Oct... its the new December

My kids are getting older and there social lives are reflecting that. Now that both of them are in school it is twice as tricky to keep the family flowing smoothly through the weekend's activities arriving at each event on time and properly dressed for the occasion. Honestly, sometimes spreadsheets are involved.

This past October the calendar was busier than ever. I think the idea was to get all of the school's big events out of the way before the holidays began, after all December is very busy. Since November has lots of days off, only one full week of school for the month, that left October being the best option to plan events. Between school, family, friends and extracurricular events our calendar was so packed that we had to wait until November to have the kids' birthday party.

That was the inspiration behind this layout and the fun title.

Simple Stories did a great job with this line. I love that their papers have so many visual layers to them.

The visual layers inspired me to create layers in my layout. This CELEBRATE LIFE tag was printed on the corner of the calendar page. It was also on another paper. I cut it out of the other paper and added it on the corner of the calendar page using foam dots to create dimension.

I did the same thing on the opposite page with the banner. I just used a pair of detail scissors that I bought at ScrapbooksPlus and cut the banner out. It was that easy. It is also a fast and inexpensive way to "make" your own embellishments. I especially love this trick when I am making a layout and I can't find the right embellishments for my page. It is fast and affordable since you only need the papers you are already using, detail scissors and foam or pop dots.