Remember me?

Once upon a time, I scrapbooked and blogged every single week.  This was on top of working full time, taking care of my family, and juggling crazy schedules with two active boys.  Something had to give. I stepped away from my blog for over a year, since I was struggling to find time to even be crafty.  I completed a few projects here and there, but I just couldn't find time to blog about everything.  The weekly sketch challenges at ScrapbookSteals.com were just the thing to get me back on track.  I dusted off my scrapbook supplies and actually completed every layout in the most recent "Lilac" series.  The folks at Scrapbook Steals are kind enough to give away a $50 gift certificate to one lucky person who completed all 10 layouts, so that was a good motivator for me.  After all, being able to buy new scrappy stuff always makes me want to get crafty!

Here are my 10 layouts from this series:

catching up

I took advantage of a relaxing camping weekend to catch up on the weekly challenges for Scrapbook Steals.  I love the sketches that guest designer Brenda Smith has provided for the month of July, but I was simply too busy to play along some weeks.  This week I completed the sketch #5 challenge and came up with this layout:

This is Brenda's sketch that inspired it all:

And, since I was in a scrappy mood and had more free time than usual, I went back and completed layouts for weeks 2 and 4 that I had previously missed.  Here are the "better late than never" layouts that bring me back up to date with the series:

blue & gold

After missing last week's challenge (Pansy #2), I was determined not to let this week's challenge get away from me.  I hope to go back and catch up on last week's too, since I really love the sketch.  This is the layout I came up with, based off of Brenda's Pansy #3 sketch for Scrapbook Steals:

The blue background paper is from Echo Park and the diamond patterned paper is by Authentique.  I used some Project Life cards from the Cinnamon edition and die cut the title using Lawn Fawn alpha dies.

As I was blogging, I realized I never posted the layout I made for the Pansy #1 layout, even though I managed to get that one completed in time.  I guess it's better late than never, so here's the layout I made using Brenda's inspiring sketch:

I used papers and embellishments from the Poppy collection by Little Yellow Bicycle for this layout.  For the title and journaling, I experimented with sketch pens and used the Silhouette Cameo.  It was much easier to use a pretty font than trying to keep my own handwriting evenly spaced.

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:

Wrestling 2009

This week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals took me back to some photos that are over 4 years old and still waiting to be scrapped.  I used to be a chronological scrapper, but I grew tired of that and started playing along with sketch challenges and using whatever photos best fit the sketch.  Which means one week I scrap photos taken just a few days ago, and another week I pull photos from years and years ago.  These photos were so old that I had to ask my son which grade he was in.  With some careful recollection and examining the different shirts they have each year, we finally figured out it was 2009.  Better late than never!

Fast forward 3.5 years, and the tiny 2nd grader pictured above is now almost a 7th grader who is taller than me!  For this layout, I used mostly plain cardstock, yellow stripe paper from Echo Park, a little washi tape, some Thickers, and a few old stickers from Bo Bunny and Glitz design.  Here's the original sketch by Melodee Cloud that inspired my layout:

Worster Lake

This Memorial Day weekend, we visited Worster Lake, one of our favorite places.  I decided to dig up some photos from 3 years ago and did a page featuring my darling sons enjoying the lake.

I used papers from Crate Paper, Basic Grey, and Authentique combined with stickers and embellishments from Echo Park, Simple Stories, and Elle's Studio.  This is the sketch from Scrapbook Steals weekly sketch challenge that inspired it all:

Just one more picture?

This week, my super talented scrappy friend Chloe Salerno, provided the sketch and inspiration layout for Scrapbook Steals.  Chloe used three photos and three blocks of patterned paper.  But, since I had 6 photos I wanted to include, I skipped the patterned paper and just made a grid of photos.

After marking out my grid with pencil, I machine stitched over the grid, to "frame" my photos somewhat.  I added a large title, just like Chloe did, and added stickers and stamps and various "photo" themed embellishments.  It's fun to do a silly page like this every once in a while.  It goes to show that all of our photos don't have to be perfect to make it into our albums.  In fact, the crazy photos are my favorite ones of all the photos I took on this particular camping trip.

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!

sweet!

I was lucky enough to win the last prize giveaway at Scrapbook Steals, making all of my weekly challenges pay off!  This week, I modified the original sketch and made things a bit more linear to work with my photos and came up with this layout:

 

Since I spent the last week baking and packaging sweet Christmas goodies, I decided to stick with the Christmas theme and featured some photos from last year.  Instead of our normal gingerbread house, we went with a gingerbread train and had lots of fun piling on the candy.  The papers I used are mostly from My Mind's Eye, with a few embellishments from Crate Paper and Simple Stories.  Thanks for stopping by!  

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!

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.  

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! 

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. 

wonderful you.

I almost forgot to post my version of this week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals.   The original sketch was created by my scrappy friend Minousha Bari.   I actually created this layout last Thursday, but then got busy celebrating the 9th birthday of my youngest little dude.  Since it was his birthday weekend, I decided to do a page in his honor.  For this layout, I used pieces from Seen & Noted by Pebbles and a few elements from Simple Stories' 24/seven collection.  I love the finished product!

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!