Halloween is almost here and if you are like me, you are looking for easy ways to make it more festive. Here are some of my favorite resources and ideas:

I’m really excited to share my newest video tutorial with you! It’s all about how, when, and why to use standard size (8.5x11) templates for scrapbooking and other projects. I also show how to change this size into a square layout and how to use 12x12 templates to create letter size pages. I hope you find lots of inspiration and fun ideas from watching!

There are many scrapbookers who love a rectangle page format - meaning a standard 8.5x11 paper size. These types of layouts fit in binder-style scrapbooks and are very versatile. Many love this size because it’s easy to print at home. While I’m usually a square scrapper (12x12 or smaller size), I also love having the option for letter size scrapbooking. I especially used this format when working with my kids back in our homeschool days. There are so many options for this size of page and now I have some standard size templates in my shop!

My entire family came to visit a few weeks ago and we celebrated an early Thanksgiving together. This is a new tradition we established a few years ago and I love having our gathering in October instead of the usual Thanksgiving weekend. I’ve always thought the Canadians had the right idea by celebrating in October and now we do that too. It’s less expensive for those who want to fly because it’s not peak travel time. It’s less crowded on the roads, and the weather is usually much better than late November. I also like that it puts more space between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I posted a reel of our Thanksgiving table and shared a few details here. (turn the sound on for the music)

I finally got my September roundup done! I usually do this no later than the first week of the following month, but I got behind due to our early Thanksgiving celebration + a tiny bit of laziness. I was determined to keep up my long-standing habit (haven't missed a month since January of 2006!) and I'm so glad I took the time to get this done!
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You don't have to do your roundup in layout form, but that's how I love to do mine. I love combining the memories, news, photos, and moments of the past month into a page that can go in our family photo books.

I love this time of year for many reasons, and the annual release of a new Adobe Photoshop Elements program is right up there on the list! I’m always excited when I get my invite to the press unveiling of the new release and it’s always hard to wait until release day to share the details with all of you. This year, the unveiling took place on October 7th - right in the middle of our family’s early Thanksgiving celebration (more on that in Wednesday’s post) so I’m a little late in posting. So let me get straight to sharing the cool stuff with you!

Want to learn more about how to use digital embellishments like flowers and washi tape? I put together a brand new tutorial to celebrate the release of my Color Stories embellishments and it’s available to watch now here in this post or on my YouTube channel.

With Digital Scrapbook Day on Saturday and my new releases, I almost forgot that today was the last day of the month! I’m so glad that the roundup habit is such a part of my life, that I literally can’t forget it. I love jotting down our memories and taking some time to close out the month before I move on to the next one. So let’s roundup September and get ready for a great October!

I know some scrappers like to get together in person or virtually on Digi Scrap Day (the first Saturday in October) so I think it’s helpful to get your supplies purchased and downloaded to prepare for some fun creative time.

I have some new and exciting designs this time - they are a little different than anything I’ve done before and I’m really excited about them!