Wednesday, October 19, 2011

"Let's Do This"

No, I haven't really fallen off the face of the Earth. I haven't totally crawled under a rock and I haven't gone off the grid, although all of those seemed like good ideas recently. Suffice it to say, I went through a pretty emotionally draining summer with family and while everyone is perfectly healthy, it took a larger toll on me and my creativity than I would have anticipated.

But yesterday was the first time in a very long time that I woke up feeling like myself. I had the old Lora attitude of looking forward to Monday, with all it's fresh opportunities. I was ready to be an contributing member of this sitcom called Life. In other other words, "Let's Do This."

And I did. I created my first layout in two months.  I love the Jenni Bowlin Holiday lines the she launched this year and this paper was begging to be used, so I found enough of my desk to work with and made a layout featuring none other than that cutie pie niece of mine.


The paper really did most of the work for the layout, needing little embellishing. I added the spider and lace tapes to the present word border on the bottom, a Maya Road calendar page, and the super awesome wood spools star buttons from Prima. I have a tendency to have little "bags of crap" that accumulate in my stash. These generally contain the flotsam and jetsam of projects past. I can't get rid of them because the stuff is still great, but they don't really go with anything else either, so there they sit.  I am proud to say that the trick or treat bag, the orange frame, the ball trim, the photo turn, and the orange pinked corner, (which is another frame just tucked under the photo), are all pieces from one such bag. There! See I DO use them. Eventually.


The last piece is a journaling tag tucked into the treat bag. I love how the house and tree silhouette adds a little sumpin' sumpin' to the overall layout and I black stickled the tree for a bit of detail. While the title on the journal card said, "Tonight's Memories," I decided it was perfect for my memories of spending time with my niece recently and how much she loves to dress up.

I don't scrap a lot of Halloween layouts. Maybe because I don't have kidlets to take photos of, maybe cause the Hubs and I don't really dress up or go anywhere. It certainly isn't for lack of Halloween related scrap stuff! I have decided to try and scrap it more though, since it is a holiday I love and try not to focus on having a "Halloween" photo for the paper, but more month of October memories that can also work.

Oh, and by the way, I am SO glad to be back!

9 comments:

  1. Welcome back! Glad to see you posting again. What a nice layout. I totally love how you put the pom pom trim upside down. I've never seen that done before. Very clever.

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  2. Yay, Lora! I'm encouraged by your post. I had a good summer but have had a difficult time since I went back to work on August 31st. I haven't done any LOs or projects since then.

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  3. Glad you are back, I know exactly how you feel. I had a baby 8 months ago and took a long break, about 8 months long, lol.
    Love your LO and you were right, very little embellies needed. Look forward to seeing more inspiring work!

    -Tanisha

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  4. im so glad to see a post from you. I feed off your creativity lol. I see you create and then i want to create. I'm glad to see that you are feeling up to creating again. I look forward to seeing more from you. And Caddie is such a cutie pie.

    One last thing, you and the hubs should totally dress up and go out. If not in costumes, dress up totally Hollywood Glam and go out on the town, dinner and dancing. It makes you feel good. Something about dressing up. Oh, and take lots of photos. Really corny ones.

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  5. Nice to see you blogging! :) Love your page and all of the vintage-y goodies! Your niece is definitely a cutie-pie.

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  6. Okay, so I ignored that you had actually posted, which meant that you had created something. Because I was dstracted by your blog background that is totally AWESOME and so you! Oooh, ahhh.
    Then your LO. It is so good to see you back in the groove. Your creativity has been missed. I love that you save bits & pieces. (I do too.) And I really love that you USE them in such a great way.
    Welcome back, Lora!

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  7. Very nice Lora! Love the papers you've picked and the vintage-y feel.
    Caddie is such a cutie!

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  8. great job, looks like some delicious paper
    Elaine

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  9. This is such a lovely layout and great way to make a scrappy comeback. So sorry you went through so much stuff in life, sometimes it's not easy!! But i'm glad you are back and creating again!!

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