Every summer I’ve done a some kind of summer freebie on Mondays. The past few years, in particular, it’s been the One Day Monday Summer Freebie. However, this summer I wanted–and needed–to do something different. In part because we’ve had some rough times the past few months and I need to just keep it simple and breathe and catch up on my life for a while, but also because it’s just plain fun to mix it up. :)

What am I trying to say, you ask?

Every Monday from Memorial Day to Labor Day I will post a new word cut file for you to use. And it will be always be available for free.

What???

Yup. It’s true, ‘cause like I said, it’s fun to mix it up. :)

So just what is this all about?

A few months ago, I had the word Notice on my brain. It’s something I’m always doing–noticing, observing, being grateful for everything around me. It seemed especially relevant with all that had been happening with losing Dan’s parents and soooo much else, including recently losing my brother too.

And the word just stuck with me for some time. And then I realized…I needed to do something with it.

So this summer I’m giving you Notice. Every week I will have a small set of words (2-4) created in the same style that feature subjects that one might take notice of during the summer. While you can use these any way you want, a fabulous idea would be to create a summer-themed ‘Notice’ album. An album to truly take in all the bits and pieces of the summer season that you notice.

Sometimes I feel like summers can just fly by. Perhaps using these free words will prompt you to notice more and more.  Plus, I would love for you guys to offer suggestions of summer topics that you notice and perhaps one week I’ll make your words the freebie. :)

To start of our freebie summer season, we have…well…Summer Season, which also includes the word Notice. Two (well three words technically) to get you off to a great start!

 

And here’s the lovely Miss Tazhi with a beautiful idea! Leave it to Tazhi to wield her magic with inking a diecut. Wow! And the Inked stamp too for perfectly placed splats is the best!

 

 

 

Hey friends, Tazhi here with a layout featuring the first freebie of this season! I knew the second I saw this piece that it would be perfect for documenting all the green things that have been popping up in our neighborhood and that I was going to die cut it and blend some Distress Oxide inks over top.

I started by cutting it with my Silhouette machine – this cut is roughly sized 4.5×9 inches – and then blended my inks – Kitsch Flamingo, Worn Lipstick, Shabby Shutters and Bundled Sage – over top with some blending brushes while it was still on the mat. This is one of my favorite ways to customize die cuts and to stretch your supplies a bit further and the reveal once it’s pulled out of the mat is so worth it. 

For the rest of my layout, I decided to go with a grid design so I printed all of my photos as well as my story and a tag embellishment at 2×3 inches and then cut some strips of cardstock that matched the color scheme to create a basket weave effect that would separate my elements. After matting all of the various bits and pieces, I stuck them down in the empty wells and went to work on embellishing. I pulled out the Inked and The Nature of Spring stamp sets to add a bit more color and some sentiments in black across the page and finished the layout off with a few puffy stickers! 

I hope this inspired you to look at these digital elements a bit differently and to make a grid style layout for your next project!