September Monthly Challenges

Since tomorrow is the first day of September (WOW!!!), I thought I'd take a little time to let you know what the Design Team has planned for the month. We will be creating mini books with the theme of "Home" which will hopefully inspire you to create a mini book (or even layouts) of your own right along with us. Each week, beginning on September 7th, we will give you a prompt to use as an idea of a new page to go in your book.

So for now, you may want to be deciding on what kind of book you want yours to be and what kind of papers you may want to use in it. Some of you may want to use a single collection for the whole book or you might want to keep it eclectic and spontaneous. You could use a premade book or you can make your own. It is totally up to you. In fact, if you don't want to do a mini book with us, you can use the prompts we give you for full size layouts.

We are very excited about this and hope you will be eager to create these Home themed mini books with us!

Megan's Hand Stitching challenge

My challenge for this week is to hand stitch on your layout. I have done the basic straight stitching before but this was the first time I tried the blanket stitch and I'm in LOVE!! For the challenge, you can use any type of stitch, but I wanted to try something new.

Here's my sample layout:

And here's how to create this stitch:

On my layout, I didn't put the blanket stitching just along the edges...I actually cut into my paper with an exacto knife to make a straight edge in the middle of my paper so the continuous line of thread would be more visible. Above the cut line, I punched holes to create the little points of the blanket stitch.

And if you just want to do it along the edge of your page, here's a sample of that look:

I can't wait to see how you use hand stitching on your next project!

Let's Scrap August Sketch Challenge!!!

Have fun designing with this sketch!!!

You have a chances to win a gift certificates to the MS store. If you complete a layout using this sketch and post it in the gallery and this thread, your name will be entered for a $10 gift certificate to the store. Wow! How about that for exciting! Deadline is Monday, August 30th at midnight

Kristin's Double Masking Challenge!!!

I loved this page in the Scrapbook Trends Create: Stamping book ...i used the idea that they had on page 81 of the magazine ...I just love this idea for a page ...it was really simple ...."Double Masking" .....first cut the circles from the piece of paper, place the negative on the page and stamp in the circles (button & swirl pattern), next place the cut out circle over the stamped images and spray mist over the background ...and then to finish it off I used a sharpie to draw around the circle to give it more definition ...so my challenge to you is to "double mask" your page and make a cool design for your background of your page ...thanks for playing along ....You have until the end of the month to complete this challenge and I will send you an RAK to the winner ....

Layout of the Week ....

I just had to show y'all the cutest thing that I found in the gallery this week from our very own DT member Detta ....how is this on the cutiness scale???

Guest Design team member for August

We have asked Brandi Pitts to be our guest designer this month. Brandi was our recent winner of the Last Scrapper Standing contest and many of you know her by her screen name, drewsmama.

She will be issuing a challenge this week as well as picking her favorite layout of the week from the gallery. Watch for Brandi's creations using the same design team kit that the rest of us will be using this month. We still don't know what it is cause Jill is keeping it secret!

In her own words, here is the scoop on Brandi.

I'm Brandi Pitts (aka drewsmama). I am a SAHM to 2 adorable little girls. Drew Elizabeth is 4 & Addyson is 15 months. They are our miracles. They are wild and crazy and active and did I mention cute? I have been married to Jason for 14 years. Before becoming a mama I was an elementary teacher for 7 years and I have a degree in art education (though I've never taught art! LOL!). I live in Texas, way out in the country, and I'm perfectly content to stay home everyday--in my pjs!  I have been scrapping my entire life but the "right way" for about 12 years. I have to do something scrappy everyday or I get crabby--really! I am the queen of lists and many of them consist of projects I want to do, photos I need to scrap, and supplies I "have" to buy! I'm not really sure what my "style" is. It tends to go with my mood. Sometimes I'm simple and straight lined and then other days I'm all over the place. I do tend to fussy cut designs from patterned paper & sand everything that stays still. I discovered Memorable Seasons back in February during the Throwdown challenges (I think Telah invited me.) and I've hung around since then. I'm super excited to have been the Last Scrapper Standing and even more honored to be a guest designer. I hope that I can be as much an inspiration to you all as this site has been to me.

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Using tags on your layout

I have a big supply of tags in my stash. Most of them came from the office supply store. They come in different sizes and in both white and manilla colors. Here is a link to Office Depot that shows a variety of the kind of tags I use most. They are inexpensive and come with several to a package. I like to dress them up. I use them on layouts. I make bookmarks out of them. I also make gift tags from them. They are fun additions to a gift bag, too. Here is one I added to a gift bag and one that is meant to be a bookmark.

This one that I made this past week that will probably end up on a gift bag or even a layout.

They are a great way to use up scraps and help fuel that creative urge you feel every once in a while but don't have time for a full layout. There are also many varieties of premade tags available to use for your projects. Just about any paper collection usually comes with assorted die cuts to match. Most of the time, those die cuts include at least a couple of tags.


I created the tags on this layout for the challenge this week using stamps. I wanted to create a stamped background on my tags but the ink I have to match these papers was too dark. To correct that, I inked the stamp, stamped a scrap piece of paper and then stamped my tag. There was enough ink left on the stamp to make a light impression and keep the background light enough for me to add my journaling.  I also inked the edges to make them stand out against the yellow background paper.

The final page using the stamps

Your challenge this week is to use tags on your layout.

It is a Friend Raising Drive!

Here at Memorable Seasons, we love our members. It is exciting to see our membership grow. We have a little over 450 members at this moment. We like that we have friends all across the country but we want more friends. Will you help us make more friends? As an incentive for you to ask your friends to become our friends, we are having a contest. Our goal is 500 members. The 500th person to sign up for membership will receive a $20 GC to the store and the person who invited them will get one, too! Doesn’t that sound fun? All you have to do is invite your friends. Post it on Facebook. Post it on your blog. Send out mass emails to all your scrapbooking friends. Tell them to say hello in the Welcome forum and mention who sent them. Let’s see how fast we can get to 500.