Water Color Summer

We just wrapped up shipping for the July kits. Holy moly, there are quite a few hefty boxes waiting for pick-up -- it's going to be like Christmas for those of you who took advantage of the 4th of July sale last weekend. Enjoy your goodies. Even if you missed last weekend, there are still some great deals to be had. Just check out the Table Scraps area. It was yet another day with showers -- or heavy downpours, lightening and thunder. I like these "water colored" days, especially since I'm not a fan of the summer heat. Usually summer colors are bold and vibrant, but add a little water, like a rainstorm and you get watered down versions of those colors. Still energizing, just softer. Like the ones in the My Mind's Eye Breaking Free kit. These double-sided papers are beautiful -- softer versions of red, orange and teal, but still perfect for those summertime photos or vacation shots.

And a kit just isn't a kit without its embellishments. So to these lovely papers we add a length of polka-dot ribbon, some cute little blooms with rhinestone centers, a great summer tag, a summer ticket and some mini brads -- in none other than swimming pool blue.

With your kit on the way, are you ready to play? Have your photos picked, or even in mind? No? Well, you've still got a couple days until that little red and blue box appears on your porch step.

Front Porch Thoughts

It's 10 pm. The sky is clear - the almost full moon has either already been up and back down or it hasn't risen yet, so you can see a fair amount of stars for "city folk." The baby is down, and has been for an hour and a half. The three older kids are up watching "The Parent Trap" but really should be getting ready for bed. But it's Sunday and it's summer, so I let them be. I'm sitting on my front porch, relaxing in an Adirondack chair that my husband built listening to the bugs chirp and the splashing of water from our fountain. And FINALLY, finally, enjoying some dry, cool Colorado summer air. If it weren't for the faint noise of cars in the distance, well and the lights on in the house across the street, I could envision myself out in the country, with a babbling brook and the peaceful stillness around me right now. This is one of those perfect moments for me. It's moments like these that I see captured and using with the October Afternoon Cherry Hill line -- they have that vintage feel that is so hot right now. These peaceful, simple moments. Pictures of my son fishing with his father. My daughter baking her favorite brownies. My middle son showing his baby brother picture books out on the front yard. Family and friends gathering for a "just because" night of food and fun. Cherry Hill evokes those down-home, back-to-basics, simplified life kind of photos. These double-sided papers are just delicious and I see so many options on what to do with them I can't decide which way to go.

Added to the papers are a bunch of lovely accents: puffy ones, sticker ones, floral ones, felt ones, title ones, journaling ones and buttons ones (both regular and chipboard with vintage prints). Makes my fingers itch to play with it all.

Look for your own simple-moment photos to pair up with your set of October Afternoon papers.

Patriotic (or not) Pages

Do you ever have those days where you get absolutely nothing done, but when you look back at the "why" nothing got done, you find you didn't do anything that occupied your day? Well, I've had several of those days in a row. I'm not seeming to accomplish anything, yet when I look at what's filling my days so much, nothing seems to be taking up my time. (shrug) What's a mom to do? How about scrapbook? Sometimes when we can't seem to get anything else accomplished creating a layout or two sure makes it feels like we did something. So, on one of these nothing-done days I had my youngest sister call to see if I wanted to scrapbook. I said "yes!" and I completed my first layout in 18 months. This Jenni Bowlin kit had been calling to me since we first put it together. So when I finally sat down to scrapbook this was my go to kit. I knew I wanted to scrapbook some 4th of July photos from a few years ago when we attended a really big backyard party and then went to the local fireworks show. These papers seemed perfect for the occasion. The obvious reason is the great red, white and blue color scheme. But the papers, while not your typical patriotic designs, had that backyard-small town-quaint feeling to them that would work well with the photos I had in mind.

The embellies that were paired with these papers are super fun and with the exception of the Bingo Card, they are, like the papers, usable with any event you want to scrapbook because they aren't patriotic in theme. So you've got the Bingo Card (which, really, could be used on any layout), the clear journaling card (got your Slick Writer?), a length of twill, some red rhinestones (totally sparkly) and a couple blooms . . . see, perfect for just about anything, including 4th of July.

This kit would also be great for any picnic or BBQ, not just those on the 4th, baseball or softball games and the bright color scheme would look great with winter activities.

So if you've had a done-nothing day, or you've been on a scrapbooking hiatus, take your cue from this kit, or any of the July kits that are just calling to you and get something accomplished.