If you know me, you know that I try to find humor in something, every day.  I also rarely scrap the "things" around me.  Well, today I did both!  I scrapped a photo that I never in a million years would have thought to do if it weren't for sarcasm, humor, and a little extra inspiration from Sketches With Color.  Thanks to Lain Ehman and Twisted Tuesdays,  I also decided to be a detective in my own life.  I took some photos of spring blooming around me, and created my LO using Sketches in Thyme sketch #104.

This is the color scheme I had to work with:

And here is what I created:

The Terrible, Horrible, NoGood, Very Bad Haircut

I have had the absolute worst time finding a good salon and great stylist since moving here.  It's been one mediocre haircut after another.  This one took the cake though.  I won't go into the details, but let's just suffice to say that I have curly hair....

I dont know why, but when I saw the sketch & colors I wanted to use this photo.  Well, I knew it had to be something about me.  (Because again, if you know me, you know having boys, I hardly ever get to use pink on my pages).  Once again, I went to my scraps bin and grabbed papers that matched as closely as possible.  And once again, it fell into place quite quickly.  I wanted to play on the sarcasm and also add a bit of anger.  Sarcasm is everywhere.  The title, the speech bubbles and the colors actually too.  The anger comes in with the capitol letters, the spray mist, the staples, the chevrons, and well, the sarcasm!  BTW, this is the second time I've use this sketch.  You can find the first version here

Supplies:

CS-PULP papers

PP-MME, Creative imaginations, Doodlebug, Basic Grey, 

Alphas-Simple Stories & OA

Wood veneer-Recollections

Mist-Tattered Angels

Twine & Washi-MME

staples

Then to calm myself down, I created this calm and serene page about all the plants blooming in my yard.  I'm really not someone who does this very often, but I do appreciate watching the plants and trees wake up.  We planted tulips and daffodils for the first time.  I've been watching them daily.  I checked out another blog I've been stalking, Twisted Tuesdays.  Their challenge was to create something "spring like" and the "twist is to use or be green".  I tried really hard to upcycle and use a tag from a pair of my son's pants, but I couldn't get it to work.  The photos and title are plenty to qualify for the challenge though.

It's not easy Getting Green

I tried a new app on my phone to create this photo collage. I'm experimenting with odd sized photos.  It's a departure from my standard 4x6, and I wanted to try out this sketch #104 from Sketches in Thyme 

I chose to use kraft papers for a couple of reasons.  One is because it's a great neutral and works well with the photos, but also because Scrap Our Stash challenge this month is to Kraft it Up.  This was a great excuse to use up some printed kraft papers I received in a prize.  I stayed pretty true to the sketch, but I changed the circular element to another rectangle and added brads instead, as well as some top and bottom border treatments. I should have stopped with the brown mist.  The green came out too splotchy, but it still looks ok.

Supplies-

PP-Pebbles, Memory box

Banner stickers-Sassafrass

tape-Glitz

Alphas-Cosmo Cricket and Simple Stories

Brads-Making Memories

Mist-Tattered Angels, Studio Calico

Three Santas

Well, I'm a little out of season, but that's how I scrap.  I do work chronologically. Well, I print my photos that way and then grab photos from within that time period as I feel like scrapping them.  So, I am currently in 2007 photos.  I've always loved this photo, even though it is really poor quality.  When it's the only one you got, you make it work (thanks Tim Gunn).

This week's challenge over at About a Boy is to use your scraps on a page about that boy in your life.  Lucky me, I got to scrap all three of them at one time.  I even got to use a sketch from another blog I've been stalking for a while Let's Get Sketchy.  I used the week one sketch with the bonus color challenge.

I challenged myself. We don't take a lot of Christmas photos, so this color combo is really a stretch for me.  I went to my scraps bin and pulled out some goldish yellow, olive green and red scraps.  I used a new stencil and misted in green and white.  I've had these buttons for years, so I was very happy to finally use them.  I also had a few gold sticker gems left, so I polished those off as well.  Lastly, I added a little washi above and below the photo to ground it.  I though it was getting lost into the PP.  

I looked at them and thought "three amigos", but changed it to 'santas' instead.  Using scraps made this page some together very quickly.  Hope you will join us at About a Boy this week

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill, Bazzill dotted Swiss

PP-SEI, American Crafts

Tape-Glitz Designs

Buttons-unknown

Gold gems-MAMBI

Stencil-Crafters workshop

Mist-Studio Calico

Alphas-Sassafrass

pen-Sakura

Pawsing to Play

I had a little bit of time to play this weekend so I did some scrappy stuff I needed to so as well as some stuff I wanted to do. I even did a small amount of shopping (shhhh).

I've been really inspired by a bunch of challenges lately. I seem to go in spurts that way, usually when I don't get a lot of consistent time to scrap.  When I do finally get some time, I've lost my place, or worse yet my mojo.  This LO is a result of three such challenges.  The sketch is Inspired Blueprints #85, the idea comes from both Scrap Your Story, use an animal and True XoXo Scrapbooking, use phone photos.

Pausing to Play

This is a game my younger son has played for years.  He closes the door and waits for us to play with him.  We get on the floor and peek under the door, stick fingers back & forth and listen to him giggle uncontrollably. This time, Snickers sat with me while we played, only I don't think he liked it very much.  I'm fairly certain Snickers thought something was wrong because the door was closed and he couldn't see my sone on the floor.  All he heard were the sounds and saw me on the floor.  Snickers was much happier after I opened the door!  

So what's the best camera I had at that time?  My phone.  I don't use Instagram (gasp).  I just print 4x6 and use those.  Can't tell the difference can you?  The colors in the photos are really neutral.  I grabbed  some Echo Park and went to town with it.  All I added was a little bit of Glitz and MME washi tape, then splattered a bit of Studio Calico and Tattered Angels  mist.

I enjoyed putting this together.  Glad to have somewhere to begin!

XLV

I am on a roll.  3rd post this week.  I think I need to so this more often.  I'm finding writing very therapeutic this week.  Anyway, I'm taking advantage of an opportunity today.  Sketches With Color has a design team call going on.  I decided to throw my name in the hat.  I'm finding that having DT assignments, gives me a good reason to scrap!

I go in spurts when it comes to using sketches. I'm in one of those spurts right now. I've not been inspired by the photos I have printed, so sketches are really helping with a starting point.  Some I follow exactly, others I change a lot of elements.

Part of the DT application is to use their sketch provided.  Here is the sketch:

Here is my LO

Do you remember your Roman Numerals? I hope so, or you won't get the title of my LO.  It's a great sketch. One I can use over and over by changing around the orientation, and supplies.  Here, I did change the photo and papers to horizontal.  I also used a larger photo, 5x7.  

This photo was taken on my birthday last year.  I just wanted a casual day with my family. We were lucky to have a day nice enough to go to the park.  I went Garanimals with my supplies on this page.  (Ooh, did I just show my age???) Anyone else remember Garanimals?  Ok, well, it means that everything is from the same collection so its easy to put together.  In this case, it's one of my favorite collections from Basic Grey called PB&J.  The colors and patterns are so versatile, especially for all the boy scrapping I do.  But it also works so well even with me in the photo. The only other supplies are some washi tape by Recollections & Darice and AC Thickers.

So wish me luck, and if you haven't already, go take a peek at Sketches with Color

Z..Z..Zonked....

A friend of mine let me know about a new challenge blog that she is a part of called Scrap Your Story.  I like to support my friends so I decided to check it out.  It looks like it will be a lot of fun.  The inaugural challenge is to create a page with only one photo.  Great. I've really been enjoying one photo pages lately.

I love this photo of my younger son so much that I printed it 5x7...about 4 years ago....and it's been sitting in a box ever since.  I know, I know.  He's asleep.  I have many photos of him asleep. I have scrapped many pages of him asleep.  But this one is at 3:00 in the afternoon on the second day of school. Kindergarten. All day Kindergarten.  He was sitting on the couch.  He got very quiet.  I went to check on him....I guess it was a long day for him....

I have a slight washi tape addiction right now, so I am trying to use it a lot...to justify having so much!  Actually, it's so versatile, I find it really easy to use.  I'm also enjoying mist and splattering.  A way of letting go of the control.  The rest is older and newer supplies mixed together.  Oh, and head over to ClubCk, specifically the Sketch It Out Challenge for this great sketch!

Well, good luck to Scrap Your Story!  I'll be looking at your next challenge!

Supplies:

PP-Pebbles and MME

Die Cuts-MME

Tape-Recollections, Darice

dots-MME

wood veneer & paint-Studio Calico

Alpha-AC Thickers

Multi Purposing

Well It's Wednesday.  The only day of the week with no kidtivities.  Phew!  It's also the day a new challenge is up at Child's Play Challenges and the new Issue Challenge is up at Club CK. Well fancy that.  It's my turn for both!

First up is my LO for Child's Play Challenge, Classic Toy Challenge.  Oh I was soooooo excited to see what my inspiration was:

I love Sesame Street.  It's been a favorite in our home for many many years.  I guess one of the good things about having a child with special needs is that certain stages last longer.  Therefore Sesame Street  is still a part of our life. I'll be sad and excited when he moves on.  It will mean he's growing, but it will also mean no more Sesame.  Some of the best characters ever are on that show.  Here is my LO

5 Candles

I have to say this was an easy one for me.  I already had these photos printed of my younger son's 5th Birthday party.  He loved Elmo then, as he still does today.  I made the cake for him.  He recognized Elmo right away.  Since I had just received my Scrapbook Generation monthly kit, I decided to use the papers, but I also decided to use a different SG sketch for it.  I went off of my own ideas for the rest of the detail and embellishments.

This week for the Club CK Issue Challenge I noticed a trend that's been rising lately...Cursive Fonts as titles.  Now I know this has a lot to do with the popularity of the Silhouette, but there are so many other ways to add cursive to a page!

Now You See Me, Now You Don't

I found these photos recently and had completely forgotten about them.   This is the only title that came to mind when I saw the photos.  My entire title is in cursive. I used tiny letters (that are hard to read) as well as two different Thickers fonts.  I decided to play a bit with the Thickers, making one more visible than the other (kinda like my belly in the photos).  

In keeping with my trying new things and places this year, I've used a sketch from Inspired BluePrints for my Club CK page.  I will also be entering this over at Challenge Me Happy.  I've wanted to try them out for a while.  Their Anything Goes Challenge, was a good opportunity this week. Lastly, this is my entry for Frosted Designs-Chevrons.

I know this was long, thanks for reading.  Hope you will come and play this week at Child's Play Challenges and also at Club CK.

The Playoffs

Yup. Two posts in one week. I might get back to form...sometime during the summer...Just kidding.  I'd like to post  at three times a week, but for now I'll settle for two.

Today's LO is brought to you courtesy of About a Boy.  Today is March 1 and that means time for a new challenge: Use old products, (at least one year old), on your page.  Well, that was easy enough.  I have stuff in my stash that I've had for 5+ years...(I probably should use that stuff...).

Anyway, I decided to go sports for this one.  I know I've had these papers for almost 3 years.  I bought them right before we moved in 2010.

I adapted a sketch from Scrapbook Generation.  Thanks to them, I realized I could cut the Cubs paper and use it on both sides of the LO.  Kind of a *duh* moment.  Why didn't I ever think of using pre-designed paper that way before????'  Well, that was all it took for the rest of the LO to come together. I sliced into the large baseball and tucked the photo into it. I love using the "baseball" stitch, and was happy to be able to add it here.  With so many photos and pre-embellished paper, lots of extra embellishments weren't necessary, so I just played into the theme and added the baseball 'gear'.  Is it my most artistic LO? No, but it is clean and tells a great story.

I hope yo will create a LO using your old stuff and post it over at About a Boy

Supplies:
PP-Making Memories, the Sports Collection
Thread-DMC
Stitch template-Bazzil In Stich'z
Brads-Recollections, KI Memories
Cubs embellies-EK Success
Alpha-Thickers

Fun Stuff

This month really did not go as planned. I was really excited to be a part of LOAD. It's the only one this year I would be able to do. I quickly got side tracked and have found it hard to recover.  What I mean is, I found it hard to get back to a LO a day.  The good thing is, I've been able to scrap. I've even had large chunks of time to do multiple pages, just not a LO a day.  I decided that my goal was to still complete 28 LO's this month, and I will actually meet this goal.

One reason I will meet this goal is Sketches in Thyme.  I used all 3 sketches this month!  Here I used Sketch #103.  I had laid these photos out in 57 different designs, and never even thought to try them this way.

I used my standard 4x6 photos, so I chose to use photos in place of the multiple blocks of PP on the left side of the LO.  The last panel on the right became my journaling block.  I used some very old PP (some so old they have no manufacturer name on them) and my new banner die to create the banner under the photos.  I'm not a great sports photographer.  There were lots of busy photos and patterns, so I chose to leave the embellishing to a minimum.

Supplies:

PP-Echo Park, paper Pizzazz, Karen Foster, unknown

Title Sticker-Sports Company

Banner Die-Sizzix

die cut-Echo Park

CS-Bazzill

This LO is the Club CK Jan/Feb Issue Challenge #9-Shapes are Everywhere.  My shape to show is Stars.  I use stars all the time, but when presented with the challenge, I froze.  I had already decided to use Sketches in Thyme Sketch #101, but with my standard 4x6 photos.  I just had to figure out the rest.  Well, washi tape to the rescue.  I bought the coordinating tape that went with these papers, so the colors were perfect.  Not only that, the stars on the tape brought all the colors together.

These photos make me laugh.  He's always been curious, and a bit mischievous as well. 

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill

All other supplies-MME

Alphas-October Afternoon, Thickers

You & Me

I am so happy to say that not only am I now caught up on LOAD, I also got to participate in this week's Issue Challenge at Club CK, while using sketch #102 from Sketches in Thyme!   Woo Hoo for scrap time while I have family visiting. ok, the truth is, the scrapping is keeping me sane.

Here it is, the LO I created.  The LOAD prompt was a LO about your honey.  Perfect. That fit right into the Club CK Issue Challenge of creating a 'Valentine' page, with non-traditional product.

I used my phone to take the photo, so it isn't that great.  I love Sketches in Thyme sketch #102, and knew it was right for this photo.  After looking at the colors in the photo, I grabbed some leftover papers from my Scrapbook Generation kit.  To be honest, I didn't love them, and would not have purchased them for myself.  I guess that is part of the challenge of a kit club.  You don't always love everything that you receive, but try to use the stuff anyway. I combined them with some papers I had from the same manufacturer and am really pleased with the result.  A few small embellishments was all it needed.  Glitter is glitter, pink or not.  Being able to use some here makes me happy.

Supplies:

Papers and Twine-MME

Wood veneer-Studio Calico

Alphas-DIY Thickers

Glitter-Martha Stewart on Thickers

Stickles on the wood veneer

Are you Ready....?

Somehow I am managing to keep up with things.  I know that when I have more to do, I get more done...I'm even catching up on LOAD.  Counting this LO, I will only be 2 behind!  Woo Hoo

Anyway, it's time for another challenge at About a Boy.  Today's challenge?  Create a LO with an infant photo of one of the men in your life.  See, that's a challenge for me.  I've already scrapped them.  So I went back and scrapped a favorite photo of my older son.  The cool thing about this is the hobby itself has changed so much, that the products I used today, were not even remotely available when I scrapped these photos the first time.  And no, I will never go back and re-do my older pages.  He was about 4-5 months old in these photos and they just screamed this title....

For this page, I used sketch #82 at Inspired Blueprints.  A simple but really usable sketch.  The original had one photo, but I added a second, keeping the main design the same.  I just wanted to showcase the photos.  He was such a fun, happy baby. He let us do just about anything with him. Oh, and those huge, blue eyes are still a show stopper today, almost 13 years later.

So think about a favorite infant photo of your guy that you'd like a second chance to scrap and come on over to About a Boy to play along.

Supplies:

PP and twine-Jillibean Soup

CS-Bazzill

alphas/ words-October Afternoon, Authentique, Sassafrass

Footballs-MAMBI

Raspberry Bliss

Well, I am officially off my game. I got in the first 3 days of LOAD, then fell off the train. Something came up and that was that.  So I don't do a page a day, but I will be able to catch up and finish the month with 28 completed LO's.  They may not be on prompt, but they'll be finished.

That leads me to today's page.  It's my turn again at Child's Play Challenges.  It's the Art Supply Challenge: Doilies.  Yes, that's right. Doilies. I laughed. Thankfully, I had a kit I received from my Paper Mania group at Ben Franklin.  Between that and Inspired Blueprints Sketch #81, I had just the kind of things I needed to complete this assignment.

I even get to add it to LOAD #4, a smell.  We went raspberry picking last summer. I tried my hand at making jam and baking a pie. The house smelled so good.  I like to joke about my alter ego "Betty", and boy did she show up on that day. But I can't wait until this summer to do it all over again.

There you have it. Pink and doilies on a page I created. 

All supplies are MME except the washi tape-Darice and Alpha letters-October Afternoon

LOAD 2 & 3

Some unexpected things fell in my lap well after signing up to do LOAD this month. I'm going to do my best to keep up with both the LO's and blog posts, but it just may not happen.

LOAD2-  Describe your perfect day.  I did a page about my husband.  I didn't describe his perfect day.  I created a a page celebrating an accomplishment that was perfect for him. He was asked to work hard, and that if he did, he would be recognized for his efforts. He did, and he was rewarded in front of his peers and leaders.  He asked me not to post it online, so I have a portion of the page to share.

My idea was to take the same photo and print it 3 ways to show how he was trying to make a difference.

Supplies: 

PP-MME, AC; embellies-AC, word stickers-Theresa Collins; stencils-Crafters Workshop; spray mist-Mister Huey

LOAD3--Focus on an important but overlooked item.  I decided to focus on....ME.  I get so busy and focused on my family, that I don't take care of me. Oh, and yes, I did read The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin...

Again it was one of those days where I didn't get to begin until 7pm, but I was able to get 'er done.  Everything on the page is the Fancy Pants 'Be You' collection.  I purposely bought it to use for pages about me.  It's the only time I ever get to use pink!   I decided to try a new place this month, SWAT and their first challenge was to get out from behind the camera...so I did,

LOAD 1 / Summer Lovin'

Weekends.  Weekends are not for free time for me....so even though I have 2 LO's finished from Friday, this is the first chance I've had to sit down to write about them! One of them anyway...

It's Feb, which means my annual attempt at LOAD.  I got day one finished at 8pm.  The prompt?  a wordless page.  Use products that enhance the photo so words are not necessary. Yeah, you try that.  It was hard.  So I decided to challenge myself to create the mood on the page, but then I added a title and journaling afterwards.

Anyway, I was so happy to be able to use a sketch #99 from Sketches in Thyme. I loved this sketch when I saw it. Of course I had to use my signature 4x6 instead of smaller photos.  It worked out well. I  also put my own spin on Frosted Designs weekly challenge to use at least one heart and the word love  on the page. I'm not one to do pink and girly Valentine pages.  This is for sure different.

This is how it looked when I added it to the LOAD gallery. (like I said, 8pm, so very nad, very dark photo).  Happy photos needed some bright happy products. I think I accomplished this.  Lots of Washi Tape, bright background and fun bold colored polka dot paper.  I thought about creating a sun, but didn't want to fight with the banner, so I just created the twine circle instead.

I added a title and some journaling. I couldn't just leave it alone....

Supplies: CS-The Paper Co 

PP-Pebbles

Washi tape-Recollections, Queen & Co, WRMK, 7 Gypsies

Stickers-AmyTangerine/AC

Twine-Doodlebug

Alphas-Thickers/AC

beads-random

Introducing....

Good Friday Feb 1 to you!  I'm pleased to be part of opening day at  About a  Boy! Our first challenge is a fun one. Introduce us to the boy(s) in your life. 

I did something I've never done before.  I took apart a LO I made last February and used some of the parts on a new LO.  I really never liked the page, had made it in a hurry, just yuck.  Here is the page I took apart. I'm not sure if I meant to add 2 small photos or was going to add it to his baby album. Regardless. Ick!

I had the vellum pieces custom printed a few years ago.  I thought they would be a good way to Introduce my older son on the new LO.

I try not to use his name too much online, but you get to see it here.  I love his name. It really suits him. My sister took this photo, it is a favorite of mine.  I had some scraps from another LO I finished, so I decided to do a grid.  Not a straight grid, a slightly off kilter grid.  I replaced the flower brads on the vellum with plain green ones, added some meaningful word stickers onto the photo, splattered some paint and called it a day.  There is no extra journaling. The name definition is enough. It's a little personal, but I'm happy to share.

Please come join us at About A Boy, and introduce us to the boy(s) in your life.

Suplies:

CS-Bazzill

PP-Fancy Pants

stickers-Cosmo Cricket, Fancy Pants

mist-Tattered Angels

ink-ColorBox

brads-making memories

vellum name-custom

Kindling the Lights

Well, it's taken me 4 weeks into the new year, but I think I am finding my groove again.  I am one of those people that gets more done when there is more to do.  Some of it may get sone at the last second, but it all gets done.  Take this page for example.  I started thinking about it about 2 weeks ago, but didnt sit down to work on it until Sunday.  That's ok. Art, therapy, (whatever you want to call my scrapping) has a process.

I am hosting this week's Issue Challenge at Club CK.  The challenge is to create a LO using mobile phone technology and/or social media.  It's funny. I've done this before, but when I have to stop and make myself do something for a purpose, I get stuck.  I even had to go back to the Jan/Feb Issue and re-read it.  So, what to do, what to do. I don't use Instagram (gasp!). I've created LO's using a blog post, and email already.  I do like to use Hipstamatic on my iPhone.  Ok. Done. I decided on this:

My older son took these on the last night of Hanukkah using Hipstamatic. One uses the 70s filter, the other uses an 80s filter.  I printed them at home 4x4. What can I say, I like larger photos. The sketch is inspired by the Sketch It Out Challenge, also at Club CK.  The colors are off because of the filters so I chose kraft and black to keep it fairly neutral.  I didn't want it to be so solid, adding the houndstooth paper accomplished that.  I often like to play on the subject, so I thought it would be fun to use the fire stencil.  I outlined it, then painted it using a few different mists. Playing again, I used the number washi tape, tearing it off at '8'. I painted the letters in "light', but the yellow was too bright. While they were still wet, I sprinkled gold glitter over them.  I tried to mist  the background, to give it some shimmer, but it didn't show up very well.  Lastly, I added the bits of orange. It both complements and contrasts the rest of the colors.

Supplies:

CS-paper by the pound

PP-Belle Blvd

Punch-EK Success

Stencil-Crafters Workshop

Mists-Studio Calico and Tattered Angels

Bling-MAMBI

Tape-Bella Blvd, Recollections, Darice

Pen-EK Success

Alphas-Sticko, Cosmo Cricket, Thickers

Glitter-Martha Stewart

All Aboard

All Aboard the Mama Train....yep, that's me. The Mama. Everyone loves The Mama in my house. Want to see?

This is my entry for this week's Issue Challenge at Club CK.  The challenge was to lift one (or more) of the Moderators.  Totally fun!  I lifted my ideas from Laurie's Gallery.  Laurie uses lots of white space, strips of paper and patterned paper to ground the photos.  I created my LO based on those ideas. Oh, and I borrowed one of her titles too.

The photo was taken by a friend of mine and I love it. He was just giggling as he hugged me while we walked.  

All supplies are Echo Park except the wood cameras are Studio Calico.

Winter Day

I thought since it is so cold on the other side of the country, I would co-miserate and do a winter page.  Just kidding. I will not pretend I like the cold & snow. I don't. 19 years in Chicago and I never liked the cold, or the snow. Especially the snow.  But I will say, my older son sure did! "Did it snow Mom?" "Is there a snow day?", were frequent questions from him.  So, I have plenty of cold snowy pictures to scrap.

When I saw the inspiration for this weeks Child's Play Challenges Craft Challenge: Paper Snowflakes, I knew it was time to pull out the snow photos and get busy.

This page didn't take too long to put together. I gave myself one hour to play and I was finished in 55 minutes, including photographing.  I took the negative space from the snowflake sticker and used it as a stencil for the mist.  I punched a few small snowflakes, glued them onto the twine then stuck on some bling.  My way of the snow 'falling'.  I cut two pieces from the same patterned paper and used both sides as the photo matte. The wave piece is also from that same paper. Since the title letters are the same color as the background paper, I outlined them with black and used pop dot adhesive.  I liked the way the page looked, so I decided to journal around the photo matte.  

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: SEI and TPC Studios

Stickers & Title: TPC Studios

Twine: MME

Bling: Queen & Co

Mist: Heidi Swapp

Pen: EK Success

All About a Boy!

Hey there! I'm excited to share that I will be a part of the new challenge blog About a Boy.
Umm yeah, can you say "right up my alley"? Those that know me, or have seen my scrapbook pages know that I have 2 boys who are my primary inspiration.  They are the center of my world.  This challenge blog will be so much fun!

I'm hoping you will join us for our first challenge at About a Boy on Feb 1st. 

I'm even offering an incentive.  I have a giveaway!  Head over to About a Boy and become a follower. Leave me a comment here that you did so. Oh, and if you aren't following me, please follow me as well.  I will draw a winner next Wed, Jan 30.

Kit Club Layouts

Sick kids and doctor appointments left me with little free time this week.  But I was able to work on and finish some pages from my Scrapbook Generation kit club.  I find them easy to work on while watching TV at night.  I also find them fun when I have no mojo, but feel like doing something creative.

These papers were hard for me to work with. I imagine Nov and Dec are a hard time of year for kits.  Most of the lines out are Christmas oriented. New lines aren't being released until February.  I made the nest of it.  I printed a bunch of photos from my Grandparents 65th Anniversary party.  I thought the papers lent themselves to a celebration.  I also changes the sketches up a bit to accommodate more photos, added more embellishments to add 'my' touch, and help tell the story.  The only thing I haven't done is journal.  My Grandfather has since passed away and I can't decide how and what to write.

This one is also from the kit. Color wise, the photos don't go with the papers, but the sentiment was right on! Again, I added my touch with the twine and the scallop punch to soften the lines a bit.

Looking forward to this week. I should have some time to hang out in my scrap room! Ideas have been swirling around in my head. Time to get them on the page!

New Challenge blog!

Hey, so cool!  A new challenge blog ALL ABOUT BOYS!  Woo Hoo!  Go check out About a Boy Scrapbooking Challenge Blog!

So if you know me, you know this is right up my alley!!! Brown, blue, dirt, sports, bring it on.  You all know my saying..."there is no pink in my house:...

Oh Yeah!

Well, the good thing about having kids is there are always photos available to scrap.   I often have a hard time deciding how many I need to print to tell a story.  I usually wind up printing too many, then having a hard time deciding on a design.  Case in point, photos of my younger son trying to get some graham crackers off the table. He was trying so hard and had so many great looks on his face!  I narrowed it down to four and managed to get them onto one page, thanks to Sketches in Thyme Sketch #98.

I stayed true to the look of the design, but used my standard 4x6 photos, cropping them a little where necessary.  Though I did move the journaling to the top row.  Using larger photos means less room for extra papers and embellishments.  Thank goodness for washi tape.  Always an easy way to add pattern, and embellish at the same time. A few wood button and some twine were the only other things I added, and that was enough.  A fun sketch.  I might revisit it in the future, using fewer photos and more PP instead.

Star Wars Style

I celebrated Winter Break being over by giving myself the day off.  What did I do you ask?  I spent an entire day scrapping. I started by looking through my stack of photos, then browsing a few challenge blogs for ideas and inspiration.  ScrapFIt and Frosted Designs stood out to me.  I haven't played there is a while.  Then I sat down to play.  Pretty pleased with myself.  I finished a 2 page LO and 2 single page LOs before my kids got home from school!

These two here are of my older son's 7th Birthday.  He was all about Star Wars. I guess I started it by suggesting we watch the original Star Wars movies...I made the invitations, and even remembered to save one which I placed on this first LO.  This is my entry for ScrapFit Workout #83, Stars. The title alone made me think of ScrapFit, but there are stars elsewhere as well.

I started with this Creative Imaginations StarWars kit I purchased. How could I not use it? After i made the invitations, I saved the  rest of package of StarWars "confetti". I knew I wanted to use it when I finally made these pages.  Those are the Yodas on the banner as well as the small circular ones I pop dotted onto the Papyrus Washi Tape. THe banner is made of the embellishments from the kit as well as the cluster on the bottom left.  All the little stars are Studio Calico wood veneer.  They are from the galaxy, far, far away.....The focus is still on the photos, which are some of my favorites, but there is definitely a theme here!

This is the last one from the party. It is also my entry for the Frosted Designs Recipe Challenge.  These photos of my husband make me laugh.  I think he was having as much fun at the party as the kids were!

The Recipe Ingredients I used are brads, stamps, mask/mist and stickers.  The rest of the StarWars papers were too busy, so I just used some of the embellishments (stickers). The silver stripes at the top and bottom are created from a Creative Workshop stencil and Heidi Swapp spray mist. I used a paint brush to paint over the stencil, adding some striped washi tape for definition. I also splattered some Mister Huey and Tattered Angels mist. The brads are in the clusters at the top right and bottom left, and also around the title sticker.  The stamps are the journal lines and the "confidential".  This page make me smile. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Thank you ScrapFit and Frosted Designs for inspiring me.

XoXo

Happy New Year Everyone!  Feeling great today!  We had a wonderful 2 weeks off and now it is time for life to get back to normal. The kids are in school, husband is back at work, which means I get back to my routine!

Today I am sharing a fun new LO.  It is my turn to share on Child's Play Challenges.  It is also my week to host the Issue Challenge over at Club CK.

Today's Child's Play Challenge is based on...JACKS!

Ok, this was tough for me.  We have no jacks. We have no photos of anyone playing jacks, including any of myself as a child.  Hmmm, color? I just did that for our last challenge.  Photos of my kids playing with anyone named Jack?  Nope.  Come on, think outside the box!  Well, I could do the shapes....so I did! Yes, I came up with x's and circles, and also, the color red.  A bit of a stretch?  Maybe.  (Let's just hope Tic-Tac-Toe doesn't come up for me next!) While I was looking for PP for another project I was working on, I came across this very old Scenic Route paper.  I knew I would build my page around it.  I chose this photo out of my stack. The colors were great.  I even used a Scrapbook Generation sketch.  All the little details play back to the x&o theme. The stitching, the buttons, the title.

Oh, so how does this work for the Club CK Issue Challenge too?  Ha!  Polka dots!!!!    I purposely chose to use polka dot washi tape for two reasons.  One, it was red like the ball, and two, I liked that it added a nice visual element.  It really made me look right to the photo when I laid it down. Besides, dots & stripes, what could go wrong there?

The red background paper is actually the Doodlebug double dot paper. It was a subtle way to add texture to the colors.

I hope you will come join me over at Child's Play Challenges and also over at Club CK!

New for Me

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!