Hello...is this thing on???!?

So, I suppose if I'm going to start a blog -- I should actually take the time to post something to it now and then, huh?   Has it really been since April that I started and posted my one and ONLY blog entry?  WOW!  Well, my hesitation certainly has nothing to do with lack of material.  Our little family has had a busy summer filled with trips to the pool, patio building, backyard BBQ's, visits with family, potty training, Lego playing, bike riding, and all of the other fun things that summer usually brings.  I guess I could use the excuse that, yes, we have been busy, and thus, I've had no time for this little old blog.  And let's be realistic, that is a part of it, but I think I've also been hesitant to to put my crafty shares out there for fear of a bit of critique.  Thankfully, I have reminded myself that I started this blog, to share my crafty creations, as I've gotten so much in the way of ideas and inspiration from other bloggers.  I also, of course, hoped to maintain it, to share pictures and stories, with all of our friends and family that we don't get to see often.

Now that I've come to this happy little realization -- let's get on with a crafty little share, shall we?  For the past year or so, I have been designing display pages for a local scrapbooking store in Dayton called Simply Scrapbooks.  I am given a line of scrapbooking supplies to design a two-page or two one-page layouts.  It has been a fun opportunity for me, as I get to sample some of the newest scrapbook supplies and more importantly, it give me the 'excuse' to scrapbook (as if I needed one, right?!).

With all of this talk of summer, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of fun summer pages that I created with Little Yellow Bicycle's Sweet Summertime line, for a recent design team assignment.  The first shares a compilation of pictures from our summer adventures at King's Island amusement park last summer.  That single little 'ticket' type of embellishment (in the upper right corner of the page), reminded me that I had done nothing with the loads of pictures I had taken during our many summer visits to the amusement park.  And the bright colors of the 'Sweet Summertime' line worked out perfectly for this collage of photos.

And here's a detail shot of the small cluster of embellishments and word stickers I used in the lower left corner of the page.  I cut the ends of the word strips to mimic a banner and popped them up to add a bit of dimension.

With the bright summery colors of this kit and loads of fun embellishments, I certainly couldn't stop with just one page.  The next page features many of the 'lemon' themed items from this line.  It took no time at all for me to locate some of my favorite summer pictures of the boys that matched the bright, primary color scheme that 'Sweet Summertime' features. 

With use of the 'lemon' themed papers and embellishments, I was inspired to write a little letter to my boys, to keep their childlike attitude and always use life's lemons to make lemonade.  The journaling and detail shot of that cute little lemon slice strung banner:

And one more detail shot of the title in the lower left hand corner:

So, that's my little bit of summery inspiration for today.  Hoping I can keep steady with the blogging trend this week.  See you tomorrow with another crafty post!