Farewell to Summer (SNS Sept. Challenge too!)

It was a pretty busy August around my place: lots of back to school preparations & shopping - end of summer day trips & activities we wanted to squeeze in  - project days to work on more of my sisters wedding projects while we still had opportunities (she's a teacher too).  We try to cram sooo much into those last precious days of summer, but it's kind of like an annual ritual at this point.  And it goes so fast!  Does your family have any end of summer rituals??

For us, the final celebration of summer comes Labor Day weekend.  For years my entire extended family (which really I consider my immediate family) goes to a nearby lake.  We picnic, swim, fish, bike ride, walk the dogs, you name it.  It's the perfect final blow out for summer & we had such an amazing time doing it all together.

So......since we've given summer it's official send off; it's time to think fall.  So I thought I'd give you a little fall inspiration.  And also give you a little inspiration for this month Creative Challenge too!

This month's Challenge is "Anything goes with Glitter, Embossing Powder, and/or Flocking"

I decided to take the ANYTHING part quite literally and made this adorable fall notepad.  Even a plain old notepad looks beautiful with a bit of Sparkle N Sprinkle!

I thought this would be something really nice to give to someone that will be hosting Thanksgiving.  With all the preparations that can go into getting ready for Thanksgiving; what hard working hostess wouldn't love a beautiful little notebook to keep track of all of her shopping & to do lists for all the preparations.  (And it's so perfectly pretty with it's SNS touches of course!)

The beautiful Basket of Apples is from Set 474 - Fall Harvest and is colored with Copic markers.

To make the saying pop off of the printed paper; I used White Detail embossing powder.  And warm & sparkly accents were added in two places by adding a strip of Sparkling Coffee Sparkle N Soft (glittery flocking) between the printed papers and also on the brads.

While I designed it with Thanksgiving in mind; it certainly would be a lovely little gift for so many other occasions/people too -  how about for a teacher's gift (apple for the teacher?) or for a friend at church?  There's so many other great ideas I'd bet you can come up with.

So I hope you enjoyed today's project.  Don't forget to let me know what you think.  And don't forget to join in on the fun for this month's challenge too!  We always look forward to see what you come up with!

Until next time,

***Julie***