Sponsor at Sketch Inspiration

I am the sponsor over at Sketch Inspiration this week! Head on over and take a look at the sketch - get your layout for the sketch posted by Saturday night for your chance to win this:

And here is my take on the sketch:

He has it...

Supplies used: Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants, Basic Grey, Echo Park, Punch - EK Success, Alphabet stickers - October Afternoon and KI Memories

Here's another layout made for the sketch class over at Inspired to Scrap.
I have had these photos of Shane just beggin' to be scrapped for a couple of years now - that seems to be the going thing with me for this class - older photos - at least I'm finally getting around to them. Shane used to love to ride with us on the lawnmower, and when he was younger it was sometimes the only way to get him to take a nap. Then he took a spell of being afraid of the mower - running in the opposite direction with his fingers in his ears. On this particular day, he wanted to do it all by himself - no help from anyone - so, Daddy let him drive around the yard on his own. Of course Daddy was right there in case he needed him (and the mower was not engaged!). He did a pretty darn good job for his first time driving!

1 in 88

Stacey has another sketch class going on over at Inspired to Scrap this month and of course I had to take it - she always has such great sketches! This layout is my take on sketch #7. I figured since April is Autism Awareness month, that it was about time I made a layout about it. The strips on the puzzle pieces are statistics about autism.

• Autism now affects 1 in 88 children
• 1 in 54 boys
• Boys are 4 times more likely than girls to have autism
• More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes, and cancer combined
• Autism is the fastest growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.
• We live with autism everyday

I made this layout after Scott had posted a picture of Shane and his thoughts on Shane and autism on Facebook. He was able to say what I struggle to say about autism, so, the journaling behind the picture is from Scott.
This is what he had to say:
This is my son, Shane. He was diagnosed with autism between the ages of 2 and 3. He may never have a best friend or talk to his friends about how gross girls are in the first grade. He will probably never have a first kiss or a high school sweetheart. He will probably never proudly drive his new car or truck to school to show it off. He will probably never ask a girl to the prom or slow dance with the girl he always had a crush on. He will probably never get married or know the joy and pride of having children. He will probably never hit the winning basket or homerun in a ballgame. Shane has autism and may never do these things, but I know that there is an incredible boy inside held hostage by his autism. Unable to express himself or show his true potential. I say he MAY never do these things because I hope and pray daily that they will find the cause and cure for autism.

Stayed tuned because I am determined to get my thoughts and feelings on autism and how it affects our family down on paper.

Home Decor Project

So, it has been ages since I have posted anything here on my blog. I blame it all on our crappy computer that needs updating, but won't let us update. Maybe one day I will invest in a new one!

Anyway...
I was asked to be the guest blogger today over at Inspired To Scrap , and decided I would share here as well, so here goes -

I am going to share a quick and easy home decor project that can be made with things that you already have and you just might use up some scraps in the process. I saw the idea for this here and thought that it was really cute, and decided to make one of my own.


Here is what you will need:

a frame - I am using a 12x12 frame that I found at Michaels. It originally cost $24.99, but it was on sale for 40% off, plus, I had a coupon for an additional 25% off, making the final cost $11 and some change.

1 Sheet of cardstock - for the base

scraps of patterned paper

2 inch square (or shape of your choice) punch, die cut machine, or your paper trimmer

embellishments

small photos

Here is how I made mine:
First, I took all of my photos and paper scraps that I was going to use and cut them into 2 inch squares. I chose to cut mine into squares, however, you could use circles, hexagons, or any other shape that you like. After I got all of the pieces cut, I used my charcoal chalk ink to distress the edges of my papers. Then I arranged all of the papers and photos in a grid on my background. This took a little time for me to get it just the way I wanted – lots of rearranging!
When I had it the way I wanted, I adhered it to the background cardstock. I embellished some of the squares and left some blank. How much you want to embellish is totally up to you.


There you have it -a quick and easy home decor project. I think what took me the longest was getting the arrangement of the photos and papers just the way I wanted it.