If you are looking for About a Boy post, please go here

Hi and happy second post of the day.  You know, this can get a little crazy. I'm finally getting a little better about creating a post as soon as I finish the page. Like I said a little better...

Anyway, I am sharing my last reveal to day for Sketches With Color. Unfortunately, the site is closing. I enjoyed my time there and had fun with the sketches and the color schemes.

Here is this month's sketch and colors:

And here is my reveal:

This is what happens to him when you spend the day sightseeing and then go to a baseball game while on vacation.... 

I flipped the sketch and used horizontal photos, but left the top and bottom embellishment treatment fairly similar. The hardest thing for me with this page is that it is screaming at me to add some red as a contrast color!

I hope you will join us for the last challenge at Sketches with Color.

Supplies:

CS-Pulp paper

PP-Simple Stories

Buttons-SEI

mist-Tattered Angels

The "Goils"

If you are looking for Sketches with Color post, please go here.

Good morning and happy September. Wow, how did that happen so quickly?  Summer sure zoomed by and I don't even feel like we did anything.  Well anyway, a new month means new scrapbook challenges. New challenges mean new reveals today.  and since it is Sept 1, it is a double reveal day for me.   This first LO is for About a Boy.  For our first challenges this month, we are having a crossover event with About a Girl.  The challenge is use black and white and one other color and use a photo with girls in it!  Oh Yay, girl colors!

So the title of my LO...Yes, it's a funny looking word, but it has a whole lot of meaning to my family and I.  It's something my Grandfather used to say when all his girls were around, he called us his "Goils". Sadly, this photo is more than 5 years old and one of the more recent photos of my sister, Mom and myself.

I have so say, I am out of practice with the girl colors!  I don't have a huge selection of flowers, pink and purple stuff.  Well, since we are all wearing black in the photo, I needed something to brighten up the page.  I found this magenta-ish colored scrap and decided to use that after distressing the edges a bit. I used a stencil to create the stitched circle.  Fortunately I did have some bing in a similar color, but I did have to borrow the mist and washi from a friend.  I cut a very large black bling flourish into smaller pieces. I tilted all the letters in the title because the word is so silly, the letters needed to look that way too!

Thanks for taking a peek. Please come play along with our crossover challenge at About a Boy!  I also have another post and reveal today. I hope you'll take a look.

Supplies:
CS-Bazzill, DCWV
Stencil-TCW
bling-Hobby Lobby, unknown
Washi-Recollections
Mist-Tattered Angels
Journal tag-MME
Alphas-Cosmo Cricket, Thickers
pen-Souffle

The Last Minute!

There is nothing like waiting until the last minute! Ok, in my defense, my children don't start school until next week. There has not been a lot of 'me' time floating around. As it is, I did this page last night after 10pm!

Why? Because I wanted to play along at Scrap Our Stash again! The sketch was really fun, filled with layers. Something I am struggling to learn to do more effectively.  So I gave it my best effort, game pieces and all...

I think I am so ready for school to start that I can't even scrap the boys right now. I keep gravitating to my childhood photos!  Vintage is something else I dont do often.  I won this collection though and thought the softness of the colors supported the photo well.  I used 3 pieces of patterned papers, then just kept adding tags and bits.  The game pieces are the "bingo buttons" in strips above and below the photo. I'll keep working on layering. i think as long as there is balance in shaw, size and color, i'll eventually figure it out.

Thanks for stopping by. Come back on the 1st.  I'll have 2 posts up then!

Supplies:

PP, tags, stickers, -Cosmo Cricket

twine-Doodlebug

Mist-Studio Calico and Heidi Swapp

Alphas-Cosmo Cricket and MME

A Past Moment

I am having so much fun with this BPC Class-Stashbusters Anonymous. I'm having a chance to just play, use an idea in my own way, even a sketch if I want. And I'm using stuff in my stash Some that I've had for ages, some new ways yo use things as well as some newer items as well.  If it is rerun, I highly recommend it. I also think I have found I do best with classes that are individual project based, not process or mini book based.

So Week 2, Challenge 6 is to create a photo frame decorated with all kinds of 'stuff'..brads, buttons, bling...you name it.  Ok, Something I've not done before. Cool, I get to use lots of 'stuff' on the page.  Especially when the lightbulb went off in my head that I could play along at About a Girl AND Use Your Words if I used only one color on the page and had the word 'Moment' on there too.   Ok. I got to work looking for a photo. I love it when the lightbulb goes on!!!  It makes putting the page together so easy!  Here is the result:

I love that I have a lot of my childhood photos. Some are in albums some are not. Some I know about, others not so much. This is one of the 'not so much' photos.  I know it was taken in Oct, I just have no idea if I was 1 or 2 years old.  Not knowing, I decided on "A Past Moment" as the title. It encompasses a lot! 

Anyway, I used am old chipboard frame, painted it yellow, then added all the 'bits'. Taking a lead from the sweater I was wearing in the photo, there are many varying shades of yellow.  I matted the photo on a piece of white card stock that I covered with Washi tape.  I was originally going to keep this 'square', but I accidentally moved it before the glue was dry and I loved the way it looked.  Because there is so much going on with the frame, I just added a few little bits in the corners to even out the page.  Dark ink looked wrong, so I went with a pale grey for the journaling.  

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. If you aren't a follower, please join me.  

Supplies-

CS-Bazzill

Washi-MME

chipboard-unknown

Embellishments-Making Memories, LYB, KI Memories, SEI, Hobby Lobby, MAMBI, Hero Arts, Basic Grey

Twine-Doodlebug

Happy

Oops, It's a double post day! So if you are looking for today's ScrapStuffz Inspired By post, please go here.

So now I bring you today's Child's Play Challenge: Classic Craft Challenge: Dot-to Dots

I was inspired by the connection of circles, or dots and created this:

There are 3 layers of circles on the page. The foundation layer is the misted stencil.  The second layer is the  pattern of circles that frame the photo and the third layer is the circle patterned paper itself.  This idea also came from the BPC Stashbusters Anonymous class to use a shape as the primary focus of your page.

I hope you will play along this week at Child's Play Challenges. Check out our other  challenges and our prize!

Supplies:

CS-Bazzil

PP & Washi-MME

Stencil-TCW

Mist-Tattered Angels

Alphas-OA

Word phrases-Authentique

Symmetry

Double post day so if you are looking for Child's Play Challenges post,. please go here:

Thanks for being here today. It's my turn to reveal for ScrapStuffz' Inspired by August Challenge.  I'll get right to it. Here is our inspiration photo:

If you know me, you know I love the beach. It's my happy place. I grew up in the beach cities in Los Angeles. I spent many, many summer days at the beach.  When I retire, I want to live in a hut on the beach. That would be me in my dreams. I enjoy the calmness of sitting, watching the water move, and the warm sand all around me. My inspiration begins there.

That being the case, you'd think I would have an easy time coming up with photos! Do I choose the kids in the lounge chairs by my Dad's pool, the kids at the beach, me in Hawaii? Then it struck me. I have a favorite photo of my boys at the beach. Although the photo is from 2008, I have always known what the title of the LO would be: Symmetry

Every summer we go visit my family in Los Angeles.  Well, of course we always go to the beach. On this particular day, we were just enjoying the beach with a picnic lunch. We weren't planning on hanging out there all day.  After lunch we took the towels and sat in the sand. I was watching the two of them playing and noticed they were completely engrossed in the sand.  Not only that, they were sitting in the exact same position, doing the exact same thing with their hands. Definitely a rare and unusual moment for these two, but an incredibly meaningful moment for me. The appearance of calmness in this photo gave me the same feeling as our inspiration photo.

I've shared my creative view with you. Now it's your turn to share how you are Inspired by our photo.

Supplies:

Sketch-Aly Dosdall for BPC Stashbusters Anonymous class

CS-Bazzill

PP-Carta Bella

Alphas-Jillibean Soup

Wood Veneer & Mist-Studio Calico

Brads-KI Memories and Making Memories

Pen-EK success

Feedin' the Ducks with Ugly Paper

It feels good to be caught up on DT LO's so I can just create for fun.  Well, DT LO's are still fun. Anyway, This is a 3-for-1 LO that I made today.

Ever heard of an Ugly Paper Challenge?  Quite possibly the most fun challenge I've ever participated in.  Send a 12x12 ugly paper from your stash cut into 6-4x6 pieces to a hostess. She sorts and sends 6 random pieces of paper back to you.  You have to use at least 4 of the 6 papers on one LO, and the pieces have to be at least 1". Well, this is my Ugly Paper LO for Scrappin' Peeps. Here are the papers:

I am taking the BPC Stashbusters Anonymous class and this challenge was to use buttons to create, or fill in an image.  Basically, make an embellishment with buttons.  I was a little stumped. I recently made a LO where I did this with a sun.  As you know, I'm not a frequent flower user, so what to do?

Well, then I went looking for inspiration and landed on  the week 2 sketch over at Let's Get Sketchy.

I went digging through all my old photos and found a random one of my sister and I at a duck pond, circa 1980.  I have no reference as to where or why we are there,  but I can guess close to the year because of my hairstyle and glasses.  Too funny.  Here is the end result:

I did not use the transparency, although that was my original intention. The pink/aqua diamond pattern didn't go with anything that I tried. That left the papers in the blue/green/brown arena.  I made the tree trunk with washi tape. I hand cut the paper into the tree shape, then outlined it with buttons.  I used both sides of the green paper and the other blue one under the photo. I cut the blue/red/cream argyle and only use the cream part of it to create the 'leaves' in the clusters.  I added a few paper/tape/burlap clusters and pretty much left it alone. After splatters of course....I surprised myself with this one.  It was definitely fun to do.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

CS-The paper Company

PP-unknown

tape-WRMK, Scotch

buttons-random

burlap 'buttons'-LYB

ink-Colorbox

alphas-Basic Grey, October Afternoon

mist-Studio Calico, Tattered Angels

A Lawn Day

Well hello there!  It feels good to be back to regular scrapping and regular blogging.  I know my mojo isn't where I'd like it to be, but it's slowly getting there. That's why it was fun to create this particular LO for the Aug 15 reveal at About a Boy.  The newest challenge is Anything Goes.  I can even have a girl in the photo!

So that's exactly what I did. I chose a photo of my younger son and myself from a few years ago.

After a day in the pool, and dinner out, my Dad wanted to take my older son fishing in the pond. So I hung out in the grass with Little Dude. As tired as he was, he was just so pleasant and happy. At that time, he would rarely sit still, so for him to come sit in my lap was a treat.

The easiest way for me to get some mojo is to grab a collection pack. All the papers, embellishments and even alphas are all right there. No thinking involved, well, except which papers to choose...Anyway, I wanted something light hearted with a bit of whimsy, and this is what I came up with. I did use a stencil with mist as well as some gems, wood veneer and an extra journal tag & border. The rest is all from the same collection.  

It was nice to get away from my red, blue, yellow with buttons and do something a little different. Now let's see what you will come up with for the Anything Goes challenge at  About a Boy.

Supplies-

PP & die cut stickers-Basic Grey

Alphas-American Crafts and Basic Grey

Gems-Queen & Co

wood veneer-Studio calico

Date sticker-October Afternoon

border strip-Sassafrass

stencil-TCW

Mist-Tattered Angels

ink-Colorbox

pen-EK Success

Just for Fun

Yup, I returned from a weekend away, scrapping with my silly group of friends. I had a wonderful time and even got some LO's finished.  Ok, maybe not as many as I had planned...But, because I had everything put together in kits, it's been really easy to grab a kit and keep going here at home.  I had pretty detailed notes, including sketches and papers in my kits so I didn't have to pack as much and I could put them together fairly easily. These next two LO's are the results of these homemade kits.  Maybe I should put together kits more often!

This first LO is from our trip to St. Louis during Spring Break in 2008.  I subscribe to the Scrapbook Generation kit club. These papers are from one of my kits. However, I chose to use a different Scrapbook Generation sketch. Not papers I would buy for myself, but I challenged myself to use them, and use them I did. I can honestly say this is the first time I have used non-Baseball themed papers for a Baseball page! But they work!

I will also say that I am playing along with the very first challenge at 123 Get Scrappy.  When I first read the concept, I must have misinterpreted the idea. I thought the challenges were going to be 'grid' style.  Boy am I happy to say I was wrong. The challenges are more 'recipe' style. Today I used red, the 'free' space and Thickers.  I have to say, I had fun deciding which elements to use. I might even go play again since I can enter up to three times.

This next LO is my entry for one of my favorite challenge blogs to play along with, Scrap our Stash. Their first challenge this month is to use a Summer theme with 3 or more pre-made die cuts.  Ok, done.  Summer in my house means lots and lots of baseball. These photos are also from 2008 and although my son no longer plays baseball, it is my favorite sport, so I watch it all summer long.

I used another  Scrapbook Generation sketch, but my own papers.  I'm finding these sketches are easy to use and are helping me get pages finished faster. I used 4 die cuts and one CS sticker that came with the collection kit, as well as the scalloped border.

Thanks for stopping by today. Check back in a few days for the next About a Boy reveal.

Bush Stadium Supplies-CS-Bazzill, PP-Echo Park, washi-Doodlebug, Glitz, Queen & Co, Alphas-Thickers, Cosmo Cricket, Simple Stories, twine-Doodlebug, gems-Hobby Lobby, enamel dots-MME, foam shapes-Staples, other embellies-Sticko, Ink-Colorbox

Summer Scrappers supplies-CS-Bazzill, PP, alphas and die cuts-Fancy Pants, scalloped die cut-MME, ink-colorbox

It Tickles!

Good Thursday to you!  Do you know what that means? It's reveal day at Sketches in Thyme.

I like this sketch. It is fun, versatile and easy to use. It can be flipped, you can use smaller photos, even more than one photo.  I pretty much left it alone.  Here is my LO:

I chose to use this 4x6 photo, which has been has been sitting in my 'to be scrapped' pile for a while.  That meant widening the patterned paper. Both the photo and the PP I chose are busy, so I decided to matte the photo as well. I tripled up on the circle elements to add some depth and dimension. using the brown and wooded embellishments gave it a more outdoorsy feel. The tape near the title also helps the title to stand out.

I can see using this sketch again. maybe next time I'll flip it. Who knows?  What will you do with the sketch?  We'd love to see at Sketches in Thyme.  

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill

PP-Basic Grey

washi-WRMK

Twine-Doodlebug

buttons-random

arrows-Studio Calico, Fancy Pants

Operation:Breathe

Good morning!  I'm happy to be sharing my first LO as leader of Child's Play Challenges.  It doesn't mean anything really.  I'm just happy to be able to offer the opportunity to continue these challenges. I really hope you will come check them out.

Today's inspiration is the Classic Toy Challenge: The Doctor Kit

And this is how I chose to use it.

My boys didn't play with Doctor kits, but my son had surgery last summer.  We had to have his little nose 'fixed' so he could breathe. We had many trips to the doctor both before and afterwards.  The middle photo is the before and the outer photos are the day after.  I'm amazed at how quickly he recovered.

This LO is not fancy and doesn't use lots of new trends, but I like it. The focus is on the photos. Small patterns give it some interest, buttons give it dimension, and te dark background makes the photos stand out.

Like I said, I am happy to be a part of Child's Play Challenges and to have it continue. I hope you will look for inspiration in toys, books, crafts and games and join us this month.

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill

PP-LYB

buttons-random

tape-Darice

Alphas-Sassafrass, Simple Stories

brads-KI Memories

paper flower-AC

pen-Souffle