Happy Monday! It is an unbelievable 30 degrees here in Toronto today – wowza! I guess I can officially move my winter sweaters out of the closet and into my dresser for the season. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Welcome back to another edition of Mint-spirational Monday, our weekly spotlight of the best pages and projects from the Peppermint Creative Gallery. With the long weekend in the US, I know lots of you are away or busy making summer plans so there was definitely a noticeable shortage of pages in the gallery this week. But that’s ok because the pages I do have to share with you this week are simply AMAZING.

Let’s check out this week’s standouts:

Growing up Friends | by: Tasha
This page is just stunning. So summery and fun but mostly importantly, thanks to Missy’s Templates Set.5 it is also filled with pictures! What I LOVE the most is the way the page is designed with the photos stacked on top of one another is really helps the pictures blend together almost to give us one giant scene of the girls running and rolling down a big hill. It’s hard to explain so I hope you understand what I’m trying to get at! I love the way the Uniquely You Kit was used for this page and how it was paired so nicely with the Stitched Felt Alphabet – Melon and the Push Button Alphabet – Sand. As my team has pointed out to me I tend to use a lot of the same colors when I design so you will find that lots of the alphabets and extra embellishments will easily coordinate with many kits. So don’t be afraid to mix and match and pull items that ‘don’t belong’ into your pages.

Draculaura | by: KirstieGai
Speaking of mixing and matching elements this page is a PERFECT example. The brilliant mix of pinks, purples and blacks from 3 different kits makes for a totally funky, yet girlie Halloween style page. Kirstie cleverly combined the Fright Night Kit with the Prettiest Princess Papers and Elements and the Sweet Cheeks Papers and Elements to practically make a whole new kit! One I wish I would have made to be honest! Love the great photos and the clever title as well.

Class of 2010 | by: Missys3lilbugs
It’s graduation season! Love this ADORABLE page. Created using Missy’s Templates Set.6 and a seamless mix of the Congrats Grad Mini Kit and the Whiz Kid Kit. I LOVE all the layers, the bold mix of so many prints and all the elements tucked here and there. Did you notice the cut addition of the little ribbon tails to the ‘Class of 2010′ title? AWESOME. I also love the look of the star bursts stamped in the background – this really gives the page a pop of excitement – although I am a huge fan of having stuff stamped in the background. Missy used the Magical Mats for this page which are quickly becoming my second favorite stamp set EVER.

Perfectly Wonderful | by: Cherry Limeades
Another perfectly delightful page created using Missy’s Templates (Set 4) and the Uniquely You Kit. I just love the layering of the flowers and circles on the side. This page demonstrates a great tip – using black and white pictures is not only a great way to get your photos to work with any kit but it can also be great way to get pictures taken at different times (that might have different lighting, or coloring) to look more uniform like the ones below.

Kid Pitch | by: Missys3lilbugs
Sports PERFECTION! I’m a huge fan of pages that feature a series of photos. I just love them and I LOVE how Missy captured the second by second play by play of the all important pitch! Great shots! This page features the Work It Paper and Element Pack mixed with the Sports Star Element Pack and of course Missy’s Template’s Set.5. I guess it is a total coincidence that these pictures happen to coordinate with these kits perfectly :) Really fun one.

Thunderbirds | by: marylee
And last – but certainly not least is this brilliant double page spread from MaryLee. A fantastic slice of American pride :) I love that she used the Stars & Stripes Papers and Elements originally designed for July 4th for this page and it works PERFECTLY! The absolutely stunning pictures really take centre stage and don’t require much element embellishment.

And that does it for this week! Don’t forget to post your pages in the Peppermint Creative Gallery. Every month one lucky scrapper will be awarded a $5 gift card to the store just for posting – plus you could be featured here on the blog :) Thanks to everyone who posted. Hope you’re all feeling Mint-spired. ;)