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.

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:

 



Princess & the Frog

This layout was created with two different challenges in mind.  It features my darling niece Isabel proudly holding the frog that her brother Gabe caught.  I was afraid the frog wasn't noticeable enough in the picture, so I added a green heart to highlight her little froggy friend.  This layout was inspired by the weekly  mid-week mojo sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals.  Kristy Lee created this lovely sketch that was perfect for  my froggy photo:

I choose a fun selection of papers from Authentique and played along with their monthly color challenge.  The layout had to be inspired by these colors, which I thought coordinated perfectly with my Princess and the Frog theme:

Authentique papers used:  Gifted from the Uncommon collection, Magnificence from the Splendid collection, Richness from the Splendid collection, diction stickers, and foundations bi-fold papers.  

I Adore You

This week Scrapbook Steals and Authentique teamed up for their sketch challenge.  Since my Authentique stash is dwindling, I decided to put all those scraps to good use. Here's what I came up with:

I combined pieces from different collections and layered everything on top of kraft paper.  They say diamonds are a girl's best friend, but after cutting and inking 80 of them, I'm not so fond of them anymore.  For this layout I used Authentique diction words, Richness paper from the Splendid line, Euphoria paper from the Blissful line, and Foundsations bi-fold solid paper. 
The original sketch looked like this:

Authentique February Challenge

I created this layout for the February challenge at Authentique:

The inspiration sketch looked like this:

Since my Authentique stash is dwindling, I combined a few different collections and utilized my scraps. I used a doilie as a mask and sprayed my paper with glimmer mist.   Authentique supplies used:  Richness, Foundations bifold solid paper, and Blissful headlines.  Thanks for looking!

Authentique January Challenge

My scrappy friends are always raving about the quality of Authentique products.  With several of my crafty friends on their design team, I was eager to get my hands on some Authentique to see for myself.  With the closing of so many local scrapbook stores, I was unable to find any Authentique near me and couldn't justify paying for shipping on-line.  On a recent trip to visit family 6 hours away, I visited a scrapbook store in southern Indiana and was thrilled that they carried Authentique.  I bought a few pieces and stashed them away.  This month I decided to give the Authentique layout challenge a whirl.  Here's what I created:

I loved working with these products and couldn't believe how fast this came together.  The yellows and grays are just beautiful and were the perfect match to my son's snow gear!  I used their elements tag as my title and added a few extra words with the Petite Type Circle alphabet.  I added some glitter to the word "BOY" and added a few snowflake stickers to complete my wintry theme.  I'm now a huge fan of Authentique and am eager to try out more of their product!  Thanks for looking!

Authetique supplies used:   Euphoria paper, Itinerary paper, Foundations bi-fold solid paper, Blissful Headlines elements, and Petite Type Circle