Lucky me!

The weekly challenges at Scrapbook Steals are seriously the highlight of my week.  My typical week involves working 40 hours, doing 4-7 loads of laundry, cooking, cleaning, packing lunches, helping with homework, attending worship and church activities, shuttling kiddos to and from activities and appointments, and spending time with my family.  With all of these responsibilities, I really do look forward to some "me" time.  The weekly challenge is a good excuse to escape to the basement and get away from it all.  This is my creation for the week:

This layout features my "in real life" meeting with the fabulous Kristy Lee.  Kristy is the genius mind behind most of the weekly sketches at Scrapbook Steals, and she only has two more weeks to work for them :(  I'm excited about Kristy's new adventures, but bummed to be losing her from the Steals network.  She is a beautiful person inside and out and I'm so lucky to say I've met her in real life.   For this layout I used lots and lots of MME, from three different collections.  This is the original sketch by Kristy Lee that inspired it all:

I'm a guest designer for We R Memory Keepers!

With the back to school routine in full swing, I was thrilled to have the chance to be a guest designer for We R Memory Keepers, using their fun new Hall Pass collection.  I was lucky enough to be a teaching assistant at CHA Chicago and got a sneak peak at this collection during the "Tool School" class.  The colors are so fun and fresh and are perfect for my boy pages!  I dug thru a stack of dusty photos and found these back to school pics from three years ago that were still waiting to be scrapped (yikes....I'm a little behind).  This collection was the perfect match for my photos!  The embossed tags and stickers have great texture and the papers are slightly distressed, adding lots of character!

 

In addition to my layout, I decided to get a jump start on the holidays and I created this altered clipboard that will be the perfect gift for my son's teacher. I simply cut out some of my favorite patterned papers and adhered them to a wooden clipboard with a thin layer of matte mod podge.  I added a die cut sticker across the seam, personalized it with some die cut letters, and sealed the whole project with another layer of mod podge.   It was super fun and super cute.  I think Mrs. Miller will love it!

 



Thanks to We R Memory Keepers for giving me the opportunity to be a guest designer and for letting me show off this wonderful collection!  Check out the rest of their great products and find out where to purchase them HERE!

If you're visiting my blog for the first time, I'd love for you to stick around and become a "follower" by clicking on the link in the sidebar.  I'm planning a blog giveaway next month to show my appreciation for my faithful followers.  Thanks for stopping by!

Perfectly Pearl!

I've completed another 10 layouts for the gemstone series at Scrapbook Steals.  This group was the "pearl" group, and I'm happy to say that I completed all 10 of them on time!  Now I'm crossing my fingers and hoping to be selected by random.org as the winner of a fabulous prize pack.  In order to enter the drawing, I have to compile all 10 layouts in this blog post.  If you're a faithful follower, you've already seen these layouts, but just consider this a bonus showing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the bean

This week's layout for Scrapbook Steals came together very quickly.  I featured a couple pictures from Chicago and loved the memories these pictures brought back!  The boys and I traveled by Amtrak from Elkhart, IN to Milwaukee, WI where hubby was training for work.  We had a three hour layover in Chicago so we ventured out from Union Station and found Millenium Park.  The boys had such a great time playing around the Cloud Gate sculpture (a.k.a. the Bean) and I had a blast taking pictures.

 

 

For this layout, I combined pieces from several different manufactures.  If you look closely, you'll see papers and embellishments from American Crafts, Authentique, and My Mind's Eye!  Here's the sketch by Kerys Sharrock that inspired it all:

 



Go Big! Challenge

I've had a bit of a scrappy hiatus, thanks to a pesky pinched nerve in my neck.  I'm finally feeling better, thanks to some amazing muscle relaxers, and I decided to play along with the Paper Girls challenge.  Some of my scrappy friends are part of the Paper Girls Challenge and this month they challenged their followers to go big, using a picture 5x7 or larger on a project.  I printed my photo 11x14 (less than $3 at Sam's Club) and then cut my photo down to fit within my 12x12 page. 

This layout came together very quickly, thanks to some crafty short cuts I took.  I adhered my large photo, added a paper strip at the top along with a homemade sun.  For the strip along the bottom, I just cut up a piece of the packaging from the Echo Park Splash collection. I used a border punch along the bottom and added the "Fun in the Sun" strip and some stickers for my title.  Voila!

 

Amazing

I decided to feature my grandfather in this week's sketch challenge for Scrapbook Steals.  The one photo layouts are hard for me, as I often have too many pictures to choose from.  The pressure of having only one photo also means it must be a great one.  I came across this photo of my Grandpa Wilford and decided that it was perfect for this sketch, as I had a lot to say about him and this sketch had plenty of room for journaling. 

I combined papers from MLS, October Afternoon, Simple Stories, the Paper Studio, and Echo Park, in the perfect tribute layout to my amazing grandfather.  He really is an inspiration and a blessing to me.  As I wrote out this journaling, I found myself teary eyed and missing home more than ever.  It's hard living 6 hours away from my loved ones.  November will be my next trip home, so I'm looking forward to a great visit with my Grandpa.

Here's the sketch by Kristy Lee that inspired my layout: