You Make Me Smile

It's August!! This is my favorite month out of the whole year because it also happens to be my birthday month!! Also there are no major event to compete with it so it is usually a very chill month. I have decided that I need to start crafting more. I haven't been able to recently because work went crazy, family was in town visiting, and I had so health issues. So since work has slowed down and the family visit is over (I think anyways ... watch them show up at my door tomorrow to prove me wrong) I can finally get back to scrapbooking. The health issues are still around but apparently they always will be now (nothing serious thank God, but very uncomfortable) and I am on medication that should ease it almost completely. I can't wait till next week when I will have tons of time to dedicate to my crafts, and I am just bursting with ideas which is fantastic!! I did get a page done this week though and its for the July Scraps of Darkness sketch challenge. The sketch if from Charlotte Jenkins (who is crazy talented) and she also hosts this challenge over at scrapbook.com where you don't need to have the kit in order to participate. My page is called 'You Make Me Smile'

Fun fact (for me) is that this picture was taken a year ago almost to the day. I like coincidences like that :) I am so much more in love with the few punches that I have since I started converting them to cover circles and other shapes besides a straight line. It's really not hard, just cut the punch strip after each loop, design, etc. and glue it down one piece at a time. It is pretty time consuming but so worth it in my opinion.

Most everything on this page came from the Scraps of Darkness kit, isn't it just gorgeous? I added some dimension the the photo and the die cuts to give the page depth.

You can't really tell from these pictures though. It adds a lot in real life. The last two close-ups show that I cannot go without a stickle, liquid pearls, or a combination of both, border. I swear I am obsessed.

I used a prima mask on the background paper and the circle as a stamp. I really like how it blends in until you look closer. Makes it seem like you see something new everything you see the page.

Well thanks for looking!! Hopefully I will start posting more often this month :D