Playing with PageMaps & an announement

Several of the Scraptastic DT had the opportunity to join Becky Fleck this month for her PageMaps reveal.  We were each given a sketch to work with and were free to use one of the two December Main Kits.  I chose to work with the Home For The Holidays kit, and had a fun 8x5x11 sketch to work with.

Here is my layout

And here is the sketch I worked with

You can see that I stayed very true to the sketch, and added only a few of my own personal touches, like the veneer deer.

I just loved that little guy and had to work him in somehow.  I figured since deer were represented on the patterned paper in the sketch he would be a good fit. 

For the rounded title up top I hand stitched with some red embroidery thread, and then used one of the stamps in the kit to stamp around the circle.  Rather than putting the stamp onto an acrylic blog I simply used my fingers to bend the stamp around the stitching.  I practiced this a few times on scrap paper, however, before adding it to my layout.

You'll also notice here if you look closely that I've matted my entire layout onto a piece of light brown cardstock, it somehow made the layout look a little more finished in my opinion.  Now, getting a photo that was straight, was a whole other ball of wax, and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't pull it off, hence the all white only background you see in the photo of the complete layout.

A big thank you to Becky for inviting us to play along this month, I really enjoyed working with the sketch.  The rest of her dt, and ours as well created some wonderful layouts as well.  I would encourage you to pop over and have a peek if you've got a minute.  You can see the full reveal here.

I have one other bit of fun news to share....

I'm pretty excited about joining the super spunky, hilariously funny group of girls at Paper Issues. You've heard me say that Cassie has THE BEST online scrappy store out there, and even better delivery, fast and always wrapped in the most awesome houndstooth paper with a gorgeous red seam binding ribbon.  It's seriously like receiving two gifts in one.  I was thrilled when she extended the offer to me, and as of Jan 1 I am officially a PI girl.  My shiny new badge, thanks to Jen Chesnick is in my sidebar.  Use it every time you order from Paper Issues and instantly receive 20% off.   Here is a peek at my very first DT order.  I can't wait to dig in.

I am so anxious to work with the new Fancy Pants Be Loved Collection.  And how cute are those October Afternoon Daily Flash Pop Drops?  Cassie has several different color combinations in store. I've been wanting those Alison Kreft start and speech bubble paper clips for so long, that I'm almost afraid to use them now, they're almost vintage (now that CHA winter 2014 is just around the corner, haha.  Also is stock is the brand new Crate Paper Valentine's Day Collection, if that's more your speed.
This weekend also marked the first of the Monthly Swag Bag by Paper Issues.  Here is a peek at this month's kit.

There will be a new Swag Bag every month.  Signing up with ensure you don't miss out on yours.  A little bit of this and a little bit of that.  Scrappy goodness to add to your pages every month.  You can get yours here.  There are only a few left for January, so I wouldn't think about it too long if I were you.  Remember if you place an order, Swag Bags included, you can score 20% off just be using my code.

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