Summer Lovin'

This week is the start of a new 10 week series of sketch challenges at Scrapbook Steals.  Having this weekly inspiration really does push me to create and means I will complete at least 1 layout a week.  After over 160 weeks of this, that adds up to a lot of completed pages.  Would you believe I'm still not caught up?  Maybe because I take more photos now than ever, or because I scrap more "everyday"  moments than just major events (birthdays, holidays, etc.) but I love that I have found such inspiration and have a chance to win cool prizes too! Here's the layout I completed this week:

 

I combined a bunch of tags and journaling cards along with a few pieces of patterned paper, all from Elle's Studio.  I love the "boyness" of this layout featuring my little man.  It was fun to "interview" him to fill out the journaling card.  And I asked him to write his own name and age at the bottom of the card, just to capture what his handwriting looks like at this stage in his life.  It's little details like this that will be fun to look back on 20 years from now.  

Completely Citrine

I've come to the end of another 10 week sketch series at Scrapbook Steals.  I love playing along with their mid-week mojo challenges and have been doing this for over 160 weeks in a row!  They are giving away a gift card to Scrapbook Steals, which I could definitely put to good use!  Here are my 10 layouts from the "citrine" series:

 

 

 

 

Ouabache

I turned this week's Scrapbook Steals sketch into a two page layout so I could include more photos.  These papers and stickers are from the Take a Hike collection by Simple Stories.

I can't believe this trip was almost 3 years ago already!  We tried out a new state park and were "blessed" with storms and rain throughout our trip.  I hate storms as it is, so riding out a storm in our RV made me a wee bit anxious.  Luckily, we had friends nearby who we were able to visit.  Despite ruining some of our gear and being covered in mud most of the weekend, we still managed to have fun.  That's what I love the most about camping.  Even if we have adverse conditions, we still make memories and have fun stories to tell afterwards.

This Family Rocks

This week, Melodee at Scrapbook Steals gave us a fun grid pattern to inspire the weekly sketch challenge.  I picked a photo of my boys and got busy cutting my grid.

I used some of my favorite papers from the Pebbles Seen & Noted collection.  I love the coordinating colors and patterns and especially love that I snuck a few floral prints onto a boy layout (something I don't often do).  I used part of a journaling card for my title and added some letters die cut from craft foam.  The same foam was used to die cut the hearts by my photo.  A fun and simple page with lots of patterns and colors!  Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Fun

Perhaps because I'm already longing for summer weather, or maybe because I'm missing my niece and nephew like crazy,  I decided to pull a few summer photos of these cuties for the weekly sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals. 

I had two pieces of paper in my stash from the I Heart Summer collection from Simple Stories and paired them with some washy tape to make my version of this week's sketch challenge.  I flipped the sketch  to better suit my photos and paper.  I added a hand drawn border using a ruler and my trusty red Sharpie!  Thanks for stopping by for another week! 

I'm a Guest Designer for WRMK!!!

I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Guest Designer at We R Memory Keepers!  They sent me some of their wonderful product and asked me to make "something awesome".   Here's a sneak peak of the awesome project I made using their Harvest collection.

You can see the whole project HERE on the WRMK blog.  I absolutely loved playing with the Harvest collection and couldn't resist making a fall layout to showcase some beautiful photos of my aunt's property.

I used the Sew Easy stitch piercing tool and hand stitched a zig zag pattern around my border.  I love the texture that stitching adds!  I decided to use the I {heart} Fall die cut as my title and made my own embellishments by die cutting leaf shapes with my Silhouette Cameo.  To add additional texture and volume, I ran each of my die cut leaves through a paper crimper before I adhered them to my layout.   

I used foam pop dots to give my leaves additional depth.  I love the corrugated look and need to remember to do this more often to add interest to my embellishments and titles.

 

Since this collection really put me in the "fall spirit" I decided to create a quick card using another of the die cut tags.  This simple card came together in less than 2 minutes!  I love the colors and patterns in this beautiful collection!

 

Thank you for stopping by and thanks to WRMK for giving me the opportunity to guest design!  If you're visiting my blog for the first time, I'd love for you to stick around, check out my work, leave a comment, or even become a follower!  I'm giving away this WRMK sew easy stitch piercer and piercing mat to one of my faithful followers at the end of the week! 

I bought the Sew Easy as soon as it came out and was lucky enough to win another tool and mat during an on-line crop/chat, so I thought I'd pass along the love :)  Stay tuned because I'll announce a winner on November 11th!

Life is Good

In honor of my son's birthday this week, I decided to use a photo of him for the weekly sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals.  This photo is one of my favorites from a spontaneous photo shoot at my grandparents' farm.  It was a beautiful summer day and the boys enjoyed climbing on the dock for some fun casual photos. 

I used the 24/seven collection from Simple Stories and just LOVE how this layout came together.  The colors in this collection are fun and gender neutral and complimented my photo perfectly!   I used several of the 3x4 journaling cards and lots of stickers to create loads of layers.  The cork title letters were die cut using Lawn Fawn alphabet dies and adhesive cork.  Thanks for stopping by!