Born on the 5th of July

Here's a couple pages I scrapped of my Aunt's 60th birthday party we went to on the 4th of July. (her actual b-day is on the 5th, hence the title). There are a lot of details that don't show up too well in this small pic, so click on the photo for a better view. You may remember me posting a red, white & blue gift set and matching card a few weeks ago. I told you it was for my Aunt who loves to stamp...well, this is from her party. You can see her about to open her SU! gift bag on the bottom left photo.

I used Deluxe Cuts Color Blocking templates to create this layout. I was lucky enough to pick up a whole stack of them along with a matching book at a garage sale not too long ago. I LOVE garage sales! You never know what you'll find! Anyways...these templates are great if you like to use a lot of photos on your pages.

This is my favorite embellishment that I created for this layout. I used the Big Bold Birthday set for the cupcake and the little red flower. The happy definition is from Define Your Life and the word happy is from So Very. (an SAB set from a year or so ago) I layered it on a Soft Sky prints paper. The punched flower is from the Boho Blossoms punch.

Some fun & exciting news for me: While I was looking through a slide show of convention photos, I came across 1/2 of a two page Halloween layout I had submitted to Stampin' Up! for one of their contests last year. It was on one of the display boards! That was pretty cool! However, I do wonder why they used the right side of the layout which reads "night" vs the left which could more easily stand on it's own? The right side reads "spooky" and I actually thought it was a little cuter. Oh well...it was still fun to see my page on a display board at convention! It's good to know that my hard work didn't go totally to waste. I have yet to recreate the 2 pages for my own scrapbook. If you want to see both pages, click here.

More news that I'm super excited about! Stampin' Up! has teamed with Sizzix and will be offering the Big Shot die-cut machine! Along with several SU! exclusive dies! I've been wanting some type of die cutting/embossing machine for a while now, but held off since I couldn't incorporate it with my business. Now I will finally get one!!! WOO HOO!!!