Hey everyone, welcome to August! This month the design team is talking about pets. Up until last summer, this sort of topic left me feeling a bit lost as our family didn’t have any pets. I had hamsters growing up and when I moved in with my second family, they had dogs, but my own personal family unit hadn’t gone down that path. There had been many calls for a dog, hamster, rabbit, you name it, but we’d managed to resist them all.
Until the forces of Covid and my husband’s 50th birthday collided and I caved on the dog front.
This is Scout. He’s a Red Fox Labrador Retriever. He loves to destroy things LOL. This photo was taken last fall when he was just 6 months old. He’s now an almost 90lb licking, sniffing, eating, and romping around machine. Who thinks he’s a lap dog!
To say our lives have been turned upside down by this handsome dude is an understatement. In between all the chewed toys, licked barbeques, dog hair covered chairs, and demolished blankets, he’s been a pretty loving dog. And one thing that I do appreciate about him is that he forces me out for a walk every morning. Or at least, every morning my work schedule allows.
I’ve scrapped about him before too. One of my favourite layouts is this one that captures his growth from 8 weeks old to his first birthday.
If you participated in LOAD521 you may have seen this already.
For this month though I wanted to find new stories to tell. And since I am now the proud owner of an Arts & Crafts store with a sizable scrapbook section, AND a desk designed for my process videos, I filmed this next layout coming together.
But before we get to that … you may have heard me mention once or twice that I am highly influenced, inspired, and motivated by Shimelle Laine (insert excited girly squeal that she is the KEYNOTE SPEAKER for the upcoming ScrapSmarter Experience!) In case you’re not familiar with her, she’s been running a kit club of sorts for years. Back when Two Peas in a Bucket was a thing (let’s all take a moment to mourn them, shall we), she ran it through their shop, now she’s collaborated with Scrapbook.com. BUT her dominating message is to first, shop your own stash, second, shop your local brick and mortar shop (hey, that’s me now!), and last, order through her affiliate link. I love this attitude!
The premise is that she curates a kit of supplies and creates a shopping list over at Scrapbook.com. You can choose to buy it as is, pick only the items you want to add to your own stash (which saves you from being sent papers and embellishments that don’t fit your style), or create your own kit from your stash. Then she scrapbooks live on YouTube twice a week using the kit. It’s awesome and I’m addicted to her live videos and the “chatting about random rubbish” that happens on them. Actually, I’ve learned a ton! She loves to teach us new things.
But rather than rambling on and on, why don’t we check out this video walk through of the kit I put together for August 2021.
So now all that’s left to say is … here’s my first layout made with the kit of supplies you just saw.
And here’s how it came together – rather in a rush, I admit. I filmed it after the store closed but knew I was expected home so was rushing a bit to finish it.
Hope you enjoyed these video walk throughs. I’d love for you to hit the subscribe button on our shop’s YouTube channel. I will be creating layouts on a regular basis from my studio – and yes, I found my tape runner. Well, actually, it turned out I’d used it all up, but guess what? I sell them! LOL! Here’s to never running out of adhesive again!
I can’t wait to see what the rest of the design team comes up with this month. Until then, stay safe everyone. And get outside for a walk every day (if you can).