Phew - i'm done!!

Well, I finished my layout for the final round of the Last Scrapper Standing contest at Create My Keepsake, and now I just sit and wait until Monday. Ack, that's the hard part, lol!! I'm so excited b/c my layout was chosen (thanks Dani!!) for layout of the day today over there! :-) So, I just knew that the challenge that seemed the "easiest" to me would prove to be the hardest! I struggled with this at the beginning and ended up giving up on my original idea. I am pleased with the end result, though. I am not holding out hopes of being the winner as I know the competition is fierce, but i'm so honored and excited to have made it this far! Anyway, here it is:

The first circle around the photo is made up of flocked dots that I handcut from Heidi Grace pp. The outside edging is handstitched and beaded. I stickled the centers of the circular paper frills, and I added a tiny bit of machine stitching around one of the circles. The photo corner is made up of circles with some beading in the center. PP is MM, Love Elsie, Heidi Grace; transparency is Hambly; letters are Thickers; scalloped circle from every jot & tittle, button is MM and heart is fancy pants (that I added tim holtz distressing powder to). This was SOO much fun to do and ended up being my favorite challenge yet! I also got to use one of my very favorite wedding photos of me and Tony :-)

So, I read that Memory Maker's Annual Reader's Idea Gallery will hit newstands on July 8th. I'm so excited about this because not only do I love their Idea Galleries and buy them every year, but this issue will have two of my layouts in - my very first time being published!! Can't wait to receive it :-)