My Wednesdays

On Wednesdays you can generally find me at my local (35 miles away) scrapbook store cropping with a good friend.

The store has started having layout contests again since Spring is coming. The store decides on a sketch to be used (kind of an outline for lack of a better word), then those who want to participate use that sketch to create a page. The store's customers then vote for their favorite throughout the month. When the voting time has expired, all the votes are tallied, the winner is announced and receives a small prize.

Prize or no prize, I just like entering the contests. It's fun to take a sketch and see what I can come up with. I used to sew a lot and, for me, going from a sketch to a scrapbook page is like taking a pattern (the sketch), selecting just the right fabric (photos and papers), buttons, etc (embellishments) and ending up with a new dress (page).

I created the page above last week from this month's sketch. Although I really liked how it came out, something just seemed off. According to the sketch there were only supposed to be 4 photos used but my page just wasn't coming together the way it should so I added a 5th photo. Now the store isn't really that picky about following the sketches exactly but I like to be as on target as possible. So that 5th photo really, really bothered me.

I just couldn't see where I went wrong. Finally it hit me. I had placed the top photo at the very top of the page and that threw everything else off. The photo was actually supposed to be placed down the page just a bit.

I could have let it go and entered my page in the contest but since entries weren't due until today I thought I'd give it another go when I was at the store yesterday.



The title of the page is "Lions and Rhinos and a Bear - Oh My!"

 This is the page I put together yesterday and it followed the sketch exactly. I like both pages equally well and had a very hard time choosing which one to enter.

In the end I left my zoo page to be entered. I can't wait to see everyone else's entries! After the votes are cast and a winner is declared I'll let you know how my page fared among the others.

On another note and because it does relate to this post - a week or so ago I visited Emmie's Ramblings and just enjoyed Emily's blog so much I became a follower. Little did I know that I would be her 50th follower.

Because of that she sent me a wonderful little package of goodies! On Tuesday there was a card in our post office box telling us that we had a package for pick up (our box is very small). Emily lives in Florida and I live here in Oklahoma so it never occurred to me that the package might be from her. I didn't get to the post office until after it had closed on Tuesday so I had to wait until yesterday to pick it up on my way to the scrapbook store. The package held a sweet plaque, a lovely scented sachet, a little butterfly wind chime and some scrapbooking goodies (brads, eyelets, embellishments and ribbon). Thank you Emily!

NOTE to Emily: The package arrived at the PERFECT time! I'm glad it was Wednesday before I was able to pick it up because it was in my bag when I got to the scrapbook store. The little black brads that were included were exactly what I needed to complete my Zoo layout. How great is that!!!!! I've had another page in mind to do for awhile now. I'm just waiting to get the photos I need for it. The orange ribbon is going to be perfect on the page. It's almost as if you knew what I was thinking. Thanks again!