Lake Loot Scrapped

You might remember when I mentioned winning a little radio call-in contest a few months ago, Lake Loot. Just a few weeks later we devoured our winnings, an appetizer and drinks from the sponsoring restaurant. On our way back from vacation, tired and hungry, we stopped to fill up our bellies at The Times Grill and I snapped a few pictures. The photo on the layout below is dark and grainy, but I still wanted to tell the story of that contest. And tell it I did, in several places on my page! (I probably should have confined my journaling to one locale.)

This layout was inspired by Susan Stringfellow's sketch for Scraptastic's September sketch challenge, and all patterned papers, die-cuts, and stamps are from Scraptatic's The Girl kit for September.

With just scraps of patterned paper, I was able to create several pie-chart embellishments. Here's how:

Using my die-cutting machine, I cut circular pie charts from each of five patterned papers and then mixed up the pieces, adhering them in various patterns with cardstock circles as a base. After assembling all three pie charts, I cut two of them into consecutively smaller "pies" and used all three as embellishments on my page.

Pie charts are fun and colorful embellishments, but I don't use them enough! A favorite pie chart page of mine is this overview of my then 12-year old's everyday:

In this case the "pie" isn't only for show. Each segment actually corresponds to the amount of time he spends doing each of the activities in the "key"! I even used a little math to figure out the sizes of each piece of the pie. Ha! See kids, you do use geometry when you're an adult. ;)

Bridge In The Woods

It's no surprise that I am a really big fan of the current "fox" trend in scrapbook embellishments. With the last name, Fox, it's a given!

But many people without that particular fox connection may be wondering what exactly to DO with the fox rub-on, fox flair, and fox wood veneer in this month's Scraptastic kit, Heart It Races and add-on. It's a natural for outdoors photos, woodland scenery, parks, zoo pics, and all other nature-inspired photography. 

 Here I use it in a little cluster with another favorite piece from the kit, a tree cross-section wood veneer (genius!).

How would you use those fox embellishments? I think they would make great card accents for that special "foxy" someone! And hey, they are so dog-gone CUTE, it doesn't matter where they show up; they are sure to steal your heart. But of course I may be just a teensy bit biased. If you find they're a burden...just send them this way! ;)

Tag You're It!

I have two pages to share today, each previously shared on the Scraptastic blog in conjunction with one of this month's challenges. Check out our Tag You're It challenge! 

By playing along and linking up your page to the corresponding blog post by November 5th, you will have a chance to win a GC to the Scraptastic Club. You have until November 5th to enter any and all of the challenges this month. (Each entry equals another chance at the drawing.) Good luck!

On my page, Pretty Hummers, I cut a tag from a patterned paper journal block, and it became a landing place for the title.

Placing the letters across the tag helps to set it off from the papers below. 

On my next page, a trio of tags were cut from coordinating patterned papers and layered alongside my photo. 

These tags are purely decorative!

Both pages were created with Scraptastic's fabulous Heart It Races kit and/or add-on. I found it to be such a beautiful and diverse kit, and will be sharing more kit creations next week. TFL!

A French Garden

Today I'm sharing a layout featuring one of my favorite spots in Epcot at Walt Disney World!

Late afternoon was a gorgeous time of day for us to enjoy the scenery of the France Pavilion. The walkways, shops, and gardens, modeled after those of Paris, during La Belle Epoque (Beautiful Age) of France, were bathed in a gently fading sunlight. 

What a beautiful time, and Scraptastic's Heart It Races kits had the perfect papers and embellishments. I used gorgeous papers from Teresa Collins, Shimelle, and Chickaniddy Crafts, a pretty yellow doily, stickers, die-cuts, chipboard letters, and, of course, the piece de resistance---a fox wood veneer! 

Jack Spence described this period's garden technique in his blog article, Landscaping The World: 

Jardin à la française (French formal garden) is a style of landscaping based on balance and symmetry. The idea is to impose “order” into nature. This style of gardening reached its apex in the 17th century when landscape architect André Le Nôtre used his talents at Versailles. In the decades that followed, this style was widely copied by other courts of Europe. 

I believe the France pavilion, including this hedge maze, is one of the most picturesque areas on the World Showcase. It beckons one to stop, look around, sample some delicacies (crepes for me!), and imagine yourself in Paris during the late 1800s.