Let's be Frank!

Hello, it's me! Like Fayette said we have been busy with family stuff and even designing.

Our son is getting married and I've been busy designing a wedding invitation for them. We also sent another son on an LDS mission so lots of work preparing him for that. Fayette mentioned crying at her son's last football game. I've also shed a few tears as my kids get married, have children of their own, leave for missions and just "grow up"! Mostly happy things but another chapter in my life that has ended even though I know there's good things ahead with change. As I get older, I appreciate life even more and every day is a blessing. So it's good that we all love to treasure our memories through scrapbooking! Take lots of pictures, make beautiful layouts and never forget the "everyday moments"!

And yes, we've been busy at my house doing Halloween stuff too. My boys put on a big spook alley and invited all their friends. They made dummys, ghosts, a HUGE spider, cut off arms and anything gorey you could think of. And they did it with household items or stuff from second hand stores. They were very creative when making the props. They used beans, crumpled newspaper and foam to form the "guts", wrapped those huge stuffed animals with paper mache and made them into dummies and draped them with old sheets, fabric, old clothes and wigs. They made tombstones and coffins out of cardboard etc. They surprised me with everything they made. It was a lot of work for them but they had fun doing it and it was a huge success! Hey, I guess if they aren't using their creative talents doing scrapbooking, they may as well be creative doing things like this! Ha!

And we also do "Trunk or Treat" here in our area but ours was last night so it doesn't conflict with the kids coming on Halloween night! By the way, for those of you who don't know what "Trunk or Treat" is, everyone who wants to participate in the the neighborhood (or community) all park their cars in one area (like a church parking lot) and you decorate the trunk of your car and hand out candy. The kids dress up in their costumes and trick or treat from one car to the other. It's fun for the kids and a safe place for them to get candy.

Thanks to all of you for your support and messages. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE looking at the creative things you've done. There were some beautiful layouts created with the free template we gave. Thanks so much for sharing and being part of our lives!

Annette

Keeping Up....and Keeping Busy

Man, it seems like the days just fly by...and before we know it, it's been several days since we've posted here. Annette and I have both been really busy with family stuff. I'll let her fill you in on all of her fun activities if she wants :) Maybe that will get her to make a post here :P

I spent tonight as my last night as a high school football mom. I was SO SAD as my son's last game came to an end. His team lost a heart breaker game, which kept them out of the state tournament...so that made it even more sad on our end. I could hardly maintain my emotions..and then when he walked over after the game and gave me a big hug...I just lost it. Even though I freeze to death much of the time, it has been such a fun part of the past 9 years for us (he started in little league at 8). Oh well....life goes on, kids grow up...and we find new things to fill our time with. *sob*

Are any of you doing any fun activities for Halloween? We're having a big party here Friday night...lots of fun "scary" foods that my grandkids get excited about. We make witch fingers , monster eyeballs :), and monster guts soup in bread bowls shaped like pumpkins *snicker* I know....it's kinda mean). Unfortunately, this year my GROWN kids are forcing me to go to "trunk or treat" with them and the grandkids......that's BLASPHEMY to me. I think that whole Trunk or Treat thing has ruined Halloween...but then again, I'm kinda old and I don't like fun things like that to change. I love having the cute little kids knock at my door. I used to have over 100 kids ring our bell (I live ummm..in the middle of nowhere...ask Annette) Last year we had 8 kids...stupid Trunk or Treat :P Hey...does anyone want to know how I really feel? :P In spite of it...we're going to have some fun and we hope you do too!



Anyway, take lots of pics of your activities and get them scrapped. Just as a reminder, for those of you who got the free template, I'd LOVE to have you send me an image of your projects, or just send a link to where you have it posted so that I can put it in a slide show. We'll announce a winner from the previous post in a couple of days...so you still have time to leave a comment and enter!

We have some WiNnErS!

....and the winner is......

EVERYONE who added a comment to our last post (Just a peek... and a prize) and all of our FOLLOWERS as of today, Oct. 23 at 9:30 am MST -- that's a LOT of WiNnErS. We thought this would be a fun way to start things off with our first contest.

So, if you made one of the comments or are following our blog...send your email address to fayettedesigns@comcast.net and I'll send you this cute double page template.



Now...there's a catch to this freebie (isn't there always?) We want to see what you DO with the template. So...please post a link showing us what you created using the template--whether you use it digitally or as inspiration for your paper crafts. We want you to share your talents with us and everyone that reads our blog. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions or comments about using our templates.

**edited to add: We've already had one sample sent to us using the template and I just sent it out about four hours ago!...it was DARLING. Thanks Kris :) I'd LOVE to add a slide show to the blog showing all of the projects that you create using these templates, so PLEASE add a comment and share link with us. I can usually save the image from the link, so please let me know if it's okay if I use your image in the slide show :)

Btw...we also want to know your opinion about the templates. They're so much cuter with a bit of color in them...but we don't want that to make them more limiting or challenging to use. So, let us know which you prefer...color (like the one above) or black & white (like the one in the previous post). Tell us your preference here in the comments...and we'll enter you into a drawing for AnOThER PriZe that we'll give away in a few days!

Just a peek...and a prize :)

We've been busy creating a few new things -- no, we're not ready to reveal anything yet. HOWEVER....we thought we'd give you just a little peek at something that we put together today.

Annette created a darling page template,

and then I used her template to create a digital layout about my sweet little granddaughter, BrookeLynne. Of course...I had to use some new digital designs. I know...it's mean to share when we can't really SHARE yet...but hey, it gives you something to look forward to.

Let us know what you think. We'd love to find out if there are any "template" digital scrappers that follow our blog. We'd also love any suggestions you may have about other things you'd like to see us create :)

Let's make this interesting...if you make a comment to this post we'll put you in a drawing to receive a digital template. And...if you add yourself to the list of scrappers who "follow this blog" (see link to your right), we'll put another entry in for your name. And don't worry...if you're already following the blog...you'll get an entry in the drawing.

Familiar Faces

It's so nice to see your friendly (and very familiar) names and faces in our "followers" section. We hope that section of our blog just keeps growing! We know that we're not doing a lot of posting or idea sharing right now. We'll try to do something about that before too long :) We've been busy getting things sorted and trying to finalize the direction that we want to move in the future. Sorry...no announcement about that yet...but stay tuned. We'll get it figured out before long :)

In the meantime, we're managing to keep busy. Besides designing, we're keeping busy with our kids and grandkids. Life goes on...and we'll keep smiling and doing our best.

Here's a little something to let you know how we feel about you :)

Yes, we love you, and appreciate your friendship and support :) Ok, I'd better quit before Annette calls and tells me I'm getting too mushy *snicker* Btw...this little owl is a card design for a new company. Click on the card and you can see some of my other designs.

Keeping in Touch!

We've appreciated everyone's comments about our big announcement. Thanks so much for your support and friendships. We've heard from so many of you, many that we hadn't heard from in years. It's been a very bright spot for us.

We've added an email subscription to our blog to make it a little easier for you to keep in touch with us. We've also added a "follow the Ettes & Company" gadget...we'd LOVE to put your pics in this section...so feel free to sign up.

Goodbye Breezy . . . Hello Ettes & Company!

We know that many of you have been wondering what has been going on with the “Ettes”. Well, as you can see by the new banner on our blog, we are making some big changes. We have given our resignation to the owners of Breezy Design. For those of you who subscribe to the Paper Seeds kits, we have created the kit for November, but will not design anything beyond that for the company.

We have had such wonderful times developing new products and meeting many of you over the years. We hope that you know how much it has meant to us. Like many of you have said as we’ve been through previous transitions . . . we will never lose, nor forget, the friends that we’ve made along the way.

We are sad to see this chapter in our lives end, but we’re anxious to move on to new projects and see what the future holds for us. We have several possibilities in the works that we’re excited about. We decided to just continue on with our blog…since it was “ours”. We’ll keep everyone updated here. We hope that you will follow us as we continue in our endeavor to share our love of designing – we’re not ready to give up on being the “Ettes”.

Again, thank you for your support, and know that we appreciate having had the opportunity to work with such a wonderful, talented group of people. We look forward to sharing our designs in many different ways in the very near future.

still . . . the “Ettes”

Annette & Fayette