August Blog Hop

Welcome back to our monthly Team L. I. Blog Hop!  We’re back from our July hiatus with a brand new theme and some really great projects.  If you hopped over from Connie’s blog, you are in the right place!  If you want to start at the beginning, you should head on over to Stamp-Patty’s.  Or you can start right here and we will cycle you around to the beginning.  This month, our topic is “Super Star” and I have a very special layout to share with you.  And in case you are wondering, yes, there is a prize to give away, so read all the way through to the end to figure out how to enter.

I have to apologize for my long absence.  As many of you know, I actually have two businesses, Crafty Neighbor and Crafty Neighbor Travel.  Sometimes they come together for some fun events like our annual Scrapbooking Cruise, but sometimes I have separate projects going on with each of them, and they kind of eat up all my spare time.  That has been the case for the last several weeks, so I haven’t been keeping up with the blog like I should.  I think I’ve got it all under control again, though, so look for more blog posts coming up soon.

Part of my absence was also the hiatus of our Team L. I. hop group.  Our numbers have dwindled and we didn’t want to bring you a blog hop with just 2 or 3 participants, so we gave everyone a vacation and hope that participation will pick up again once school is back in session.

Speaking of school, it brings me around to the topic of this month’s blog hop.  This topic was actually a reader suggestion from our June Hop contest, and I was really excited to see it suggested because I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it!  My son, Steven, is something of a math and science whiz (he’s studying Physics in college -  YIKES!) and one year he competed in and WON two different U.I.L. competitions on the same day.  Now what normal kid volunteers to go to school and take tests for Math and Science on a Saturday?  Only a Math and Science Super Star, that’s who.  So here’s mine:

The papers and embellishments are part of the Close to My Heart “Typeset” collection and the banner was created using the Stampin’ Up! “Hearts a Flutter stamp set and dies.  I cut the font with my QuicKutz dies Rock and Roll and Star Mini.  I still like using them for variety, and they are so much easier to use with my Big Shot than with the original hand tool. The star background paper came from a black and white Graduation paper stack I picked up at Hobby Lobby a few years back.  They still had it the last time I was there.

I did this layout as two pages because I actually had his participation certificates, and I wanted to display them along with the photo I took of him when he came home that evening.  He was so proud of those two medals that I just had to take a picture of him with them. 

I wanted to keep this as a 2-page layout, so I had to figure out a way to put both certificates on one page.  To do that, I created a couple of staggered pockets.  The back pocket is adhered to the page about 3 inches up from the bottom of the page and then the front-most pocket is adhered at the very bottom.  I used some fun embellishments from the kit to dress up the plain cardstock and I used my printer to journal onto a pre-printed card.  [For a tutorial on how to print onto journaling cards, see my “Tip of the Day” blog post on June 14, 2012.

So that’s my project for this month’s hop.  I hope you liked it!  Now, before you hop on off to see Amanda’s blog, at http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/awoodward/blog. I want to tell you how to enter our little contest.  Once again, we will be giving away a prize on each blog in the hop.  For my blog, I am giving away these acrylic disks which can be used on a number of really cute projects (I just Googled “acrylic circle paper projects” and got a ton!).  These have scalloped edges, so I’m thinking they might make a cute mini album!  Anyway, they are yours if you are the winner of my August blog hop drawing. 

So how do you enter?  Leave a comment on this blog hop project!  You can also get additional entries by liking my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/craftyneighbor and sharing the link to this blog that you find there.  The contest will remain open through August 31, 2013 and we will announce the winners on each blog on September 1^st.  So come back on the 1^st to see if you won!

Here's a full listing of all the hop participants:

Stamp-Patty by Patty Chenail
http://www.stamppattys.com/2013/08/august-blog-hop.html 

Treasure Chest of Memories by Laura Hedgecock
http://www.TreasureChestofMemories.com/sports-memories/

Paper Crafting from Another Viewpoint by Connie Walsh
http://papercraftingfromanotherviewpoint.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-is-superstar-todays-post-is-part.html

Crafty Neighbor by Cindy Murray ••YOU ARE HERE••
http://craftyneighbor.blogspot.com/2013/08/august-blog-hop.html

Stampin' Up by Amanda Woodward
http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/awoodward/blog

Thanks again for stopping by, and good luck!  No go visit our next blog in the hop: Amanda.