Astonishing Aquamarine

The majority of my blog posts are inspired by Scrapbook Steals and their weekly sketch challenge.  Not only do they bring us amazing daily deals on scrappy supplies and offer wonderful giveaways, Scrapbook Steals has been a place to connect with other scrappy friends from all over the US and Canada.  Every week they post a sketch, and I play along with whatever supplies I have on hand.  Each group of 10 sketches is named after a gemstone and this week I completed the Aquamarine series.  The generous folks at Scrapbook Steals are giving away a $50 gift certificate to someone who completed all 10 sketches in this series.  Here are all my layouts for this series:

 

Live Life

This is the 10th sketch from the Aquamarine challenge at Scrapbook Steals.  The original sketch called for two vertical photos, but I substituted a horizontal 5x7 instead.  This is what I came up with:

 

The papers I used are all from the 24/seven collection by Simple Stories.  I love the trendy patterns and bright colors, especially when I am creating masculine layouts.  The textures and patterns are so fun that I didn't even use any solid cardstock anywhere on this layout.  Thanks for stopping by!



Charming

This week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals inspired me to break out a photo of my youngest.  He loves climbing and playing and doesn't mind humoring mom while I snap pictures.  The papers I used were from the Collectable series by My Mind's Eye.  I love the bold primary colors and patterns that are perfect for my boy pages. 

I decided to use kraft paper for my background, but wanted the green polka dot paper to serve as a border.  Since I hate the thought of wasting paper, I couldn't bear the thought of covering up perfectly good paper by layering, so I created a frame from the green paper.  I used my paper trimmer to cut the center out of the green paper and I stored the center piece away for another project.  I took my green "frame" and layered it right on top of a piece of 12x12 kraft cardstock.  To add some stability and to anchor the frame to the background paper, I used my sewing machine to stitch a small zig zag stitch all around the edges. 

Another "new to me" technique involves the cork photo corners.  I started with a piece of adhesive backed cork paper from my local Michael's.  I used my square punch to cut two one inch squares from the cork material.  Cutting the squares in half left me with four triangle shapes.  I trimmed away the centers of the triangles to make my own adhesive photo corners.  Cork adds amazing texture and the fact that it was already adhesive made it that much better!  Now I need to look for some new punches or die cut shapes to make more fun cork embellishments.  Thanks for stopping by!

Enjoy the Ride

This week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals was a good chance to use up some of my August kit from Gossamer Blue.  I decided to mix and match a bunch of random patterned papers and came up with this:

It's not my favorite work, but it's done.  And some weeks, that's all I have time for.  This weekend was spent camping with my family, so I hurried this one out before our trip.  It was a good excuse to play with my Silhouette Cameo, which I used to cut out the bicycle "card", the title work, and the arrows on the side of the layout. 

Explore

This week I used my Gossamer Blue August kit to complete the weekly sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals. 

I found a few pics of Caleb "in his element" and decided to go with an "exploring" theme.  The GB kit has lots of travel elements this month and since we don't travel very often, I tried to use them in a different way.  I added some stitching and distressing to the already distressed background paper and made a "clothesline" effect with some twine.  As usual, I kept adding things and messed up when I was doodling around my title.  I had to pull up some stickers and add the speech bubble/journaling spot behind my title to cover my error.  Luckily, it was an easy fix. 

Brothers

This week at Scrapbook Steals, Melodee gave us another great sketch for the weekly challenge.  When I was visiting Southern Indiana last week, I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes visiting the local scrapbook store, The Doodlebug.  It was great fun to wander through the store and chat with the owners about their trip to CHA.  Among my purchases were a few papers from the Brothers mini collection from Echo Park.  They were perfect for this week's layout featuring some old photos of my boys:

The masculine colors and patterns are great for my boy pages (I especially love the plaid).  I only wish I had picked up a few more sheets from this collection!  My only regret with this layout was my inking.  Because I can never leave well enough alone, after I finished my layout, I decided to add "just a little" ink to the edges.  A little quickly became a lot, thanks to a random swipe from my inking sponge. In an effort to even things out, I ended up with way more ink than I ever intended. I actually thought about cutting off the edges of the paper and matting it with another piece of cardstock, but I was afraid I might not be happy with that either so I decided to quit before I did any more damage. 

Genuine Boy

I had to get right on this week's mid-week mojo sketch challenge, since we were going to be traveling for most of the week.  I was glad to see a one photo, one page sketch, since I can put those together rather quickly.  I completed the layout on Wednesday, but am just now getting around to blogging about it. 

I used papers from My Mind's Eye Collectable Remarkable theme. They coordinated so nicely, with little effort, so this layout came together quickly. 

I finished the layout on Wednesday evening and hit the road on Thursday for a 6 hour road trip to visit my hometown.  We hadn't been there since Easter, and I had a wonderful weekend of family time, which ended rather sadly.  My grandfather, the most amazing man I've ever known, passed away suddenly on Sunday morning.  Luckily, I was able to visit with him over the weekend and I was able to mourn with my family.  My heart still aches to know that he's gone from his earthly home, but I'm glad he didn't have to suffer.  He was 85 years old and for the past couple years had great difficulty getting around.  Even with his physical limitations, my grandfather still insisted on getting out and about on his farm.  He and grandma would travel over their farm on the ATV he referred to as "the buggy".  When we were at my aunt's house on Thursday, Grandpa came by in the buggy to spend a little time with us and see my boys.  I just happened to have my camera handy and couldn't resist snapping a photo.

 I knew I had to be quick, because he isn't one to pose for photos.  He didn't see it coming, so he didn't have time to protest.   After I took his photo, Grandpa playfully announced that he probably broke my camera.  Little did I know, this would be my last photo of him.  I love that he's smiling and happy and that's just how I want to remember him.