"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!