All that awesome was a treat - Layout No. 1 with the Scraptastic Boys of Summer Kit

Well, hello there and welcome !  I am always so glad when you take the time to stop by and there have been more and more of you doing so;  so I am doubly grateful.

I have started using the August Scraptastic Kit, the Boys of Summer Kit. I got the main kit and the add-on.  I must say that when I chose the kit, I was not really sure.  The colours are what convinced me to choose this one and in all honesty, the other kit was just too themey for me (it was the Celebration kit, a birthday themed kit).  But then this kit seemed geared to boys, young boys.  I don't have boys (except for the four-legged kind) and the "boys" in my family, and extended family, are either adults, young adults, or babies.  None of them are "gamey" types either.  I was sceptical .... BUT I was worried for nothing.  I loooove this kit so far. I have made 4 layouts and am not having trouble at all using all the fun stuff.  I got the extra wood veneer, from all the kits,  so that helps (the ones that are really geared toward games have been put in a give-away pile, but that still leaves me plenty to play with).  We also got a lovely gift of very useable flair and I bought extra flair.  Some of the die-cuts may need altering but all in all I am really happy with the kit.  Yay !

Here is the first layout I made :

What I did that was new to me :  I incorporated one of the large die-cuts into my title.  I love it and this is an example of "altering" the die-cut.  The bottom half of the die-cut is under the photo block.  The words continue with "in such a little kid".  That part was not useable for me.  The top part made an awesome beginning to my title and then I just continued using colourful little stickers from the Fancy Pants sticker sheet !  What do you think?

The supplies:  Since this is the first layout with the kit, everything on the page comes from the kit with very few exceptions.  I had a partial pack of the Fancy Pants Be Different 6 X 6 paper pad in my stash so added that to my homemade add-on since quite a bit of that collection is in the kit.  I used two sheets of the 6 X 6 pad for layering, the star and polka dot papers to the left and right of the photos.  The only other items from my own add-on are:

• the star wood veneer which came in one of my last Simon Says Stamp card kits,
• the gems which are from Bo Bunny (and part of the 10 embellishment packs I put aside for the October challenge over on our nicolejones911 Facebook group)
• The brads are from My Mind's Eye Lost and found 3 (Oliver) and also part of my challenge pack.

The story:  Planting garlic in our climate can be tricky.  It is a bulb so should be planted in the fall at the same time as tulips and other bulbs.  Some years are easier than others...The temperature needs to be cold enough that the plant will not sprout but not too cold to shock the bulb, or to make working the earth difficult.  It is often a very narrow window.  In 2012, we totally missed the window.  It was a terribly rainy autumn and then turned bitterly cold ... on days we thought we could plant, it poured!  I had read somewhere that there was a variety that could be planted in the spring.  So we had a fallback - phfewww!!! We diligently planted the garlic in the spring of 2013.  And, you ask?  MONUMENTAL FAIL!!! no garlic, not a one, nada.  As if that weren't enough, we missed the window again in the fall of 2013.  At that point, we just gave up.  But for some reason, we did not touch the area that had been planted in the spring when we planted the rest of the garden this year!  And .... drum roll .... LO AND BEHOLD...look what 2014 brought us!  A total surprise, a total treat - the best garlic EVER lol.  

So there you have the story of the garlic :).  What about this year?  It is shaping up to be a difficult one again .... it is 22 deg C today and has been all week!  But we almost planted last weekend because we had had a ground frost two weeks earlier.  The plan now is to plant on the 25th.  I will keep you posted (I know you just can't wait to know LOL).

Have a wonderful rest of the week and I will be back on the weekend with another layout and another silly story ! Hugs xo