Finally getting a few minutes to myself. Ok, still multi-tasking.  Typing at the table while the little man eats lunch...Anyway, I'm starting early on my 2013 'resolutions', if you will. There are so many online scrappy places to play. I have many bookmarked, but haven't joined in.  I decided that I'm going to try one new challenge/sketch blog a month. I figure that puts no pressure on myself.  It might be more one month.  Who knows.  It can be overwhelming if I try to choose ahead of time, so I'm going to peruse the sites and play along when something strikes me.

That leads me to today.  I've been browsing at Sketches in Thyme for a while now, but have never joined in over there.  Well, now I can say I have, with not one, but two sketches!

The first is sketch #96.  This is a favorite photo of mine.  I've been struggling coming up with the right idea and this sketch was a great one!  A simple Bazzil CS matte, punched withe a Fiskars border punch and tied with random twine.  I used Queen & Co, Target, and some other washi tape on white CS then used an EK success punch to create the chevron-like strips.   I used some of the leftover punched out pieces to create the corner clusters, splattered a few different colors of Mister Huey and Tattered Angels mist.  A few yellow buttons to round out the yellow Doodlebug letters and I had the LO I was imagining!

For this one I used sketch #97, but I converted it into a one page sketch.  I'm kinda washi tape crazy, so it's kind of appearing on a lot of my pages right now. Busy photos mean a simpler design for me.  But simple doesnt mean I cant use patterned paper!  I stuck to the 3 primary colors that stood out to me, red, yellow and blue and repeated them throughout the page.  I wanted to imitate the imagery of the balls going around and around, so I used circles where I could with the brads, 7 Gypsies tape, the blue tape and Stampology journal stamp.

Thanks Sketches in Thyme for inspiring me with some great sketches!

Child's Play Challenge: What's Under the Christmas Tree Blog Hop

Hi, and welcome to the Child's Play Challenge: What's Under the Christmas Tree Blog Hop.  If you did not get here from Ashley's Blog, please go back to Child's Play Challenges and begin from there.

One lucky winner will win:

Here's what you need to do to enter:

1-check out each blog along the hop and leave a comment

2-post about the hop on your blog

3-link your post on our special "Blog Hop" linky in the sidebar by December 31st

4-BONUS!! Create a layout based on any of the DTs inspiration items and post that link for a second entry!!

I'm glad you stopped by. I'm excited to show you the toy I chose, why I chose it and the LO to showcase it. Here is the toy:

Gears mean a lot in this home. They are a favorite of my younger son and have been for over a year now.  They go where he goes, even to bed with him.  Here is the page I created:

This Boy & This Toy

(I apologize for the poor photo.  It's been rather dark and dreary here in the Pacific Northwest. I will try again later today)  

It is an extremely busy page, mostly due the photo itself. It was taken in the dark on a phone, and well, there is a lot going on in that blanket of his...On this particular night though, it was completely necessary to take this photo.  He had been particularly attached to the gears this week. They went to and from school with him.  Well, this day they did not make it home from school and it was a Friday.  We was cranky, out of sorts and would not stop looking for them. I called his teacher, and she offered to drop them by on her way home.  I was out with my friends and received this text message with photo.

I find using pre-printed paper difficult, but wanted to use it here.  I took some of his gears and used them as a mask, spraying brown, blue and yellow mist.  I cut around one of the gears in the paper, then tucked the photo under it.  The top felt empty, so I cut out some gears from some Cosmo Cricket paper and made a small banner.

 It is not the first, or second page that I have created about these infamous gears.  I thought I would share the others as well.

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope you will come back again. If you aren't a follower, please join me on my creative journey.  Your next stop is Karen W's blog.  Hope to see you soon back here and over at Child's Play Challenges

Me @ Six

Well, Hanukkah is over. The good thing about Hanukkah being so early is it forces me to shop early.  As hectic as that can be, it means I have more time later in the month to relax and...scrap?

So yes, my guests have gone, the remaining gifts are wrapped and I went into my room to play!

This is what I whipped up.  I have to say I was very inspired by this months color scheme of black, red and silver over at Black with 2 challenge. These are colors I can work with!

I am also hosting this week's Weekly Challenge at Club CK. I chose a LO challenge of combining something old and something new, in conjunction with the end of this year and the beginning of a new one.

Knowing what colors I was using made it easy to grab supplies.  Black card stock.  When I first read the two colors, I knew I wanted to use my new Heidi Swapp mist and a new Crafter's Workshop stencil!  The color is called Tinsel and it's a super cool, opaque, shiny, SILVER!  I decided to use old photos.  All that was left was the color red.  I gathered paper scraps, old buttons and some bling and went to town...

I went a bit wild with the mist, but I wanted the silver to be visible. I like the way I created a diagonal line with it. It's a contrast to all the circles. It felt good to be scrapping! I'm happy with how this turned out!