Please go here for Sketches With Color post

Yes, I am a Cubs fan.  So yes, there will be many GO CUBS pages, so there will be part, 3, 4, etc....  What makes that fun is that is a part of who we are. I get to document my son and his different stages of interest in Baseball. Sadly, it didn't last very long.  But  I have fun pictures that go with the memories.

This was the big "sign writing" stage that my son was in. He was in 2nd grade. He knew how to write fairly well. He was so into his markers.  He was always writing, drawing, coloring.  I love that he decided to make a sign to take to the game.  Why am I telling you this you ask?

It's May 1 and that means a new challenge is up at About a Boy. Today's challenge: Boys will be Boys. My older son isn't really the 'rough and tumble' type of boy. He's always been the creative type. I love that these photos capture who he is as well as him doing a typical boy thing.  Now my younger son, well, that's a Boys will be Boys story for another day....

For Father's Day, we gave Dad tickets to the game, as well as a personalized brick that would be placed on the new walkway in front of Wrigley Field.  We had received a letter with our copy of the brick, telling us how to find the one at Wrigley.  I think I was as excited as they were about going to the game!

I realized as I was working on this page that I am running out of baseball themed papers! I started with a Creating Keepsakes sketch, grabbed what baseball stuff I could find, and just put the page together.  I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Regardless of the type of boy you have, I'm sure you have photos of them doing what makes them who they are.  Grab them and come play along at About a Boy!

Supplies:
PP-SEI, Fancy pants
CS-Bazzill
Die Cuts & Stickers-Fancy Pants
Cubs logo-EK Success
Alphas-Thickers by AC
brads-making memories

My Tech Junkie

Please go here for About a Boy post

Hey there!  Today is my first reveal for Sketches With Color!  I'm really excited about this challenge blog. I can interpret a sketch, no problem. I can use a color scheme, no problem. Combine them, now that's a creative challenge I'm ready to tackle!

Here is the May 1 sketch and color inspiration. This time around, choose 3 of the colors for the LO.

Here is my LO.  I used Poppy Red, Sunflower and Grayed Jade.  Because I got to choose the colors,  I purposely decided not to use red, blue and yellow. They are my go to colors, that I use often.  I actually decided on the colors, after I chose the papers.  Again, not something I would ordinarily do.  I flipped the sketch to a more horizontal design, it worked better with the photos I chose to use.  The premise of the design pretty much remained the same.  

I'm on this kick of using PP only and it's been kind of fun.  Not only am I using PP only, it seems to be the same manufacturer, many times even the same collection.  I think I'm finding when I don't have a lot of creative free time, the garanimals approach is perfect.  It save me time from looking through my stash to find this paper here and that paper there.  These papers and embellishments are all Kaiserkraft.  The theme of the papers were great for the photos and the colors were right off my color chart.

I hope you will follow me in my new creative endeavor at Sketches With Color, and even play along with us there as well.

Guess Who?

It's me again!  Just kidding.  I love playing that game. Speaking of games...The Classic Game Challenge is up at Child's Play Challenges.  Did you guess what it is?  It's Guess Who?

Here is the LO I created inspired by the game

I thought Halloween photos were the perfect way to go, especially because of the ghost!  This was the worst Ghost costume ever. He hated it. But I do have to remind every so often, that he didn't like the two small eye holes and wanted a bigger face hole...

Anyway, you get it...costumes=Guess Who?...I started with a Scrapbook Generation sketch for this one. I keep all my Halloween stuff tougher so it was easy to find supplies quickly.  A few cuts and pastes, some stickers and mist and I was finished.  I know not everyone likes theme papers, but I find they make it easier and faster to get pages done!

I hope to see you playing along at Child's Play Challenges

Supplies-

CS-Bazzill

PP-SEI, American Crafts, Echo Park

Die cuts-SEI

Chipboard elements-American Crafts

Stickers-Echo Park

A Small Announcement

Good Morning!  I just have a little exciting news to share today.  I am so very pleased to tell you that I have been invited to join the Sketches with Color  Design Team.  

This will be a fun challenge for me.   My go to colors whenever I start a page are red, blue and yellow, so this will push my color boundaries tremendously. It will be interesting for me to see if having a sketch as a starting place will make it easier or not.  We shall see.  

I hope you will join me and the rest of the talented team and play along at Sketches with Color.  Challenges are posted on the 1st and 15th of the month and you have the entire month to enter your LOs.

Our Jackson Pollock

One of the best things about all of the challenge blogs, is I'm constantly finding new ideas. Case in point, today's new challenge at About a Boy:   Use your son's artwork on your page.  I probably wouldn't have done this without some prodding, at least not right now.

So here it is.  My younger son made this a few years ago. I know he had a lot of help, but I like that it feels like him.  And I know he likes paint.   For some reason, I decided to take a photo of it instead of keeping the original.  I've only done that a few other times.  

I wanted to keep the focus on the photo.  I decided to use grey as a neutral and kept it simple with small patterns and similar colors from the photo. I did bring in some contrasting colors because it was looking blah. The green and the orange helped bring the focus back to the photo. I also have to say, that thanks to this assignment, I was able to use something I've had in my stash for a very long time...the title.  Lastly, I had to use paint splatters, didn't I????

That's all for now. I hope you will stop by About a Boy and try your hand at scrapping your son's artwork.

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill

PP-Fancy Pants, MME

Die Cut Title-MME

Stickers-Creative Memories, Fancy Pants

Twine-Doodlebug

Mist-Studio Calico

Sketch by Christy Strickler

Shop 'til We Drop

Getting a little scrap time in during our "stay-cation" spring break week. Trying to catch up on some favorite challenge spots, get a little ahead on some DT work, as well as just working on my own stuff.  Today's LO is inspired by Sketch With Color and Club CK Issue Challenge #5, use a photo prop.  Here is the color scheme I was to work with:

And here is my LO.  Spending the day at CKC Portland with some friends was the ideal opportunity to use a photo prop...and to get my hands on some of the new releases I'd been drooling over.  

Lately, I've been pushing myself to play with color.  I tend to repeat my blue, red, yellow brown.  So color challenges are a great place for me to start.  Add a sketch in and what more do I really need?  I used both scraps and new stuff on this page, and no cardstock at all.  The background paper is the reverse side of a print I probably never would have used.  I decided that darkish color was a dark steel bluish/greyish color.  It's really hard to tell.  So the striped paper is more navy, but the stitching is more steel grey in color.  I did omit the oval shape PP and kept the squared off paper instead, but kept to the sketch for the most part. 

Supplies: PP-Crate Paper, Fancy Pants, Doodlebug, DCWV; stickers-Fancy Pants; dots-MME; alphas-October Afternoon, Fancy Pants; thread-DMC; Ink-ColorBox

Life is Sweet

Yippee...Scrap time this weekend! I had a few pages on my agenda and I got two of them finished so far.  But I only have one to share today.  When I don't have consistent time to scrap, I feel like I lose my place.   What I mean is, I forget the ideas I had in my head or what I wanted to work on next.  When this happens, I will browse through some of the many challenge blogs looking for inspiration.

Today's LO was inspired by three different blogs: Scrap Our Stash gave me the idea for the papers, dots and stripes...Umm, yes, I have just a little bit of those in my stash....Next is Frosted Designs for reminding me that yes, scallops are also in my stash....and lastly, Sketches in Thyme for their lovely sketch #107.

I also need to mention that Sketches in Thyme is having a Design Team call.  I am throwing my name in the hat this time around. I've been really enjoying their sketches since I found them In Dec.  They are clear, easy to interpret, and are both single and multi photo.

This photo is my older son being the "big cousin".  The two little guys just wanted to do everything he was doing.  After a walk on the pier, we took them for ice cream.  They all got the same thing...Blue Superman ice cream.  

I could't think of any better paper than what I chose.  Last spring I started buying more collections as opposed to just a few pieces of paper here and there.  My thought was that I'd have an easier time selecting my supplies when I started a page.  Well, yes, that is exactly what happened here.  I used both sides of 2 papers and the chipboard embellishments.  I opted not to add an additional title, just using the "Life is Sweet" on the chipboard.  I hesitated only for a moment about using the stripe scallop piece on top of the stripe paper, but I really like the way it looks. It gave it fun dimension.

Thanks for inspiring me, visiting my blog and taking a look. 

Supplies: PP-MME and Doodlebug, Chipboard and tape-MME, Stickles

New Car

Yes, that's correct. Two posts this week.  That's because I have another new challenge for you. This time it's brought to you courtesy of Child's Play Challenges. Today's post is the Classic Toy Challenge:Matchbox Cars

Oddly enough, these were not high on my boys priority list of things to play with.  My older son had a truck full of them. Literally. It was a toy semi truck with slots for cars on the sides of the trailer.  You want to know what he did most often when he did play with them?  He sorted them by color, parts of the cars that moved, 2 door, 4 door....get the idea?  Rarely did he ever play with them as just, well, cars. Needless to say, I don't have many photos of him playing with cars. Those that I do, I have already scrapped.  So, here is what I did instead:

I took this photo when I picked up my car on Dec 29, 2010.  It was a huge moment for me.  I had done (almost) everything by myself to get this car.  It's a big step up from my previous car, with all the bells and whistles.  I have to say, I earned this one....
I started with a sketch from Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge.  (I know the challenge is over, but I wanted to credit them anyway).  I also drew inspiration from Get It Scrapped/Debbie Hodge.  I grabbed some color and some neutrals an went to town, but still kept it simple.  I've really been liking subtly printed papers as backgrounds for my LO's lately.  I tried something new here as well. I used a 12x12 stencil as the template for the stitching, as well as using it with ink pads to do the circles and the circle bursts behind the photo.  I repeated the PP at the top left, adhering it with some washi tape, then repeated the tape in the title at the lower right After adding a few chipboard pieces and some ink splatters, I was done.

I hope to see you playing along at Child's Play Challenges this week.

Supplies:
PP-SEI, MME, Tape-Recollections, Stencil-Crafters Workshop, Ink-VersaMagic, ColorBox, Thread-DMC, chipboard pieces-MME, Alphas-Thickers, Mists-Studio Calico, Tattered Angels