Last Day to Make Your Challenge Page!

If you are participating in the DT challenge this month, tomorrow is the deadline for submission. Here is my rendition of the November DT Page Map. The most challenging part of building this layout was getting the word "twenty" to print all the way around in a circle aligned to my cutting dimension requirements. I used Art Publisher Pro software to create this. It's an inexpensive software package I bought at Staples a few years ago. I originally bought it to create a newsletter for my church, but it has since found new purposes, namely in my scrapbooking. It has a lot of templates and tools to allow you to create some very cool special effects. I am certain there are ways to do this in Photoshop as well, but I am not a very sophisticated Photoshop user nor am I a digital scrapper, so I have stuck with a user friendly product that I know.

Now back to the best part of scrapbooking - paper and paste! Except for the dark brown craft paper (Anna Griffin) and cardstock, everything on this layout is from the SEI Moravia line of papers and embellishments. I used a number of epoxy elements as well from the kit. I know a lot of our readers like that crazy distressed look I add to my pages. On this layout it is on those crazy circles. The key to getting this distressed look on circles is to run your finger nail over the edges like you would use a scissor blade to curl ribbon. The effect is similar on the paper edge; it makes it curl up. Do this before you apply chalk ink to the edges. The ink used on this layout was Powder Puff chalk ink in Amaretto by Quick Quotes.

Hope this inspires you to get together your layout for this month's challenge. And to create some very distressed circles!!