Never Gonna Beat This Summer

 

The Magazine Challenge over at PaperCrafters Corner immediately inspired me to scrapbook a memory from this summer; one I look forward to cherishing for a long time.   Take a look at this week's inspiration piece:

 

 



I have never been to London, but the Ferris Wheel and the idea of a music festival got me!  Music can take me back to another place in time.  I think this summer's theme song for me will be Brad Paisley's "Beat This Summer."  The Lyrics open with "Like a Ferris Wheel goes around and around, the trouble with up is there is always a down..."  That has been my Summer 2013. 

 

 

 

 Typically my brother and I are lucky to see each other once or twice a year. We just live too far from one another.  This year, however, he had job training that allowed him to stay much nearer to me for six months of the year.  It was so great to see him every other weekend or so. One weekend we decided to go Whitewater Rafting!  We had a fun road trip, a great guide and a "quiet" trip down the river, HA! As fun as that was, my favorite part was the trip back home.  The sun was setting and I got to ask a bunch of questions of my husband and brothers.  The questions were taken from this blog post written by Amy Sorenson over at Write.Click.Scrapbook.

 

A beautiful sunset and conversation that didn't go too deep but allowed each of us to reminisce back to the summers of our youth.  "I ain't ever gonna beat this summer..."       

 

 I played around with my page elements for a while this week. I loved the inspiration and immediately wanted to scrap this memory, BUT how can I get all these ideas to go together.  I guess I usually scrapbook events.  They are relatively straightforward with colors and themes provided.  This was different though.  I was really trying to scrapbook this memory and the feelings I had of being with my brothers and hubby! 

 

 

I found going back to the inspiration piece really helped me.  I kept in mind all the text and the "smushy" way they all mixed together.  I also liked how tight all the elements felt, so as I designed my page I kept thinking "words, tight, and summer" in my mind.

 

 I am really happy with the way the final product turned out!

The products used on this page include cardstock and vellum from Creative Memories, Gold Colorshine by Heidi Swapp, Fibers from American Crafts, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade, and the Ferris Wheel by Jamie Koay available in the Silhouette Online Store.

Hello Birthday

Finally, the Birthday invitations are ready to go.  I had a lot of fun putting this Hello Kitty birthday invitation together in Silhouette Studio.  Lots of welding, converting to a path and even releasing the compound path- OH MY!  

Along the way, I encountered something crazy with my Silhouette Cameo.  I made this file into a print and cut.  The first cut just fine but the next three gave me fits.  My Cameo was off on each one of the cuts and it would not read the registration marks.  I tried to "go over" the registration marks thinking maybe it just wasn't dark enough but that didn't work. Frustrated I went to bed.  My sweet hubby asked if I needed to recalibrate the Cameo.  Good thought. 

The next day I awoke DETERMINED to finish Curly's invitation. I went searching for an answer.  I asked for help on the message board at Two Peas.  It got several views but no replies.  A Google search turned me onto a Pinterest Board with a bad link - GRRRR!  But now I had a couple key words to aid my search. 

Finally I found a FAQ link on the Silhouette America Store. Now why didn't I think of that? Sure enough directions to recalibrate your machine!  EUREKA!  That hubby of mine is so smart...maybe if I would just listen to him, right?  At any rate, it worked and the invitations are now complete. 

I think they turned out adorable.  Curly thought it needed some glitter, sure enough some Crystal Stickles on the Kitty's hair bow are the perfect accent!  Curly sure has an eye for design!  Off to work on more scrappy goodness for the Birthday Party! 

The Hello Kitty image used here is not my image.  I did not create this image. The image came from a Google Search from the following site:http://kittypalace.tripod.com/kitty.html