Got My Hands on the New Scenic Route

I love the colors in the Surprise line! I haven't done a birthday layout or card with the papers yet, but my photos of Sadie playing basketball were a perfect match with the Surprise color scheme:


And, in true Vivian minimalist style, I used a couple of the Sonoma papers to make this card:


I am trying to get back into the habit of scrapping regularly and posting here regularly but this whole going-back-to-work-full-time transition has been a little more challenging than I had anticipated! I'm hoping that once Eli's back in school next week things will become a little more routine around here and I'll be able to get that work-life balance back.

October Afternoon Catalog

Okay, so I don't post for weeks and now I've got two posts in one day. :) October Afternoon has their new product catalog up on the website. I am so in love with Weathervane. Fall is my favorite season and I can't wait to use this line to get caught up scrapping the gazillion fall photos I took last year!

It's Been A Long Time

Sorry about that. Life sometimes gets crazy. We went on a week-long vacation to the UC Berkeley family camp with extended family and then I came back to a crazy two weeks at work, filled with eleven hour days (it's summer institute time for teachers). There's been a wee bit of scrapping amidst all of this, but I've got nothing final to show just yet. Things should be back to normal sometime this weekend. At least that's my hope.

New Favorite Layout

I don't know which I like better, the bright colors or the fact that I was able to make a dent (albeit a small one ;) in my Thickers stash!


Every Fourth of July weekend we go to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival here in Denver. An entire neighborhood's worth of streets are blocked off and filled with artists displaying and selling their work. Of course, in the four years we've lived here I've never been able to look at the artists' booths since we spend the entire time on the kids' street. The kids' street is filled with giant tents sponsored by the Children's Museum, the zoo, etc. Each tent is filled with tables and volunteers are available to help kids create anywhere from 4-6 different art projects in each tent. It's rare that we manage more than 6 projects total - the kids get so involved in their work that it's hard to convince them to move on to the next project. In addition to working on the communal mural seen in the layout above, the kids made yarn dolls. Of course, Eli had to do his own thing (with some tying assistance from mom and dad), hence the world's very first Darth Vader yarn doll, complete with red light saber:


I swear, I don't know where this kid gets his ideas!

Soon

I will have more new October Afternoon to post soon, but probably not this week. Just wanted to update all of you!

Some More Hometown...

Did another layout. This one uses that polka dot paper that I love plus a cut-out bit from a journaling card ("newsworthy") and word strips cut from the Norm's News newsprint paper. Hoping to have more new lines to show you tomorrow :)

Color Combo Challenge #80 Guest Designer

I was honored to have been asked to be this week's guest designer for the Color Combo Challenge. The colors in this week's challenge really pushed me to think outside of my usual scrapping comfort zone. I'm so grateful that I participated because I ended up with a layout that I love!

Here are the colors I was asked to work with, inspired by the Ink Coffee website:


And here's the layout I came up with:


At first, I wasn't sure that I had products in my stash that would fit the color combo, but a little digging proved otherwise. The B side of the Ryan Ave. paper from Scenic Route's Sumner collection was a perfect match for the reddish tone (I have no idea what that color is called! Anyone?) and the B side of October Afternoon's Patio Umbrella paper from their Daydream line was a match with the muted teal. Gotta love those B sides! The other two colors were, of course, much easier to match! Other products used here include Scenic Route lined paper, American Crafts foam Thickers, KI Memories lace cardstock, an October Afternoon stamp, and, of course Bazzill cardstock.

I'd love to hear from any of my readers who participate in this week's challenge!