I absolutely love each one of the new lines released at Summer CHA – it’s hard to choose just one to play with!  So, this time I decided to mix them up a bit!  I combined Twilight, Amber Road and Mistletoe & Co.  I used an awesome sketch from Becky Fleck:

I loved the combination of three photos tucked in the corner with all of the layering.  Here is what I came up with:

Even though I used three different lines the colors still blend well!  I used the awesome new chipboard alphabets (love the glitter!) and I cut out the tree from the Amber Road paper.  I added a few gems to the tree to give it an extra little something.

I hope you all love the sketch and I’d love to see some of your work using it & some of the gorgeous new Pink Paislee!  Just link me up in the comments section!

We spotted a fabulous Amber Road project over in our Live Pink gallery this week and we just had to showcase it here on our blog.  This gorgeous FALL banner was created by Lynn Ghahary.  After she received her monthly kit from Scrapbook Nook she quickly created some amazing projects.  See her samples below:

I want one of these yummy banners!  Thanks for sharing your creations with us Lynn!

To visit Lynn’s blog just CLICK HERE

On a totally separate note if you are debating about purchasing these products don’t wait too long. We are currently sold out of several items in this collection after shipping to all of our retail stores.  Unfortunately this means we won’t be able to fill new orders for our retail stores.  What is out in stores now is currently is all there is!  SO….DO grab these before they are gone for good.

I love the look of rub-ons and have many packages in my stash but I never really feel as though I get great use out of them.  There are always some rub-ons leftover on the sheet, very rarely do I ever use ALL of the rub-ons.

So that is why on this Wacky Wednesday I bring to you a fun solution to using up those Press-Ons!

I cut a white piece of cardstock 4 x 10″, using a notebook punch along the left hand side.  I centered the entire package of Amber Road Press-Ons onto the sheet of paper, rubbing all on but the two black decorative borders.  I cut them in half, then placed them on either side of the Press-Ons I just used.  This gave a nice definition to the design.  Doing this, I got away with using as much patterned paper.

Here are some close-up shots of the design:

I hope you have the opportunity to try this on your own!

When I saw I had the journaling post for the month of September, I was glad to have an opportunity to put on paper some feelings I have about my eldest daughter entering Kindergarten.  I don’t know about other mother’s, but I have mixed emotions about the coming weeks, and the anxiety outweighs the excitement for me, to be honest.  I’m so worried!  I want this to be a wonderful experience for her, and since I can’t control *everything* I have to hope and pray, and cross my fingers, and hope and pray some more.

This spring when I registered Morgan for school, I hung my camera out the window and snapped a quick shot of the school and the bulletin board out front, announcing the Kindergarten roundup.  At the time, I had my 50mm fixed lens on my camera, so I wasn’t able to get a photo of the entire school, so it isn’t the best shot, but I thought it was the perfect photo to use for a layout about MY hopes and fears for Morgan and her first experiences in public school.

I kept the design simple on this layout, and let the journaling take up a large space.  And because it was a personal layout, I really wanted to use my handwriting.

I love the Amber Road collection and thought it had a great color palette for school photos.  My favorite piece from this collection is the Autumn Blossom pattern, and I thought it would make a great apple tree, so I trimmed out one of the large trees, and then made a few apples using the B side of the Postcards paper.

I trimmed the stripes horizonally from the Harvest Hayride pattern to help give the eye a line so that my journaling would be straight.  Of course, I trimmed the edges with my scallop sentiment punch from Fiskars ( I LOVE this punch).

Then I added my title using the Cherry colored Expressions chipboard alphas.

Lastly, I used some clear buttons and some Karen Foster floss to add some detail and dimension to this layout and my apples.

I challenge you to journal more on your layouts.  Maybe someday Morgan will look back on this layout, maybe when she’s a mom (although at this pont she keeps telling me she isn’t going to have children because she doesn’t want to change dirty diapers), and if she has the same fears or even if she doesn’t, she’ll see my perspective on this new phase in her life.