afternoon blog on August 31, with a layout for the feature showcasing the new Little Flyers stickers (which I love). This may be my new favorite layout:

Last but not least, the Write.Click.Scrapbook. September gallery, "Books & Reading," launched today with this contribution from me (along with lots of fabulous layouts from members of the collective):

I'm now playing around with some new goodies that arrived this week during what I will refer to as the "late August 2011 crisis" (still working on theme music a la CNN). I've been coveting summer product releases from several companies, and now have new Bella Blvd and Jillibean Soup in hand. They are almost too fun/pretty to cut up. Almost...

So, if you've made it all the way to the end of this very long post, thank you, and please keep your fingers crossed for me that September will be a more normal month!