Around the World on Wednesday--My Favorite Month!

I am really excited about the theme for this month’s Around the World on Wednesday Blog Hop! Our theme is our FAVORITE month…and it was a tricky one for me as my birthday is in January so obviously I LOVE BIRTHDAY MONTH but its also cold AF so my love of summer wins out!

July is my FAVORITE month because it is the month that we spend a week at the lake with the entire Nelson family. 19 grandkids and cousins! Isn’t that spectacular?

Deciding on the month of July as my favorite month also coincided perfectly with a new bundle of products that I was recently able to order. This bundle was a perk for Demonstrators attending On Stage this month and it will be available in the upcoming January-July Occasions Catalogue. You will LOVE this catalogue, hands down this publication is in my Top Ten favorites of all time. All I will say is Rainbows, Cactuses and Pineapples oh my!

This is our annual family picture that we take at Greenwater Lake each year. We have been visiting this lake since my oldest son was an infant—17 summers!

I knew I wanted to use this family picture and I wanted to make sure to honor the tones of the water and the trees in my design. I used a base piece of paper from the Hand-Penned Designer Series collection that was Garden Green with a white floral print.

I layered a piece of Basic White 12x12 that I trimmed down to 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches. As the main photo mat I used a piece of DSP from the new Heart & Home Designer Series Paper collection. One side of all of the papers is this amazing wood panel design in Basic Grey. There are several patterns of a wood look so I chose the one that looked like a tree to continue with the nature element.

I also added a striped piece of DSP in Mint Macaron from the Hand-Penned Designer Series collection. I made sure the stripes were going horizontal in nature to help elongate the page.

I love to create focal points or vignettes (areas of interest) on my scrapbook page that help tell the story. Sentiments are very important to me and they are honestly the criteria by how I pick most stamp sets. I absolutely love the sentiment “What a Beautiful Day for Love”. Obviously you can use this for a wedding or a baby’s arrival, but should it not be how we approach all of our days? Every day is a beautiful day for love and I never leave those words unsaid to my kids. I tell them all the time and it fills my heart when my teenage son will repeat them back to me on the phone or with his friends!

I stamped this gorgeous floral image, one of two in the stamp set Blessings of Home, in Momento Ink. I then colored it in with a term I have coined “Lazy Watercoloring”. I simply add ink to one of our clear blocks and use my Water Painter (the fine tip) to the ink with a very small amount of water. I then colored in the flowers with Bumblebee, Blushing Bride, Coastal Cabana and Garden Green ink. It barely took me any time at all which is why I love it!

I die cut the shape with the new Flowers of Home Dies and added it to a So Saffron die cut. I cut this using the Seasonal Labels Dies and ran it through the Timber 3D folder. I love how this page is a mix of so many different products from 3 different publications!

Stamping softly in the background added such a beautiful element to this page. I used the smaller floral image in Smoky Slate ink.

The sentiment is stamped in Bumblebee Ink and is also cut with the Seasonal Labels Dies! I added some white twine from the Bakers Twine Essentials Package and some of the Blushing Bride Frayed Grosgrain Ribbon behind my sentiment.

A few sprigs cut in Garden Green cardstock from the new Flowers of Home dies and this little area was complete—-or was it? No it wasn’t, it also need to add an embellishment so I chose some from the Classic Matte Dots (another upcoming new product). You will love these as you get 2 sizes and 4 colors—-white, vanilla/pearl, grey and black.

I created another focal point on the top right of my page. I stamped the smaller flower in Momento ink and colored it with Blushing Bride, Bumblebee and Garden Green ink. What I really love about this area is there is not a stamp in the set that actually says “Perfect Day”. I used my Stampin’ Write Basic Grey marker to combine two individual sentiments into one that better suited my page. I love how we can customize so many of our Stampin’ Up! products!

I added the same twine, ribbon and Matte Dots to this area plus a few sequins from the Subtle Shimmer Sequins. I love these sequins so much and hope they are available after the Holiday Catalogue period ends.

I am so in love with this page and creating it right now was perfect therapy for me. The days are shorter now and the weather has changed but making this page took me right back to the lazy days of summer.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Hop creates this month! There are some seriously talented people on this hop and the inspiration is unbelievable!

I am one of your Canadian ‘stop’s on this hop and next up you are going to the United States to see what Tricia Butts has designed for this challenge!