Muir Woods scrapbook layout (CQC #82)

Hey there! It's Tuesday and that means time for another colourQ challenge! The colors this week are: Always Artichoke, Kiwi Kiss, Pear Pizzaz, and Baja Breeze. Blues and greens, my very favorite, you know! :) I saw a similar tree in the current issue of Scrapbooks, Etc. page 29 (June 2011 issue) if you want to see my jumping off point. When I first saw these pics, I was thinking more dark, woodsy, looking pages. but then this page started to take shape and I love the way it turned out! Besides, lets be real, I still have 30+ pics left from this day, so, I'm sure I can give dark and woodsy a shot somewhere along the way too! LOL  ;) 

So, I've been keeping up on this lawsuit between Cricut and Makes the Cut. Cricut won and Makes the Cut has been shut down, they are no longer able to sell the software, where you can use your Cricut to cut True Type fonts and SVG files, many of which you can get for free online. I believe Cricut is also in a lawsuit with Sure Cuts A Lot also (a similar software). I had been looking into these kinds of software for awhile and had several friends with SCAL who really loved it. So, I sensed the window of opportunity might be closing, and I purchased SCAL about a week ago. This page was my first foray into using it. Both the tree trunks and the tree shaped letters were cut using SCAL, both were free downloads as well, pretty cool, huh? I'm still getting the hang of the software, and probably will never use it's full capabilities where you can draw your own designs to have your Cricut cut them. Digital drawing intimidates me! 

See the bracket shaped piece on the first page, accenting my photo mat? That was actually the strip you normally cut off the paper, that shows you what the pattern on the other side of the paper looks like? Yeah, I decided it would be a great accent to my photo mat, here's what it looked like before I cut it:

I love these color challenges, because it forces me to rummage through my old stash looking for stickers and accents in just the perfect colors! There are some REALLY old stickers on this page, feels so good to use them! :)

Well, that is it for me today, or as my Papa would have said, "That's all she wrote!" I hope YOU have a stellar day, and, if you pop by once in awhile, would you do me a favor and follow this blog? I'm trying to get my total number of followers up to 60 by my first "Blogoversary" which is in a little less than a month. I'm at 53 now, so only seven to go! I'd love to have you join me, thanks.  :)

-Noelle

supply list: cloud patterned paper: American Crafts; letter stickers: MME; solid cardstock and corduroy brads: SU!; patterned scraps for tree circles: K&Company and MME; punches: EK Success; leaf & tree stickers: Sticko; "perfect" and "memories" stickers: K&Company; quote sticker: ki memories; glitter buttons: Recollections; epoxy stickers: Sticko; Cricut and SCAL software; Top Note Die: SU!; resin flower: Prima; "Imagine" sticker: Daisy D's; journaling stickers: Simply Luxe

DUST IT OFF!: Use a strip that you would have thrown out and cut a design off of it (or punch it!), like I did with my bracket. The quote sticker, the"Imagine" sticker and journaling stickers are really old, also I used scraps to punch out my tree circles.