Blogging has really taken a back seat this month. That was not my intention. I have been scrapping. Some projects though are for DT assignments, so you will see them coming up soon. Others are of an ongoing project that I am working on of my son's Bar Mitzvah. Not all the pages are for sharing, but some are. Today's is one of those.

I used sketch #71 from My Scraps & More sketches.  I love playing over there. Their sketches are versatile, their challenges are fun. I didn't get to participate as much as I wanted this month. I hope to more next month.

These are some of the family photos taken before the service. We all love the top one where we are all looking at the Bar Mitzvah boy.

Yup. I used my 4x6 photos for this and it still worked!  I adjusted the background to the same size as the photos, kept the borders in the middle and moved the embellishment clusters.

Another fun sketch and another page of this project is completed. Thanks for taking a look

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill

PP & embellishments-Theresa Collins, Fancy Pants

alpha-Authentique

He Plays to Discover

Good morning! I'm happy to be back so soon.I've actually been very busy creating, but too busy is my life to take time to write. So, here it is Monday morning again. That means it's a reveal day at Let's Get Sketchy.

This week we have a really cool and different sketch from the talented sketch designer Jenessa.

I will admit, I was very afraid of this sketch.  You have to have realized by now that I am a 4x6 gal. I knew it was going to be a huge challenge, so I got to work, looking for ways to use this sketch.  Well, lucky for me, while playing with my younger son, a photo opportunity came along.  I decided to tackle the sketch using the photos. Let's just quote a favorite TV character of mine. "Challenge accepted" (How I Met Your Mother)

What started as a struggle, quickly turned into a fun puzzle for me. I thoroughly enjoyed piecing all the elements of this page together.  I applied some PhotoPlay into this layout. I played with some photo editing tools by fading out the color of the first and second photos. The idea being to give the focus to the photo with the most color. It is the most important. The page is busy and full of energy, playing off the idea of a child playing with toys. It is vibrant and colorful, again reinforcing that theme. The title is small, but meaningful, telling part of the story in the photos. Overall, I have to say, I am really happy with how this turned out. It is colorful, playful and full of meaning.

After all of my hesitation, I'm glad I tried something outside of my box. It was a fun sketch to use!  I hope you will try it too, then link it up at Let's Get Sketchy. 

Supplies:

PP, alphas, die cut stickers-Echo Park

Wood veneer-Citrus Twist

cork-Fancy Pants

enamel dots-MME

epoxy stickers-Freckled Fawn

washi-Jenni Bowlin, Queen & Co, Bella Blvd.

Rising Sun

Good morning! Whoa. I've been lagging on my blog posts. Busy week, not a lot of play time for me.  Enough with that. Time to get back to business.  Today is my reveal at ScrapStuffz' Inspired by.  I really liked this month's inspiration photo

When I first looked at the photo, I saw a rainbow of colors. Bright colors. Colors I like to use. Want to see what I came up with?

Not even close!  I was walking my dog about a week ago. I came around a curve and saw the sun burning through the morning fog.  I knew when I took the photo, what I wanted to do instead. Turns out, it wasn't so much the colors after all. It was the burst that they created.

I applied some knew found knowledge about gained from the Photo Play seminar at Masterful Scrapbook Design/Get it Scrapped.  I extended the colors in the photo out onto the page. I mixed some paint colors, painting lighter to darker around the photo, in between the bursts, mimicking the background of the photo. After painting, I used the same colors to stitch along the lines to give it some texture. My journaling is a six word memoir. the embellishments are subtle, but add some shine, like the sun rising.

This is my new favorite page.

Come take another look at the inspiration photo. What sparks ideas for you? We at ScrapStuffz' Inspired by want to know.

Supplies:
PP & border sticker-Sassafrass Lass
Thread-DMC
paint-making memories
bling-Queen & Co
enamel dots-Basic Grey

Let's Get Sketchy Birthday Blog Hop #2

Please go HERE for Let's Get Sketchy Week 2 reveal

Welcome to hop Let's Get Sketchy Birthday Blog Hop #2!  You should have come here from Jenessa's blog, if not, please go back to the LGS blog to start the hop from the beginning. 

As you make your way along our hop to visit each of our DT blogs, you will find a sketch challenge along will possible twists.  Complete as many challenges as you can and return to LGS to upload your entry.  For each challenge you complete please upload and tag according to that Design Team Member's instruction.  Once you have completed your layout, please head back over to the LGS website to upload your entry. Please tag your entry: BH2DEVRA.   The more you play, the better your chances of winning this great prize courtesy of Creative Embellishments!  ANY PROJECT NOT PROPERLY TAGGED WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR THE DRAWING!!!  At the end of hop we will draw a winner so the more entries you submit the better your chance of winning a wonderful prize from Creative Embellishments!

Please make sure you visit the entire team, as each member will be hosting a sketch challenge with their own little twist.  So although you may see the same sketch twice, they will be "different". 

Here are the rules for playing and winning:

1. You MUST be a follower of each LGS team members blog and leave a comment on each blog and;
2. You MUST also be a follower of the LGS blog.

This is the sketch I chose and LO I created.  I would like you to create a layout using the sketch you see below.  My twist is to use at least 3 different patterned papers on your layout.

You can will this fabulous prize for participating!

Now head on over to Lisa's blog and see the great challenge she has in store for you!

Remember you have to have your projects linked up no later than midnight, CST, March 18th!

Here is the lineup in case you get lost!

Pat -BH2PAT

Connie-BH2CONNIE

Laura-BH2LAURA

Lynn G-BH2LYNN

Jenessa-BH2JENESSA

Devra-BH2DEVRA (you are here)

Lisa-BH2LISA

Tone-BH2TONE

Bev-BH2BEV

Let's Get Sketchy (to link up)

 Happy Hopping!

Remember...

Please go HERE for Let's Get Sketchy Birthday Blog Hop #2

Good Morning! It's going to be a busy day here today. It's a double post day, and both posts are good ones!  So you want to be sure to look at both of them today.  First, since it's Monday, it's reveal day  at Let's Get Sketchy.

Here is the March week 2 sketch and my layout:

 My apologies for the poor photo of the layout. It has been extremely grey here, so lighting has been awful.

I am working hard on completing the album from my son's bar Mitzvah. This is a photo from that day. It's just a small moment, but I am so happy our photographer stopped to notice it.  I know I could have done a lot more with this sketch, but I am trying to keep the pages in this album clean, with little details.  

I hope you will find this sketch as fun to work with as I did. Please link it up at Let's Get Sketchy if you do!

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill

PP- Fancy Pants

die cuts, twine, alphas & enamel dots-MME

bling-Queen & Co

clip-Fancy Pants

mist-Heidi Swapp

tape-Recollections

The Pipe

Good Wednesday morning to you! It is reveal day over at Child's Play Challenges. Our first challenge this month is a crafty one...Pipe Cleaners!

I went in a more serious direction for this challenge. Yes, as a child, I played with pipe cleaners. But the truth is, pipe cleaners make me think of my Grandfather, whom I called Momo.  As far back as I can remember, Momo smoked a pipe. I used to watch him clean them, fill them with tobacco, then light them. When I got older I even bought him tobacco for Father's Day and other special occasions.  For whatever reason, the smell of his pipe tobacco never bothered me. But I never liked the smoke. These photos are older, and not great quality, but in all the photos, Momo has a pipe.

I chose a simple design for the photos. I had a really hard time finding colors due to the discoloration of the photos. White was too stark, so I settled on ivory card stock matte.  The photos still got a bit lost, so I doodled a frame around them. My memories of Momo or happy, so I chose red as the foundation.  I added a small strip of striped paper, as well as some other scraps to balance the patterns. There are some small details around the page; the photo corners, small pieces of washi tape and the paint splatters.  The journaling is hidden under the matter on the right. The piece of washi is the pull tab on the card.

I hope you can created a project based on pipe cleaners.  Come by and join us at Child's Play Challenges, and show us what you did.

Supplies-

PP, rub-on-Fancy pants

CS-Bazzill

Twine-Recollections

Washi-Jenni Bowlin

Mist-Heidi Swapp

buttons-random

photo corners-Queen & Co

Alphas-American Crafts

Scrapbook Generation Quarterly Blog Hop

It's Blog Hop time!  Welcome to the Scrapbook Generation Blog Hop for March.  You should have arrived here from Steffanies's Blog.  If this is your first stop, you might like to go back to the Scrapbook Generation blog and then hop through each link from there.

I chose a sketch from the SG 2 page sketchbook  Volume 5.  I liked the simplicity of the sketch, but the ability to change it up as much or as little as I wanted.

For this page in particular, I liked the strips of paper. For me, they worked well with the photos of my son the day he got his braces.  I chose to use shades of grey in  a variety of geometric patterns. Again, it emphasizes the braces.  It needed some color so I chose to add red and turquoise. They were fun and contrast the grey nicely.  I moved the placement of the title and embellishments around. lastly I added some extra color by matting the LO on turquoise patterned paper.

You can find the SG sketches in their books and as downloads in the SG store, and there is a free one every month in case you wanted to try it out.

Next on the hop is Melissa. Please leave a comment on each blog and one lucky commenter will receive a free sketch bundle of their choice from the store. The winner will be drawn on Monday, March 10th, so you have one week to leave a comment.

In case you get lost at any point, here is the list all the blogs

Scrapbook Generation blog - http://scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/

Ruth - http://scrapmachine.com/

Louise- http://madeatnumber27.blogspot.com.au/

Tina Gale - http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com

Steffanie - http://steffanies.blogspot.com/

Devra - http://mycreativeview.blogspot.com/

Melissa - http://www.scrappyjedi.com

Lori - http://savingmine.blogspot.com/

Mandi - http://www.mjskraze.blogspot.com/

Lori S - http://loriannie670.blogspot.com

Cassie - http://allsmilesandsunshine.blogspot.com/

Brenda - http://granddivasscrappyplace.blogspot.com/

Katy - http://www.scrappinkaty.blogspot.com

Stephanie - http://craftyholidaygirl.blogspot.com

Isbaha - http://isbahashome.blogspot.com

Corrina - http://anotherthingoffthelist.blogspot.ca

LOAD Wrap up

February was a very successful month for me.  Thank you Lain Ehman and LOAD, and also, thank you  to My Scraps & More for your Valentines crop. Between the two of those events,  I not only accomplished my goal of 28 pages, I crushed it.

Here are all the pages I created in Feb.  They are in no particular order.

32 layouts are completed. 32 stories and/or moments are documented. Now to clean up and re-organize my scrap room!  Oh, and my quest to use Basic Grey Papers this month? I created 19 pages using Basic Grey. I made quite a dent in that stash. Now to get the new stuff!