Layout contest round 2

I'm playing along with a layout contest at Practical Scrappers.  I started by submitting a recent layout.  It was chosen as one of 80 to be a finalist.  The top 25 with the most votes advanced to round 2.   I had to create a layout based on a great sketch by Liz Chidester for this round.  I used Geek is Chic papers from Imaginisce to create this layout:

If my layout gets enough votes in this round, I will advance to round 3! I've worked ahead and already created my layout for round 3.  I'd love for it to be featured!  Voting is open until Friday.  If you haven't already voted, please go HERE to check it out and vote for me at the poll found at the end of the blog post.

My Mind's Eye Blog Challenge

There's something about cold snowy weather that makes me want to cozy up in my craft room and create.  I hurried through housework this weekend so that I could play along with the blog challenge at My Mind's Eye.  I started with their sketch and the theme "new" and decided to push myself outside of my comfort zone.  I normally scrap about my boys, but have recently vowed to turn the camera on myself and do more personal pages this year.  Here's what I came up with:

Since it's the start of a new year and the theme was to create something with "new" in the title, I decided to focus on myself.  I've struggled with my weight my whole life and during 2011 I managed to lose 23 lbs. by adding exercise to my already busy life.  This year I need to lose even more and have set a goal of 50 lbs for this year.  I'm nearly 10 lbs. down so far this year, so I'm off to a good start.  Here's to a great year and a healthier new me!

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!

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

Christmas layout

This week at Scrapbook Steals, I expanded the one page sketch to include more photos.  Truth be told, I love the simplicity of one page layouts, but I have way too many pictures to get away with that very often.  So I modified and added a second page.  One of my favorite things was including lists for each of the boys that told some of their presents.  It will be a good way to remember what was on their most wanted list when we look back years from now.

Journaling Ideas

Today, over at Practical Scrappers, there are some great ideas for journaling.  I usually have no trouble writing stories or journaling on my layouts, but it's nice to change things up from time to time and allow someone else to do the journaling for you.  I created this layout for Practical Scrappers and featured journaling done by my boys:

Since I wanted them to stay on topic, I created a journaling template and allowed the boys to fill in the blanks.  They each enjoyed "writing their story" and especially loved reading what the other wrote about him. It's a great way to involve little ones, see their personality, get their opinions, and capture a handwriting sample!

Rainforest Cafe

I kept things simple for this week's Scrapbook Steals layout.  These photos are over a year old and were taken on a weekend trip to Chicago.  The boys had a great time eating overpriced food and exploring the restaurant.

I cut down four photos to fit into a grid pattern.  Then I cut thin strips of black cardstock to frame around the pictures and the grid.  I matted the pics on a piece of jungle paper and added some 3-D animal embellishments from my stash.  For my title, I cut around a picture I took of the actual restaurant sign, leaving just the words and the cute little tree frog.  I added some journaling with a white pen and called it good enough.  Another week done.  Thanks for looking!