the Firepit

This week is the final sketch of the Daisy series at Scrapbook Steals.  I like the grid like feeling of Melodee's sketch, but I wanted to include more photos.  Here's what I came up with:

I had photos that were waiting to be scrapped for almost 3 years now, so it was a great layout to help get me caught up. I used papers from the Take a Hike collection by Simple Stories.

 And even though I ran out of time to complete sketch #9 last week, I went back and got caught up so that I could finish the entire series.  Here's my version of last week's #9 sketch:

For this layout, I used pieces of patterned paper from Echo Park's camping mini-kit and from their Happy Camper line.

little artist

This week's sketch challenge was more of a challenge because I had to complete it while at the campground, celebrating Mother's Day weekend with my family.  I packed a few supplies and had to work out of a bag instead of my crafty room, proving to be quite the challenge.  Here's what I came up with for the Daisy #3 sketch for Scrapbook Steals:

The boys of summer

After a week long crafty hiatus, I'm glad to say I'm back on the scrappin' wagon.  I really look forward to the weekly challenge at Scrapbook Steals, but just ran out of time last week and didn't play along for the first time in over two years :(  But this week, I was determined to get 'er done, and I just barely squeaked this layout out.  Here's what I came up with for the Rose #2 sketch:

Since we're still in the midst of a never ending winter and buried in snow, I dug out some pictures from last summer that make me long for the warmer days ahead.  This layout features papers from Echo Park's That's My Boy collection, along with a few stickers and embellishments from some of the older EP lines.  It was quick and simple and didn't have as many "layers" as I like, but it's finished in time!

Brothers

This week at Scrapbook Steals, Melodee gave us another great sketch for the weekly challenge.  When I was visiting Southern Indiana last week, I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes visiting the local scrapbook store, The Doodlebug.  It was great fun to wander through the store and chat with the owners about their trip to CHA.  Among my purchases were a few papers from the Brothers mini collection from Echo Park.  They were perfect for this week's layout featuring some old photos of my boys:

The masculine colors and patterns are great for my boy pages (I especially love the plaid).  I only wish I had picked up a few more sheets from this collection!  My only regret with this layout was my inking.  Because I can never leave well enough alone, after I finished my layout, I decided to add "just a little" ink to the edges.  A little quickly became a lot, thanks to a random swipe from my inking sponge. In an effort to even things out, I ended up with way more ink than I ever intended. I actually thought about cutting off the edges of the paper and matting it with another piece of cardstock, but I was afraid I might not be happy with that either so I decided to quit before I did any more damage. 

Little Man

This week's crafty project was created while escaping the swarming gnats that invaded our campsite.  I gathered up some supplies to take on our weekend camping trip and I forced myself to use just what I brought to create this week's layout.  This layout is based on the sketch by Melodee Cloud for ScrapbookSteals.com for the weekly mid-week-mojo challenge.
I combined lots of scraps and pieces from different manufacturers to come up with this layout featuring my youngest "little man".  The only thing I don't love is the orange washi tape that I placed above the photo.  Normally, I just slap some washi tape anywhere on my layout and peel it off if I don't like how it looks.  Except this time, when the washi tape peeled up the background paper, so it stays just where it is. 

National Scrapbook Day

It's that time of year again!  Time for my favorite holiday, National Scrapbook Day!  Last year I celebrated by meeting some scrappy friends for a weekend crop in St. Louis.  This year I celebrated by myself, in between shopping and cleaning.  I did manage to complete two layouts on a busy Saturday. 

The first layout I made was for the weekly challenge at Scrapbook Steals.  We're starting a new gemstone series, so this is the first of the Peridot group:

I used some bright summery papers from the Splash collection by Echo Park.  I pieced together my own sun embellishment and added some stamped arrows, sticker elements, and tags from Elle's Studio.  For details about the weekly challenge, click HERE.

In addition to a fun video chat on Friday, Scrapbook Steals issued some extra challenges for the weekend.  I only had time to complete one of the four challenges, but am hoping to complete the others someday soon.  This challenge was to complete a layout based on the words "right now", so I decided to document my 11 year old and some details of his life "right now".

I mixed layers from Studio Calico and Simple Stories and am thrilled with how it turned out.  The alphabet card that I used in the background just happened to contain my son's initials, so I added a circle stamp around them, just for fun.  Thanks for stopping by, and happy scrapbook day!

5th grade

This week I decided to do another layout about my oldest son's first day of school.  I mixed papers from WRMK's Hall Pass collection and Imaginisce's Geek is Chic collection along with a couple random pieces from Echo Park to create this layout.

I added some doodles, paint splatters, and rub on elements to complete the look I was shooting for.

This is the third layout from this weekly series at Scrapbook Steals.  For details about the challenge and to see the inspiration sketch, you can visit them HERE.

1st day of school

It's time for a new sketch series at Scrapbook Steals!  To find out more about this week's challenge and to see the original sketch that inspired my layout, head over to the Scrapbook Steals blog. 

I knew I wanted to use this back to school photo, so I dug out a bunch of papers with back to school themes. Unfortunately, none of them worked with the colors in my photo, so I got creative.  I dug wound up using various pieces/patterns from 4 different Echo Park collections, and only used one school sticker from an old Simple Stories line.  The colors worked well and I actually like that it's not all "school crazy" in theme.  Thanks for looking!

my boy

This week's Scrapbook Steals sketch challenge was a fun one for me.  I love layouts with multiple photos, but I was glad it was a one pager, as I didn't have a ton of time.  I used papers from Echo Park's Note to Self collection.  This is what I came up with for the sixth sketch in the Coral series:

These papers are left over from my gig as guest designer several months ago.  The collection is very "boy" friendly, so it was perfect for pics of my sweet Caleb.  I even included some of his own handwriting.  I have a feeling, 20 years from now, he may think it's neat to see how he wrote his name.
And this is the sketch by Brittany Allred that served as my inspiration:

Catching up!

I've been super busy trying to get my design team projects completed, and I hope you'll tune back in on Friday when I am featured on the Scrapbook Steals blog!
I have completed each of the weekly sketch challengesfor Scrapbook Steals, but haven't blogged about them like I usually do.  Things at our house have been crazy lately, from celebrating the 8 year old's birthday, to our 12 year anniversary, to hubby starting a new job.  My craftiness goes on, but blogging sometimes takes a backseat.  Not to worry, this post should catch you all up.  This week's layout was created in a hurry, just short of the deadline, and while doting over my poor boy who had surgery earlier today.  While he slept off the medicine, I snuck away to the basement to relieve some stress of my own.  Here's what I came up with for the Coral #5 sketch:

 

This layout was inspired by this sketch by Kristy Lee:

 

And because I'm a slacker, here is Coral #3 that was completed two weeks ago and never posted:

This birthday layout was inspired by this great sketch by Lori Allen:

And my Coral #4 layout completed last week:

Based on this fun sketch by Kristy Lee:



 

Hopefully, things will slow down a bit and I'll get back in the swing of things.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 



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:

Instant Friends

After spending a few days with scrappy friends in Chicago and seeing a little bit of CHA excitement, I couldn't wait to get into my crafty room and work on this week's sketch challenge for Scrapbook Steals.

This page features my son Caleb and his new friend Sam.  Sam's mom Melissa and I have been on-line crafty pals for some time and we finally got a chance to meet during a recent trip to Milwaukee while my hubby was attending a training.  I was super excited to meet Melissa in real life and the boys were excited to meet her kids and spend a day at the zoo.  Caleb was especially thrilled to learn that Melissa's son Sam was the same age as him.  There's something about being 7 1/2 that makes you the best of buddies.  The boys got along great and had a great day together, much like Melissa and I!  This layout reminds me of that fun day and makes me long for another visit with Melissa and her sweet kiddos.  Hopefully, next time our husbands can join us too!

For this layout, I used papers from the A Boy's Life collection by Echo Park along with some other scraps and pieces of random EP lines.  My title was made by fussy cutting letters from this piece of patterned paper from A Boy's Life collection:

I pieced together a sun and cut some clouds from other EP patterned papers.  My favorite feature is a little airplane and banner that I fussy cut from this patterned paper and popped up with foam dots:

And here's the original sketch, by design team member Katrina Hunt, that inspired it all:

I'm a Guest Sketcher at Scrapbook Steals!

I was beyond thrilled when Kristy Lee invited me to be a guest sketcher at Scrapbook Steals.  I've played along with their weekly sketch challenges for over a year and have been inspired, motivated, and challenged along the way.  In addition to scoring  great deals on scrapbook supplies, I've made some great friends and have received tons of encouragement from the fans and staff at Scrapbook Steals.  Before I found this site, I must confess that I had never ever worked from a sketch.  If you'd look at my old scrapbooks, you'd see what I mean.....I was the queen of busy patterned paper, covered with a zillion matted photos cut into crazy shapes with deco scissors.   Now I've come so far, looking forward to every Wednesday when the new sketch is revealed. 

I was thrilled to learn that I would get to use the Note to Self collection from Echo Park, one of my favorite manufacturers.  The papers looked fabulous on-line, but I was absolutely blown away when I saw them in person.  The colors are great, with neutral browns, camel and creams, along with soft blues and grays, and fun pops of red.  The hardest part for me was deciding which side of the double sided paper to use.  There are so many great patterns!  There are great journaling cards, fun viewmaster images, and super cute stickers to finish off your masterpieces.   My absolute favorite thing about this collection is the emphasis on family, memories, and moments.  That's what I'm all about!  As a busy mom working full time outside of the home, I truly cherish the time I spend with my family.  I love that this collection helps document "everyday life" in such an amazing way. 

I had so much fun creating this sketch!  I love two page multi-photo layouts featuring 4x6 photos, so I knew that I had to go big.  But for those of you who are intimidated by two pagers, never fear!  I created this sketch with you in mind, as you'll notice that you can easily modify this into a single page layout by simply doing either half.   Feel free to modify, adjust photo sizes, and add different shapes to suit your fancy.  Here's the sketch to get you started:  

With all of those beautiful papers, I couldn't help but make a few more things.  I do not consider myself a card maker, but I was able to put some scraps to good use and came up with a few thank you cards.  I love the paper that looks just like cork and  I think this collection is perfect for making "masculine" cards!

Big thanks to Kristy Lee and the fabulous folks at Scrapbook Steals for giving me this opportunity!  I loved the product and had a great time getting crafty.  The hardest part was not telling any of my scrappy pals what I was up to.  I'm so grateful for everyone's support and encouragement!  For those of you finding my blog for the first time, I'd love for you to be a "follower".  I'm planning a bloggy giveaway in July, so you'll want to check back in!

  

Splash!

This week's sketch at Scrapbook Steals was done by my crafty friend Kyla Norris.  She did a great job and provided two different sketches to inspire us!  I couldn't resist scrapping some fun sunny pictures from last summer.  Here's what I came up with:

And here's Kyla's sketch that inspired this super fun page:

Thanks for stopping by! 

4th of July

This week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals was another amazing source of inspiration.  Because I am so far behind and always have a ton of photos to scrap, I turned the one page layout by Kristy Lee into a two pager to showcase more pics.  Here's what I came up with:

I mixed papers from several different lines, pulling out lots of fun red white and blue patterns.  I cut a big #4 with my Cricut and embossed it with a start texture plate.  I popped up the banner with pop dots and added star confetti over some spray mist.  I'm thrilled to be another page closer to being caught up.  Here's the original sketch that inspired my design:

Hexbug Love

Today at Practical Scrappers, they are featuring layouts using basic shapes.  I decided to embrace the ever trendy hexagon and created a layout about my son's latest obsession- the hex bug. 

Hex bugs are little more than overpriced vibrating toothbrush heads, but he loves creating habitats and paths for them wiggle on.   And if the boys are happy, then momma is happy, so I support their hex bug love!

For this layout, I created a hexagon template and traced and cut a bazillion hexagon shapes.  I inked the edges and arranged them on my page in a loose pattern, popping up random hexagons with pop dots for a little added dimension.  I spent way more time than expected on this layout and I am now wishing for a hex shaped punch.   Thanks for looking!

crazy cousins

Echo Park recently sponsored a contest using their super cute new "A Boy's Life" collection.  Since I had recently purchased this collection from ScrapbookSteals.com and because I had a long weekend, I decided to play along.  This is what I came up with:

 Ever since I created a quilt inspired layout a few weeks back, I'd been thinking of using the same diamond shapes to create my own argyle pattern.  It was a bit intimidating at first, but it turned out to be easier than I thought.  I started by cutting several diamonds with my cricut. In addition to the patterned paper, I also cut some plain ones out of scrap cardstock.  They were useful in creating my pattern.  I lined up the patterned pieces using the plain scrap diamonds as "filler" to help me keep my spacing correct.  Once I had the pp glued down, I removed the plain ones and reset them again, this time using them as guides so that I could draw out my lines for stitching.  Once I had my stitching lines penciled it, I pierced the paper at every corner and started  hand stitching my lines.  I originally started stitching with a dark gray embroidery floss that I found in my stash.  Apparently, I'm not very good at estimating how much floss I'll need, because about half way through my stitching, I ran out of that color of floss.  Back to the drawing board for me.  I cut out all of my aforementioned stitching and grabbed some gray and white twine, which I was sure to have plenty of.  I stitched over the entire pattern and then glued on the mini buttons just for fun.  I loved the way the argyle pattern turned out, and I was even more excited when I learned that I was chosen by Echo Park as one of three winners for this contest.  I had been keeping an eye on the competition all weekend, and there were some super talented ladies who made some beautiful projects, inspiring me even further to create more with this collection.  As a momma of boys, I'm obviously in love with boy themed collections, but I really think these papers are versatile and useful for all kinds of projects.  Now I can't wait to receive my prize from Echo Park.  Since I won the contest, I was lucky enough to win a collection kit of my choice so I went for their new This & That Charming collection, another great group of "boy papers" that I will surely put to good use!

how sweet

This week at Scrapbook Steals, my crafty friend Becci Manies was the lucky guest designer.  She came up with a fabulous sketch to inspire us for this week's mid-week mojo.  My layout came out a little different than I planned, but I still managed to work in the candy banner that I love so much.

And here is Becci's original sketch:

Here's to another great week of crafting ahead!  Thanks for stopping by!

Old friends

This week at Scrapbook Steals, the amazing Kristy Lee gave us another wonderful sketch to inspire us!  I broke out of my usual routine and made a page about girls (gasp!)  I love my boys and they are my favorite thing to scrap about, but it's always fun to break out some soft colors and create a girly page every now and then.  Here's what I came up with:

I wanted to include a lot of journaling so that I could share the story of my oldest gal pals, so I modified the original sketch.  I fussy cut long the edge of a doily to frame my journaling and add a softer touch.  I made small circles and folded them around a 2" square to make the "quilted diamonds" that are featured along the bottom.  Here's what the original sketch looked like:

I'm hoping to get more crafty time in this weekend, since we're buried in snow.  I have lots of projects that need to be completed and contests I want to enter, so my housework *may* fall by the wayside this weekend.  Oh well, thus is the life of a crafter.  Apparently I'm the only person in my house that cares if it is clean anyway, so all is well.  Thanks for stopping by!