Catching up!

In all of the excitement of Spring Break and our Disney vacation, I've neglected my blog.  Even with being gone a week, I managed to complete all of my Scrapbook Steals layouts on time.  I miss the sunny skies of Florida, but I am excited to start my Disney scrapbook.  At least the crappy weather here gives me an excuse to retreat to the basement to get crafty.  Here's what I've been doing over the past several weeks.

The week #36 challenge sketch looked something like this:

And instead of packing for vacation, I was busy creating this:

I actually enjoyed this layout very much.  Since I was pressed for time, I was forced to "go with it" and just get 'er done instead of agonizing over every little thing and redoing the page a zillion times (like I sometimes do).

Then when I returned from a blissful week of Disney magic, I found out that I needed to create a 2 page layout based on this sketch:

So while I did 6 loads of vacation laundry, I tried to forget that I had to return to work and I escaped to my crafty world and managed to get this layout done:

It was perfect for last year's zoo photos.  I always take a million pics at the zoo and I wanted to work in as many as I could.  My favorite thing about this layout is my stitched sun, truly an afterthought.  I needed something to balance out the page, since there is so much on the left page.  I broke out my sew easy and stitched the sun's rays in different colors and stitches.  It turned out better than I expected!
This week I'm back on track, have all of my laundry done and my house clean and I was able to relax and get back into my crafty routine.  This week's Scrapbook Steals sketch went a little something like this:

I wasn't in a "holiday" mood, but decided to dig out my pics of our gingerbread house.  I knew they would fit this layout and be perfect for this week's challenge:

I wasn't sure how to do my title, but after cutting out a few different sets of letters, I settled on these.  I added some white craft paint to the tops of the letters and sprinkled on some glitter.  It was a little messy, but not as bad as making that gingerbread house, so I just went with it.
Thanks for looking!