Sparkle and Shine Technique Blog Hop

Are you ready to sparkle and shine?  We have a great collection of sparkly projects to share with you along this hop.  (If you're already hopping, then you've probably arrived from Michelle's blog.  From here, you'll visit Danielle next.)

We were very fortunate to travel to Europe this summer, starting in Germany where our older daughter was studying abroad, and ending up in Paris.  Because we were there for a week, I plan on dedicating an entire album to Paris.  Here is my title page.  We actually saw the Eiffel Tower at night on our very last night there!

To make this layout really sparkle, I used gold glitter paper, black shimmer trim, and my gold shimmer brush. I started out "painting" gold shimmer behind my title (cut from the CTMH/Cricut Artbooking collection), but then decided to add more in basically all the white areas.  Unfortunately, that shimmer doesn't photograph well.

I used the Seasonal Mix-In paper pack and Saffron cardstock to match my photo.  The triangles were also cut from the Artbooking collection.  Can you tell where I got my layout idea?  Look through the current Seasonal Expressions...

Look on page 43...

I used the Into the Wild Deluxe Scrapbooking Workshop instructions to create my layout!  Don't be afraid to CASE (copy and steal exactly) something you like (while giving credit to the original) or add your own twist.  I think this black, white, and gold layout is very sophisticated yet the original was quite rustic.  The bones, however, are pretty much identical.

Thank you for visiting and sharing a few more of my travels with me.  (There will be lots more to come!)  I'd love a comment before you hop on over to Danielle's blog next!

August Stamp of the Month: From Me to You

The August Close To My Heart stamp of the month is an amazing set of sayings that you will reach for again and again!  Unfortunately, I missed out on the August stamp of the month blog hop, but you can still check it out at the bottom of my post if you're interested. 

I made a fun shaker card using four of the different sentiments and the Craft On collection with our shaker windows and thin cuts.  If you wanted to make a simpler card, you could.  (My class on Aug. 18 will be making this shaker card.)  Here's the simpler version:

Here is the card with only a circle and the sentiments.  If I were going to make this card, I would probably have the circle and the banner be the same color.

Adding the Lemon frame to the pink circle brings the card together, but of course I think it looks even more fun as a shaker card!

Don't you love all the fun sentiments?  Remember, From Me to You is only available in August!  If you'd like to get lots of great ideas with this set, be sure to hop along the blog hop at the link below.

{Click HERE for all the hop participants and their blogs.}