Where to begin?

Seriously? Has it really been over a week since I blogged? Really? Is there really only one more week of summer left? Really? Where has the summer gone? Really? (Anybody else love the Really???!!! with Seth and Amy skits from Saturday Night Live?) Really it is no laughing matter that as much as I will miss my little crazies, it is TIME FOR THEM TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL. They are sucking my creative will to live. Really. Ok, it is not them per se, it is the fact that I have to moderate arguments about such weighty topics as whose big toe is bigger, who really went under water the most (really??), and who should get a stamp for cleaning up the mess that they just made themselves. Really???!!!! That and the fact that we haven't seen a temperature under 110 in...ummm... weeks now, is just exhausting me to the very core of my existence. Not that it won't be tiring to get back into the school schedule, because it most certainly will, but at least I will have a few fight free mornings to clear my head!
With all the afternoon heat we have been inside crafting a ton. I went through a ton of old 4x6's and pulled out the ones I know I'll never use and passed them on to the kids--they LOVE them. So while they are busy scrapbooking, I did get a few things done.
Here is a quick tutorial I did for GCD Studios:
Do you ♥ the GCD Studios Bottle Cap Pins from The Great Outdoors collection as much as I do?

I wanted to do something a bit different with them and decided to make them into a banner. But I wanted them to hang from the twine and rough the banner up a bit. I started by laying out the bottle caps on the Funhouse Garland to see how many I would need for my banner.

 Then I punched a hole at the top center of the bottle caps using my Cropadile.

 Next I looped some jute through the holes...

 and tied them onto the twine.

 And there you have it-- a quick and fun way to make a bottle cap banner! Now just add it to your layout,

pop some of the pennants up with a dimensional adhesive and add a chipboard star for a whimsical look!

And how about a layout I made for MyStampBOX, you can see the description on their blog HERE.

And a card for the MSB sketch challenge HERE.

Here is the sketch:

and here is my take where I rotated the sketch:

There is also a layout sketch challenge going on at Scrapbook Circle. DT member Nicole Nowosad created this fab sketch:

and here is my layout:

If you make a layout with the Scrapbook Circle sketch be sure to post it to the Scrapbook Circle Facebook page by August 3rd and you will be in the running for a $15 credit to the Scrapbook Circle store!

Ok that is enough deluge after the drought. Have a great end to the week!

♥ Rebecca