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.

My Family

I almost ran out of time to complete this week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals.  After a full week of work, a kid at football camp, attending a beautiful beach wedding, celebrating Father's Day, and keeping up with yard and housework, I nearly didn't get time to complete this week's sketch challenge.  I decided to grab an old photo from 2 years ago and set out to beat the deadline.  Here's what I came up with:

I used Simple Stories' Homespun collection for this layout, which came together rather quickly thanks to the 4x6 and 2x3 page elements.  This is the sketch by Melodee Cloud that inspired it all:

Home Sweet Home

This week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals was a great reason to bust out a new collection from Simple Stories.  I used the Homespun papers and embellishments to create this layout as part of the Daisy series:

The original sketch that inspired my version is by Melodee Cloud for Scrapbook Steals:

so happy together

After a six week crafty hiatus, I'm happy to say I'm back.  I was juggling family time, working full time,  enjoying Spring Break in Florida, hosting a youth group function for our church, and was just overwhelmed with life itself.  I wasn't feeling the least bit creative, and I was stressed about nearly everything, so I took a break and regrouped. 

Now that they've started a new series of scrapbook sketches at Scrapbook Steals, I knew it was time to get back on board and find my crafty mojo.  I must say that being away from my scrappy place for so long made it hard to get back on track.  I had to clean off my desk and organize some supplies just to remember what I actually have in my collection.  This is what I came up with, using the sketch from Scrapbook Steals as inspiration:

The supplies I used are mostly from Elle's Studios and Gossamer Blue, with a little Simple Stories thrown in for good measure.   I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked on this layout, because I kept finding myself reorganizing supplies and moving things around to make room for my newest addition to my scrappy space...

My wonderful hubby salvaged these old lockers and secured them to the wall in my scrappy space this weekend.  I still need to get them cleaned up and scrape off years of old tape residue, but I've already started stashing away goodies in my newest acquisition!  Right now, I'm more excited about organizing than scrapping, but this will definitely be a work in progress.  I still have a lot of vacation photos to print out and I'm hoping to try my hand at pocket style scrapping to get a vacation album started.  Camping season is right around the corner, so my crafty time will be even more limited, but I'm hoping to stay on track and create something each week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Caleb{age8}

This week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals came together quickly.  I pulled out some photos of my little dude and let him fill in the blanks on my journaling tag.  It's a fun way to capture his personality and preserve his handwriting at this stage in his life. 

These papers are all by Simple Stories, from the Take a Hike collection.  It is my favorite collection to use with photos of our outdoor adventures! 

turning 9

This week I turned the Scrapbook Steals sketch into a two page layout because, as usual, I had way too many photos for just one page.  I finally got around to scrapping my youngest son's birthday from four months ago.

These patterned papers are from the Happy Day collection by Simple Stories.  I loved the journaling prompt, with a list of 9 "birthday favorites"-just perfect for my 9 year old's birthday layout!  Thanks for stopping by!

Adventure time

Yikes! I almost ran out of time to play along with this week's sketch challenge for Scrapbook Steals, but luckily I managed to squeeze it in between a few loads of laundry. 

This layout features papers from the Awesome collection by Simple Stories.  I think I've completed more boy layouts with Awesome than any other collection, simply because the style and patterns match so many of my masculine photos.  I've been hoarding a few scraps for quite a while now and decided it was time to use them up.  I'm so glad I did, because this layout came together effortlessly! 

Hello, handsome!

This week's sketch at Scrapbook Steals was created by my dear friend Brittany.  I love what she did with her layout and I decided to create a fun layout featuring my handsome boy.

I started with a piece of kraft cardstock, one of my go-to favorite backgrounds that seems to go with most of my layouts.  For the patterned papers and embellishments, I chose some fun papers and stickers from the 24/seven collection by Simple Stories.  I die cut my title from some adhesive cork paper and stamped a few arrows to finish it all off.  Thanks for stopping by!

Elkhart County Fair

This week I turned the Scrapbook Steals sketch challenge into a two page layout featuring some fun photos from this past summer.  Since I had so many photos that I wanted to include, I basically did the same sketch twice and made this a two pager:

I pulled some scraps from one of my favorite summertime collections, Summer Fresh by Simple Stories.  The textures and prints are the perfect compliment to pictures from a day at the county fair! 

Happy day

In the midst of holiday shopping, wrapping presents, addressing Christmas cards, etc. I almost ran out of time to complete this week's mid week mojo challenge at Scrapbook Steals.   After a busy weekend, I finally managed to sneak in some time in my crafty space on Sunday evening.  I finished right before bed and long after the sun went down, so I couldn't get a good picture of my layout using the natural light I always use to take photos.  So, this week you get a wonky colored, not quite squared, impossible to crop photo of my challenge.  Despite poor photography, I managed to enter the weekly challenge just in the nick of time!

In the midst of cold and snowy weather, I once again turned to some of my favorite shots from a warm sunny day in August on my grandparents' farm.  The papers are all from Simple Stories, using an old Summer Fresh collection that I simply adore!  I love the primary colors, burlap and denim papers, and all of the rustic beauty of this simple collection.  I am down to just a few scraps, but I'm determined to make them last for a few more layouts!  Thanks for stopping by!

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.

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! 

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! 

Wetlands Trail

This week's Scrapbook Steals sketch was another great source of inspiration!  I keep going back to my Simple Stories collections when I'm looking to quickly put together a great layout.

These papers are all from the Take A Hike collection.  I love the fun, bold colors and all of the campy themed elements. Perfect for some photos that I took on a summer hike at our nearby Potato Creek State Park. 

Outdoor Memories

With a crazy busy week, I just barely completed the weekly sketch challenge for Scrapbook Steals.  I seriously considered skipping a week, but then I started thinking about how many weeks in a row I've played along (over 150 straight weeks) and I just couldn't "not" do it this week.  I modified the original sketch to fit my papers and pictures and threw this together in about 30 minutes. 

 

I do not recall the manufacturer of the printed "hunting theme" background paper, but the rest of the patterned papers and embellishments are from the Take a Hike collection by Simple Stories.  I'm glad I made time to play along for yet another week!

I {heart} fall

I can't believe it's already the first day of fall.  I love the season, thanks to all of the smells, colors, and activities.  My youngest is already asking if he can carve a jack-o-lantern.  I told him it's too soon, but hopefully next weekend will find us picking apples at our local orchard.  I decided to make this week's Scrapbook Steals challenge layout with some of my favorite photos from last fall.

I love the multi photo sketch that Melodee gave us this week!  I decided to pair these fall photos with my favorite fall collection, Harvest Lane from Simple Stories.  The warm colors and patterns just make me happy! 

Live Life

This is the 10th sketch from the Aquamarine challenge at Scrapbook Steals.  The original sketch called for two vertical photos, but I substituted a horizontal 5x7 instead.  This is what I came up with:

 

The papers I used are all from the 24/seven collection by Simple Stories.  I love the trendy patterns and bright colors, especially when I am creating masculine layouts.  The textures and patterns are so fun that I didn't even use any solid cardstock anywhere on this layout.  Thanks for stopping by!



A Camp Story

This week I completed another Scrapbook Steals sketch challenge while camping with my family.   Since we were camping, it was only appropriate that I scrapped a camping layout.  I grabbed the Simple Stories Take a Hike collection that I recently "stole" from Scrapbook Steals and decided to modify the original sketch to work with my papers and photo. 

 

 

I used a fun journaling prompt from the collection and filled in the blanks with stickers from my collection.  A couple stickers and popped up elements made my layout complete.  Thanks for stopping by!

Brown County State Park

This week my scrappy friend Marisa Torp is the guest sketcher at Scrapbook Steals.  You can check out her original sketch HERE.  Since I gave up chronological scrapping years ago, I dug into my pile of photos and found some photos from last July when we had our first ever camping trip with my brother and his family.  These photos went great with the Take a Hike papers by Simple Stories that I have been hoarding. Since I had so many photos I wanted to include, I turned Marisa's one page sketch into a two pager:

We had a wonderful four day camping adventure at Brown County State Park.  It was a sort of "meet in the middle" event where we met up with my brother and his family for a fourth of July trip.  They had camped once before, we camp all the time, but we had never camped together, so it was  a new adventure.  It was so much fun for the cousins to spend lots of time together and for us to just hang out with my brother and his wife.  Usually our trips home involve crowded family functions or scheduled activities, so it was a nice change of pace to just hang out with them and take life easy.  The only thing bad about this trip was the weather.  We were over 100 degrees everyday and never even built a campfire.  We had air conditioning in our campers, so we still had a sweaty good time! Hopefully we can convince them to camp again with us sometime soon!

Fall

We took our first camping trip of the season and were surprised by temperatures that were colder than expected.  Luckily, I packed some scrappy supplies "just in case" and was able to work on this week's Scrapbook Steals challenge inside the camper while the kiddos watched a movie.  I have a hard time deciding what products and tools to bring, but once I realize that I have to work with limited supplies, I manage to make do.  I grabbed a few fall photos and the Harvest Lane collection from Simple Stories.  All of the fun fall prints worked perfectly for this week's sketch.