the fort

This week marked the beginning of a new series of sketch challenges at Scrapbook Steals.  I love their challenges for lots of reasons, but mostly because it allows me to work with any products I have on  hand.  Lots of manufacturers have challenges, but you are required to use specific products, which I don't always have.  Scrapbook Steals also gives out a wonderful prize package each and every week to a participant picked at random.  I love that everyone has the same chance to win.  I've been playing along with their challenges, every single week, for 10 different gemstone series and for 50 weeks before that when they were numbered MWM sketches.  If my math is correct, that puts me at over 150 weeks of participation.  Every single week I've played along, looking forward to Wednesday when the new sketch is revealed.  I have even managed to get the challenge completed while we've been vacationing, camping, etc.  This challenge serves as my weekly motivation and reminds me that I don't have to be caught up or scrap my photos in order.  I just need to scrap whatever moves me. 

This week I was inspired to use this photo of my kids and their cousins and the "fort" they built in the woods.  Without even knowing they were doing work, they picked up sticks for Uncle Russ and stacked them up against the wood pile to create their very own fort, with a seat for each of them.  They had a blast and I love that they had fun with no toys, no electronics, just imagination.  My cousins and I spent hours in these same woods, building "forts" and playing house and building imaginary houses amongst hay bales, woodpiles, or whatever we could find.  Thanks to the random mishmash of colors the kids were wearing, I had to keep things rather neutral.  For this layout I combined lots of "earthy" elements from my stash, including papers from Imaginisce, American Crafts, Studio Calico, and Authentique.