Lasting Memories #261 - Campfire Fun 101

Hello and Happy Sunday! We have been enjoying a gorgeous first weekend of fall! The windows are open, the weather is beautiful...I just can't ask for anything more.

We have a brand new challenge up over on the Lasting Memories blog today. It's (almost) a new month and  that means a new theme. Our theme for this month is Hot, Hot, Hot (product). Our first challenge is a "Around The Campfire" and it is also a sketch challenge, and you are to use some liquid glass somewhere on your layout.

First off, here is the sketch:

 

And here is what I came up with:

 

  

I had too many pictures that I wanted to use, so I stretched the sketch into a double page layout. For my liquid glass effect, I covered the campfire and the marshmallows with glossy accents.

 



 

I used the Simple Stories Under the Stars collection for this layout and I thought the images from the cut apart sheets would be the perfect embellishments. I still need to add my journaling to my journaling card, but I need to figure out how to fit all I want to say on that little card!

 

Be sure to stop by the Lasting Memories blog to see what the rest of the design team has made for this challenge. I hope you can find some time to create and share your layout with us!

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic day!



Use Your Stuff #192 - Fall Theme

Hey everyone! I am hosting the challenge for this week over on the Use Your Stuff blog. My challenge to you is to create a fall themed project. It can be fall colors - think reds, oranges, yellows, gold, and brown - or something to do with leaves, pumpkins, the pumpkin patch, apples, scarecrows... whatever makes you think of fall.

For my project, I have created a fall themed card using the beautiful Carta Bella - Fall Blessings 6x6 paper pad. This has got to be one of my favorite fall collections - ever! The colors and the patterns are just so pretty!

I used this sketch from Try Stampin' On Tuesday #235:

I loved the layers of papers on this sketch, and of course it has my favorite - big banner piece, too. I just added in a few sequins and gold thread, and I really like the way it turned out. Be sure to check out Try Stampin' On Tuesday - they have fun sketches every Tuesday!

Head on over to the Use Your Stuff blog and see the other projects from the design team. I hope you have some time to play along with my challenge. Your have until Saturday, September 26 to get your project linked up.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

Boo! - SNS card sketch #58

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a beautiful day - wherever you may be. Our three day - no plans - weekend has been filled with car buying for our oldest son, grocery shopping, and mowing the lawn! Not really what I had envisioned, but fun nonetheless!

I have the latest card sketch from Sketch N Scrap to share with you today. Lisa created this fun sketch for us to work with:

And here is my card:

Supplies used - Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye - Boo To You, Ghost and boo dies - Poppy Stamps, label die - Carta Bella labels #4, scalloped punch - EK Success.

I had so many ideas for this sketch. Fall leaves, a snowman and some snowflakes, flowers...it was hard to decide! Then, I got these super cute ghost dies that I had ordered, and I immediately knew I had to use them!

I found this old My Mind's Eye Halloween collection in my stash that I have been hoarding for so long, and thought it would make the perfect Halloween card to go with those ghosts. I just have a few sheets of this collection left, and I think it would be perfect for a layout of Ada and my two great nieces Halloween costumes from last year. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get another collection used up!

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog to see the rest of the beautiful cards from the other design team members. You have until September 30th to play along with any of our challenges.

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Sketches In Thyme #165 - Happy Fall

Happy Friday! Thanks to a teacher work day, the boys have the day off from school. We are looking forward to a three day weekend without any plans!

Today is my day to share a layout using the week three sketch over at Sketches In Thyme. Here is the fun sketch from Shawn that I got to work with:

And my layout:

I have so many older fall photos of my kids, and my nieces and nephews, that I still need to scrap. I usually get pretty excited to scrap seasonal photos when the new season starts - probably because of all the pretty new collections - and I was happy to scrap these photos of my niece from 2010.

When my kids were little, my Mom and Dad had the best backyard for playing in the leaves. They had several big trees and we would all get together one weekend to help them rake the leaves. We had good intentions of raking leaves, but what generally happened was the kids played in them, and then we went home - with good intentions of going back to get the job done! Sometimes that happened. Sometimes it didn't!

I absolutely love the colors in the new Carta Bella - Fall Blessings paper collection. I knew with all of the fall photos I have yet to scrap, that it would be perfect and put to good use, so you'll probably be seeing a lot more of it in the weeks to come!

Be sure to play along with any or all of our sketches this month, and you will have a chance at winning this awesome set of stamps. You have until the 30th to link up over on the Sketches In Thyme blog.

 

 

Here's a look at the week one sketch:
 

 

And the week two sketch:

 

And check back on Tuesday for the week four sketch. I hope you can find some time to play along with our sketches this month!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!

Feeling Sketchy #129

Hello, hello! Happy Tuesday! It's the middle of the month and that means there is a new sketch posted over on the Feeling Sketchy blog. Our sponsor for this sketch is Dr. Digi.

Here's a look at the sketch:

 For my card I pulled out this sunburst stencil that has been sitting around for well over a year and never been used. Yeah, it was another one of those things that I had to have, but didn't really know to do with it! I actually had fun playing around with it, and I can see myself pulling out the other dozen or so stencils that I have and putting them to use!

I just sponged some ink on for my sunshine and printed off the sentiment. My sister has been having a rough couple of months, and I thought she could use a little extra sunshine.

Be sure to check out the Feeling Sketchy blog to read more about our prize and our sponsor, and to see the creations from the rest of the design team.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

Lasting Memories #259

Happy Sunday! I hope you all are enjoying what is left of the weekend. We have had a fantastic cool down around here - highs in the 70's and low's in the 40's - it is really feeling like fall!

The new challenge is up today over at Lasting Memories.  This month our theme is "Techniques and Titles", and this week our challenge is to use ink splatters and mixed alpha fonts/letters.

Ink splatters were a bit of a challenge for me. I don't have very many sprays, so I was a bit limited with what I could do. Add to that the fact that I just haven't played around much with the ones I do have. That's why I love challenges. They make me step out of my comfort zone and do things I normally wouldn't do.

This photo of Ada makes me laugh every time I look at it. Any time she finds my reading glasses laying around, she has to put them on. I'm surprised she hasn't broken them - she's not that careful with them. She is quite a character!

Check out the Lasting Memories blog to see the rest of the design team's layouts. You have until September 25 to play along. Bea is offering up a fun scrappy prize, so get those layouts linked up!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful day!

Sketch N Scrap Twistback Thursday #9

Hello everyone! Today is the second Thursday of the month, and that means it's Twistback Thursday over at Sketch N Scrap!

This time around you are to use this sketch that Lisa has picked:

This twist is to use some to use items on your layout that begin with the first letter of each letter in the word: "apple". You can use other items as well but you must use at least one item that starts with an "A" two that start with a "P", one that starts with an "L", and one that starts with an "E".

Here is my layout:

For the twist I have used - a - apple chipboard sticker, p - punch (for the tabs), p - pencil chipboard sticker, l - label stamp for my journaling box, and e - enamel dots.

This is a layout of my oldest son. The photos are from his first day of kindergarten and his first day of being a senior. I just love his little nervous smile in his kindergarten picture. He was so nervous that first day, and he did not want to go at all! Now it's just another day! I cannot believe how fast these last 12 years have gone!

I used more Bella Blvd Star Student on this layout. I am happy to say that I have almost used up this entire collection! I have a couple of full sheets left, but hardly any scraps. I am sad to see it almost gone, but so happy to actually be using it up!

That's it for me today. Be sure to check out the Sketch N Scrap blog and see the layouts from the rest of the team.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Use Your Stuff #190

Hello everyone! Happy Monday and Happy Labor Day to all of you who celebrate it! We are still enjoying our long weekend around here. It is incredibly hot and humid, and that sounds like a good excuse to stay inside, where it's nice and cool, and scrap!

I am so excited to share the new challenge from Use Your Stuff with you today! Karrie is challenging us to "be inspired by a favorite tv show or movie". It could be a title of the show or episode, theme song, quote, or stars or topic.  It can be yours or anyone's. Actually this challenge is pretty much wide open to your interpretation,  just have fun with it and explain in your blog post how it relates to a tv show or movie.

Around our house we look forward to The Walking Dead every fall. We have been fans since the very first episode, and we are loving the new spin off - Fear The Walking Dead - that's been on for a couple of weeks. So, it only seemed right to make a Halloween card featuring a couple of glow in the dark zombies.

 

I used some scraps from Bella Blvd's Trick or Treat collection and the stickers are from EK Success. I based my card off of this older sketch from Match the Sketch.

 

Be sure to check out the Use Your Stuff blog to see the awesome creations from the rest of the design team.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fantastic day!

My Favorite Kind Of Day - Lasting Memories #258

Good Sunday morning! We are in the middle of a much needed long weekend here, and we are enjoying every minute of it. The boys have been in school for three and a half weeks now, and we were all ready for a little break!

At Lasting Memories this month we are all about the techniques and titles. This week's challenge we want to see distressing on your layout and for you to use a title that tells a story.

 

So, the photos on this are not the greatest, there's a glare in the left photo, and Ada is just a little blurry in the one on the right, but that's okay with me! I truly love that I get to spend every day during the week with this little girl. She is sure to always bring a smile to my face, and she is usually pretty willing to take a selfie or two with me! We have a lot of fun together.

For my distressing, I used my old Heidi Swapp edge distressing tool to rough up the edges of all of my patterned paper. I haven't done this technique in a while, and it was fun to rough up those papers.

Head on over to the Lasting Memories blog to see what the rest of the design team has done with this challenge. All of our challenges for September are open until the 29th. I hope you are inspired to play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sketch N Scrap #88 - Buddies

This is my second post for the day. To see the newest Feeling Sketchy sketch, please scroll down or go here.


Hello again! I am back with the latest sketch from Lisa over at Sketch N Scrap! She has created another fabulous sketch for us to work with, and here it is:

 

 

And here is my take on it:

 



These are some older photos of my boys. Like, photos from 8 years ago, and I'm pretty sure I've scrapped photos from this day before. In fact, I am pretty sure that I have scrapped these exact photos already. But there are so many stories that these photos can tell.

The story that I want to focus on this time is how thankful I am that Shane has such a wonderful big brother to look out for him. Shane is often a loner, whether it be by choice or not, and that always makes me a little sad. Truth be told, he probably prefers to be a loner, but I am so happy that he will always have his big brother looking out for him and taking care of him. I know it's hard for Matthew sometimes, being so close to him in age. Shane can be rather loud in his protests, but when it comes right down to it, he will always be there for his little brother.

I finally got around to using this older mini collection from Echo Park called Brothers. I remember I waited around until it was almost all gone at my local scrapbook store, and I didn't get any of the stickers that went with it. So, I just die cut the "Best Pals" circle out of one of the patterned papers and made my own embellishment. And those alphas...I know it's hard to tell in this photo, but they are a dark denim and an old punch out alphabet from My Minds Eye, and they are from 2002! Now that is some old stash to get used up!

Be sure to check out the Sketch N Scrap blog and see the beautiful layouts by the rest of the design team. I hope you are inspired to play along!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you soon!

Feeling Sketchy #128 - Happy Fall

Hello everyone! How did this happen? How can it possible be September already?! Time is really flying by!

I have a new sketch from Feeling Sketchy to share with you all today.

We have been having beautiful weather the past couple of weeks - highs in the upper 70's to low 80's - and it really got me in the mood for fall. Now this week we are back to summer like temperatures! I guess it can be expected, we are still in summer around here, but those nice days really have me ready for fall.

 

I used an older Simple Stories fall line called Harvest Lane. I have been hanging on to it for a couple of years now, and I don't know why, they come out with a new fall collection every year! I thought I'd better get to using up the old so I can buy some of the new!

The only change I made on my card is where it laces up on the sketch. I just wrapped my card front with twine and tied a bow.

Our sponsor for this sketch is Deedee's Digis. Be sure to check them out, and head on over to the Feeling Sketchy blog to read more about them and see the rest of the design team's take on the sketch.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!