The Cut Shoppe Blog Hop-Tabasco Pumpkin

Welcome to the Paper Gumbo edition of The Cut Shoppe Halloween blog hop, where you will find all sorts of spooky, silly, and fun creations from the design team, and opportunities to win some of our favorite cut files. One lucky winner will receive a $25 GC to The Cut Shoppe store! All winners, chosen randomly, will be announced November 6th on The Cut Shoppe blog.

Leave a comment on this post by November 2nd to be entered into a drawing for the Fall Finds cut file.

I don't know about you, but I LOVE carving a pumpkin for my porch at Halloween. Some years I spend hours creating a masterpiece. Other times it's a pared down effort: 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth. The cool pumpkin below was one I spied at the Avery Island Tabasco gift shop last year.

The little "pumpkin patch" underneath my photo was created with the cut file seen above.

For a more casual look, reminiscent of a pumpkin patch, I cut apart a couple of the pumpkins and staggered them beneath the upper row. Individual pumpkins were backed with orange papers in various shades and patterns.

At the top of the page is a smallish banner cluster, mimicking the larger banners in the center of the page:

and a title above the photo:

How about the pumpkin in my picture? Impressive! That's some mad carving skills! I just might be inspired to attempt some fancy carving myself this year. Guess I'd better start looking for that perfect pumpkin. ;)

Remember to leave a comment on this post by November 2nd to be entered into a drawing for the Fall Finds cut file from The Cut Shoppe store. For more fabulous project and chances to win, visit each of the blogs below:

The Cut Shoppe

Katrina Hunt

Jennifer Haggerty

Madeline Fox (You are HERE!)

Laura Mooney

Aimee Maddern

Candace Perkins

Missy Whidden

Michelle Wedertz

The Cut Shoppe

GOOD LUCK!

Hello Summer

I just LOVE to scrap summer memories. Our yearly summer beach vacation is a week filled with photo ops. Blue water, white sand, and colorful swim suits make for awesome photos. These two cousins oblige with silly antics. Like I state in my journaling, "There's always a ready audience...and/or a willing accomplice"!

This beach-themed page was created with a couple of cut files from The Cut Shoppe. A freebie for newsletter subscribers, Hello Summer, was used along with the cute sun design from the Make A Splash set:

Here are a couple of closeups:

Supplies: Patterned paper-Bella Blvd., Echo Park. Envelope-Fancy Pants. Chipboard-Crate Paper. Enamel dots-My Mind's Eye. Mist-Heidi Swapp.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Today...and Every Tuesday

Just about every week during the school year I join a group of moms at my son's high school, where we paint their mascot, "Jayson", on yard signs representing the various sports and activities at the school. There are Soccer, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Lacrosse, Golf, Ultimate Frisbee, Swimming, Wrestling, Philelectic Club, ROTC, Cheerleader, and Band signs, as well as the mascot in a graduation cap, holding a diploma. It's a fundraiser for the school and a great way for parents and grandparents to show school spirit and celebrate the kids' accomplishments. 

The Riptide kit from Scraptastic was a perfect choice for the page below. I pulled out several of the bright colorful papers, many with an emphasis on blue, very appropriate considering the subject of the layout. After all, Jayson is a BLUE Jay. ;) 

A button and scissors die-cut were added to the cluster of transparency tags below, as we also craft school and sport-themed jewelry, home decor, and an annual one-of-a-kind Christmas ornament. 

I wrote my journaling at the bottom of the page, freeing up the journaling card to become a base for several fun embellishments:

Today and Every Tuesday...it's what I do!

You Are Here

Surprise, surprise! After assembling the bright, colorful, beachy page which I shared a few days ago, there were a several cut-into papers sitting on my desk. Turning them over, I discovered a muted aqua print on one, with a matching stripe on the other. Pairing them with my seagull photo resulted in the soft, monochromatic page below:

I purposely cut the top two papers on a bit of a diagonal and assembled them leaving plenty of white space at the bottom of the page. It was quite accidental however, that the photograph also had a similarly tilted "line", the slightly sloping sand dunes in the out-of-focus background of my picture. A nice coincidence!

Cuts from October's This Life Noted digital files were lifted off the papers with pop dots, leaving soft shadows underneath. 

It's nice to keep it simple every once in a while, and I really love this look with my photo. Tomorrow though, I'll be back with another page showing off the more vivid papers and embellishments of Scraptastic's Riptide kit. Stay tuned...

Fall Leaves

Fall has yet to arrive in southeast Louisiana. In fact, this past weekend I was poolside at an outdoors swim meet, applying sunscreen and hiding under an umbrella. Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining.  I just had to dig a little deeper for a photo to scrap with the Leaf It To Me cut file from The Cut Shoppe. This gorgeous tree in Philadelphia, photographed years ago, fit the bill perfectly:

My page began with a maple leaf from the Leaf It To Me file, cut large from the center of a woodgrain-look paper. 

Next I pulled out patterned paper in colors ranging from golden yellow to deep russet red, decided on four, and cut the same leaf design in various (smaller) sizes. I adhered them in layers on my background sheet, added the foreground, photo, pen stitching, ink splatters, and a few embellishments:

Leftover leaves were adhered along the perimeter:

And the Tall Type cut file, was used to create a simple title:

Before cutting from the dark, woodgrain-look paper, I had my digital cutting program remove the center pieces from the letters. Afterwards, I fashioned each into into a small notched flag and backed with patterned papers:

Supplies: Patterned paper-American Crafts, Simple Stories, Basic Grey. Stickers-Simple Stories. Flair badge-Studio Calico. Mist-Heidi Swapp, Maya Road.

Happy Fall!

On Beach Time with the Riptide Kit

I thought I'd be using the colorful Riptide kit from Scraptastic to scrap photos that were also colorful, but what I've found is that the papers of this vibrant kit are perfect for pictures such as the one below. 

This picture, sitting around my desk since summer, didn't immediately inspire me; however, the amazingly vivid papers of the kit brought my photo to life.

A couple of cuts from the October This Life Noted digital files were used to connect the various parts of my page. The awesome weave gave me an interesting background on which to layer my title,

paper and transparency die cuts, and a journaling tag.

I added a cluster of embellishments to one corner of my double-matted photo, and direct two arrows to my daughter and I, relaxing on our perch overlooking the beach.

The happy colors of the Riptide kit were perfect for scrapbooking our happy summer memories.

Thanks for stopping by today. I'll be back at the end of the week with two more pages from this beautiful kit.

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

I love giving a heartfelt homemade card. I also love that creating them gives me something to do with my scraps, leftovers from previous projects, bits and pieces that never quite made it to a scrapbook page. 

Below I combined a cut file from Scraptastic's Counting Stars kit with the pretty pinks, black, and white from the Elastic Heart kit for a feminine card: 

So pretty! And so appropriate for today, World Cardmaking Day. For further inspiration, check out all of the cards created by the Scraptastic Design Team on the Scraptastic Club Blog.