Sketch N Scrap Is Turning 4!!!

Hi everyone! Just a quick little post to let you know that:

We will kick things off with a brand new sketch tomorrow, but the fun won't stop there, join us for Flashback Friday, National Scrapbook Day, and our regularly scheduled sketches all month long. In addition to the wonderful sketches and awesome inspiration from the design team, there will be some fun prizes, too!

I do hope you join in our celebration!

Merry Little Christmas Card

Hello everyone! I've got a quick card share for you today, and it's a Christmas card! Every year I say that I am going to start on my Christmas cards early so I am not hurrying around at the last minute trying to get them done. It never fails, every year I wait until the last minute to do them! Not this year! I am getting a head start and it's only (almost) May!

I have been a follower of the Christmas Card Challenges blog for a long time, but I have yet to join in one of their challenges. Since I am trying to get a head start this year, I thought I would finally play along! Their blog is unique in that the only requirement is that you make a Christmas card each week. They do have an optional challenge each week in case you need a little boost.

The challenge for this week is "Anything Goes".

I have created a clean and simple card - my favorite kind to make! A little embossing, a stamped sentiment, and a banner - all my favorite things!

If you need a little boost to get your Christmas cards started and finished before the holiday season, be sure to check out Christmas Card Challenges!

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

National Scrapbook Day with Stick It Down

Hello everyone! Happy Friday to you! I'm just popping in for a quick post to let you know of a great give away that Stick It Down is going to have in celebration of National Scrapbook Day next week. 

If you play along with any of our May sketches - they will be posted this Sunday, May 1st - in the month of May, you will have a chance to win this fantastic prize! 

I know there will be a lot of challenges out there on National Scrapbook Day, so why not pair one of those challenges up with one of our sketches! If you play along with all three of our sketches, you will be entered to win three times. So stay tuned! You'll have all month long to play along!

Just A Note...

Hello everyone! Happy Tuesday to you! I hope that your week is off to a good start!

Try Stampin' - Or Not - On Tuesday has a brand new sketch for you today! It's another fun one to work with!                                      

Our optional challenge for this sketch is - A trio of textures.

I loved the hexagon elements on the sketch and I thought it was about time to put my hexagon die to use! I just love the large panel - perfect for a pretty patterned paper like I used here - or it would be great for a large stamped image as well. 

Be sure to stop by the Try Stampin' blog to see the beautiful cards from the other team members. I hope that you are inspired to play along. A couple of reminders -  you have two weeks to enter this challenge, you can enter either on the blog or on our Facebook page here. The challenge/theme is always optional, and stamping is always optional! Now head on over and join the fun!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Have a great one!

Sixteen - Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #480

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend. We got a little taste of summer with nice - sunny - almost hot - days! The windows were open, lots of time spent outside...can't get any better than that!

It's the start of a new week and that means a new sketch is posted over at Scrapbook Challenges!

I changed things up a bit with this layout. For starters, I don't have a lot of photos that are good to trim down to a  2.25 x 2.25 size - I take way too many close ups I guess - so instead of three smaller photos, I chose to use some 2 x 2 squares from an older Simple Stories birthday snap pack. Since the 2 x 2 squares had an arrow pointing in a certain direction, I also flipped the sketch to make it work with the squares. 

This layout is of our youngest son, Shane, on his 16th birthday. He does not care for cake much, but he loves to blow out candles, so this year we decided to get his favorite chocolate donuts to serve as his cake. He loved it!

Head on over to the Scrapbook Challenges blog to see the layouts from the rest of the team. You have until the end of the month to play along with these challenges.

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

Mesmerized By Mickey - Scrapbook Challenges Liftapalooza - Stacia

Hi guys! Happy Friday! I am so happy to say that we now have less than three weeks of school left! Bring on summer vacation!

I am also happy to share with you the latest challenge at Scrapbook Challenges. Today we are scrap lifting Stacia!

Here is the layout that we are to scrap lift:

And my take on it:

I have always been a fan of Stacia's work, so this was a fun layout to lift. I loved the overall design of her layout and kept my layout very close to the original.

I am so happy that I got the chance to finally get these photos of Ada from last summer scrapped. One thing is for certain, she loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and she can't be bothered when she is watching it - not even for a quick picture! She's also doing one of her favorite activities - eating ice chips. Yeah, Nana has her "addicted" to strange things, like ice chips and wintergreen lifesavers - busted into pieces of course! Hey, it could be worse - like she could be "addicted" to coffee...oh wait, that's another layout!

I used some scraps and stickers from various Bella Blvd collections on this layout. To get the paper and stickers to stand out more, I outlined them with my favorite new Sharpie fine tip pen. I love this pen!

I hope you have some time to play along with some of our challenges before the end of the month. Be sure to stop by Scrapbook Challenges to see how the rest of the design team scrap lifted this layout from Stacia. For more inspiration from Stacia be sure to stop by her blog - The Dancing Daisy.

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

You Are Sweet - Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #72

Hi guys! Happy Hump Day! I can't believe that it is Wednesday already! The weekend will be here before we know. They are forecasting almost 80 degree weather for this weekend - I say bring it on!

We have a new card sketch today over at Sketch N Scrap. Heather has created another fun sketch for us to work with.

So, I had a little dream about this sketch. Do you ever do that? Have a dream about an awesome card or scrapbook page - and then can't remember what it looked like in your dream once you wake up?! I can remember the next morning waking up and thinking - that's what I'm going to do with this sketch - and I should have written it down, drawn it out, or something, because for the life of me I can't remember it now. I just remember the card in my dream did not have a banner on it, but something else substituted in the middle...

Any way, I knew I had several sticker sheets with banner pieces on them and thought they would be the perfect fit for a card. I love how this simple and sweet card turned out - even if it's not what a dreamed about! A quick little thank you on the inside will finish it off!

I used my favorite - Echo Park - We are family - collection for this card. I really wish I had a whole bunch more of this in my stash! I love the colors and the patterns are so fun. 

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog to see the cards from the rest of the design team. You have until the 30th to enter any of our challenges for a fun prize!

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

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #156

Hello again! I am back with another project to share with you today.

The latest sketch has been posted over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, and Michelle has created another fun sketch for us to work with.

I decided to go with a birthday card - mostly since I'd just received this "happy" die and couldn't wait to try it out. The three "happy" panels are popped up just a bit using some foam tape. Since this is more of a masculine card, I decided to wrap some jute string around the base instead of ribbon.

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

Use Your Stuff #219 - Punches

Hello everyone! I hope you are ready to get another week started! I have found myself with an unexpected day off and I plan to scrap the day away!

Use Your Stuff has a new challenge up today, and this time our new design team member, Beth, is challenging us to use our punches!

I love my punches and it is safe to say that I pull at least one out to use on just about any project I do. I love my border punches, my circle punches get used a lot, and I have several tab, label, and banner punches that I like to use. Definitely a favorite tool in my stash!

I created a card for my project today and I used a scalloped border punch, a flower punch, a circle punch, and a banner punch on my card.

I based my card off of this sketch from Paper Issues:

Now be sure to check out the Use Your Stuff blog to see the fantastic projects from the rest of the design team. I hope you find some time to pull out your punches and play along!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope that you have a wonderful day!

I Love That Smile - Stick It Down

Hello everyone! I am back with my third post of the day! If you are looking for my Sketches In Thyme reveal, please scroll down or go here. If you're looking for my Lasting Memories reveal, please scroll down or go here.

 I'm so excited to be featured over on the Stick It Down blog with a layout I made using the April single page sketch.

Here's a look at the sketch:

And my layout:

I followed the sketch closely - only adding in a cluster at the bottom of the photo and moving my title to the top of the page. I used Echo Park's - Little Man collection for this photo of Matthew from 2001. This photo always makes me smile - that cheesy little grin and that dirty little face is just too cute. It's hard to believe that this little boy will be graduating in a few short weeks!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful day and I will be back soon!

Lasting Memories #289 - Broadway

Hello again! I am back with another layout to share with you. If you are looking for my Sketches In Thyme reveal, please scroll down or go here.

We have a new challenge up over at Lasting Memories today. Our theme for April is Musical Montage and this week we are all about Broadway!

You can use anything from Broadway, or you can use this photo for inspiration - it is totally up to you!

I chose to go with the photo and scrap about our cat!

We have quite a few outside cats, and for the longest time all we had were plain ol' black cats, Then pretty little PK came along. We hadn't had a tiger stripe in quite some time, so she was a nice change! It seems like all we call her is "Pretty Kitty" and it kind of stuck. One night my son started calling her PK - short for Pretty Kitty - and that is now what she is known as!'

I kept my page and embellishments minimal so PK could take center stage. I love the vellum hearts and the candy dots are a perfect match to the dark pink - although they really don't look it in the photo! 

I used this sketch from Scrapbook Challenges (#478) that I had not had the chance to use yet.

Be sure to check out the Lasting Memories blog to see if the other design team members used the photo for inspiration, or if they chose another Broadway musical!

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

So Curious - Sketches In Thyme #194

Good Sunday morning! I hope that you're having a good weekend! Ours has been filled with cleaning out our garage and trying to get rid of some stuff that we don't need any more. Always a big job, but it's so nice when it's done!

Today is my day to be featured over on the Sketches In Thyme blog - showing my take on sketch #194. This time around we are working with a sketch from Bev.

I just love these photos of Ada from her 10 month photo shoot. She had taken so many cute  photos already, then her curiosity got the best of her, and she had to check out the grass. She didn't know what to think of it, but I think she kind of liked it!

I used some older papers from a few different Close To My Heart collections on this layout. I added in some embellishments from Elle's Studio, and I think they work perfectly together!

Stop by the Sketches In Thyme blog for new inspiration every single day! If you play along with any of our sketches this month you will be entered in for a chance to win this:

Thanks so much for stopping by! I have a couple more things to share with you today, so stay tuned!

SBC - Liftapalooza - Lyne

Hello everyone! Happy Friday! Are you ready for the weekend? I know I am! We don't really have any plans, but that's my favorite kind of weekend! Then it's a nice treat if we do decide to do something.

We have a new challenge for you at Scrapbook Challenges today. This month we are doing our challenges a little differently. It's "Liftapalooza" time, and this time around we are showcasing our newest design team members. We have already showcased Ali, Karen, and Katie, and this time around we are showcasing Lyne! Our challenge to you is to scraplift this layout of Lyne's:

Here is my layout:

I'm not sure why my photo on the layout looks so dark - it really isn't in person! 

I found these papers in my stash and they matched the colors in the photo perfectly. I loved the layers behind Lyne's photo and I knew I wanted to have quite a few behind my photo as well. I just love the peachy orange with the pinks and greens! And those acrylic letters...they've been in my stash for years! I bought them way back when acrylic embellishments wasn't the "it" embellishment! I am so happy to finally pull them out and use them! I substituted hearts in place of the stars, and a strip of paper at the bottom instead of string, but that is really the only difference in the two layouts.

Stop by Scrapbook Challenges to see how the rest of the design team "lifted" this layout from Lyne. Be sure to stop by Lyne's blog - Lynn's Everyday Ideas - to see more of her beautiful work!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have some time to play along with us this month!

Have a fantastic day!

April Showers with Try Stampin' - Or Not - On Tuesday #266

Hello again! I am back with my third project of the day! If you are looking for my Sketches In Thyme Project Life Style reveal, please go here. If you are looking for my Stick It Down reveal, please go here.

Try Stampin' - Or Not - On Tuesday has a new sketch posted today, and our optional twist for this sketch is "April Showers".

This is actually the third card that I made using this sketch and the optional theme. The first two that I made I felt they were a little too busy, so I made this one and kept it pretty clean and simple. I really like the way that it turned out, and the more that I look at the other two, I like them just as much! Here are the other two cards:

I made all three of these cards using Echo Park's Sunny Days Ahead 6x6 paper pad. I had purchased a few of these pads when they first came out for another project, and I just really love the colors and patterns!

Check out the Try Stampin' blog to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the team. I hope that you are inspired to play along with us!

Just a few reminders - stamping is optional, the theme is optional, you can enter on the blog, or on the Try Stampin' Facebook page, and you have 2 weeks to enter our challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a wonderful day!

Thank You With Stick It Down

Hello everyone! I am back again with another project to share with you! If you are looking for my Sketches In Thyme Project Life Style reveal, please scroll down or go here.

Today is reveal day for the card team over at Stick It Down. Here is a reminder of the sketch that was posted on the first:

I really wanted to use washi tape for the strips on this, but I just couldn't get any of the colors I have to work well together! I finally just decided to go with two different papers cut on the diagonal and I like that much better. I decided to go with this label shape instead of an oval, and I actually inked up a stamp for it that I have had for years and maybe used once before!

The papers are from an older My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pad called "Quite Contrary - Jack and Jill" that I've had for awhile. I'm trying to work my way through some of these older paper pads that are about used up. I have way too many and it feels good to use up some stash - especially since I recently bought nine more 6x6 paper pads at Tuesday Morning! I just can't pass them up when they are $2.99!

Be sure to stop by Stick It Down  to see the cards from the rest of the team. I hope you play along with our challenges this month!

I will be back soon with another project to share with you!

Sketches In Thyme PL Style Sketch #22

Hello everyone, and happy Tuesday to you! I hope that your week is off to a great start! The countdown to the end of the school year has already started in my house - just 23 more days of school and we are free for the summer! I can't wait!

Today I am featured over at Sketches In Thyme PL Style with my take on sketch #22, and I am happy to share it with you here, as well. Here is the sketch, courtesy of Crystal:

 This sketch made me think of a journal card, so that is what I made - nothing fancy, but it gets the job done! If I can find where I put the enamel dots that I used on this spread, I will add them by the chevrons.

If this spread looks a little familiar it's because it is the right hand side to the  layout from last month. Here is a look at both pages together.

Be sure to check out the Sketches In Thyme PL Style blog for daily inspiration, and if you play along with any of our sketches this month, you have the chance to win this fun stamp set that would be perfect to use on some PL style cards.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I will be back soon with another project to share with you!

Make It Monday #58 @ The Memory Nest

Hello everyone! Here we are at Monday again already! The long, busy days of spring are here and that makes time go so fast.

We have a new sketch posted at The Memory Nest today, and this sketch is courtesy of Katie.

I kind of struggled with this sketch at first. I'm not one to leave a lot of white space on a layout, but I kept looking at the sketch and the white space looked more and more like a large photo area, so that is what I went with. That's one of the many reasons why I love sketches - you can interpret them however you want and make them your own.

I enlarged this photo of Ada to an 8x10 and then cut it down a little more to give myself a little more room to work with. Sometimes I forget the impact a large photo can have. I just love the pinks and greens in this late summer photo, and it really makes me ready for our rose bush to start blooming.

Last summer Ada would walk up to the flowers, stick her nose down close to them, and say, "Mmm!". She always made time to stop and smell the roses - which made me slow down and smell them, too. I'll be anxious to see her reaction to them again this year.

Be sure to stop by The Memory Nest to see the projects from the rest of the team. I hope you play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back soon with another project!

Thinking Of You - AHSC #154

Hello everyone! I hope that your week is off to a good start so far!

The latest sketch has been posted over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. Michelle has created another fun sketch for us to work with.

I used a 6x6 paper pad from American Crafts called "Spring" for this card. One of the papers in it is a cut apart sheet that has several differnet sentiments/sayings on it. I cut out one of the "Hello" sentiments and turned it into a tag. Since it was a smaller size tag, I created another tag from another one of the papers from the paper pad.

I'm not sold on the "thinking of you" sentiment. I feel like it needs something on the bottom half of the card, but I feel like it may be a little on the bold/big side. For now it is placed with temporary adhesive, so if I decide to go with something different I can.

Be sure to stop by the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog to see the sketch and read the rules on how to enter. I hope that you are inspired to play along with us this week!

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

Storyteller with Scrapbook Challenges

Hello again everyone! I hope that your Monday is going great! I am back with my third post of the day!

Scrapbook Challenges has a fun new sketch challenge for you today!  It showcases 2 - 4x4 photos, and I really am loving to work with this size!

Here's the sketch:

I'm actually scrapping recent photos of Miss Ada! These are from about 3 weeks ago and we were getting ready to go pick the boys up from school. I had asked Ada what she and Pops were going to do when he got home from work that day, and boy did she have a list to tell! She told me how they would ride the tractor, take a ride in the wagon, and go to the creek! I just love her facial expressions in these photos. You can really tell she is thinking about all the fun things they were going to do!

This layout came together so quickly for me! I used My Mind's Eye - Hello Gorgeous line, and it was just so easy! The greens and the pinks matched her shirt perfectly!

Be sure to stop by the Scrapbook Challenges blog to see the beautiful creations from the rest of the team! We have another fun month of challenges ahead for you, so be sure to check back in!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I will be back soon!

Make It Monday #57 @ The Memory Nest

Hello everyone! I am back with my next project to share with you!

We have a brand new sketch posted over at The Memory Nest today and it's another favorite of mine!

This photo is about my youngest son, Shane, and his love of water. I don't know what it is with kids with autism and the love of water, but so many of them are just drawn to it. Shane has always loved to throw rocks in the water. He loved going over to his Grandpa's farm and spending hours at the creek, just throwing rocks. When his Grandma and Grandpa sold their farm he had to get creative with his rock throwing. He would throw rocks in mud puddles, buckets of water, anything that had enough water to make a splash was rock throwing water! He's never outgrown this, and still likes to toss a rock in whatever water he can find.

Imagine how happy he was when we discovered that our little dry creek was actually holding water in parts of it this spring! He has spent many hours down there all ready - it was one of his favorite past times over spring break - and I am sure as long as it keeps raining enough to keep water in there, we will spend a lot more time down there over the summer! I'm guessing he'll probably even be getting in the water when it gets warmer!

I used a couple of different Simple Stories collections - So Rad and 24/7, and a piece of Jillibean Soup paper for this layout.

Be sure to stop by The Memory Nest to see the layouts from the rest of the team. I can't wait to see your take on the sketch!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I will be back soon with another project!

Use Your Stuff #217 - Tissue Paper

Hello everyone! Happy Monday! Today is going to be a busy day around here, so lets get started!

We have a new challenge posted for the week over at Use Your Stuff today. New DT member, Khristina, has challenged us to use tissue paper in our projects this week!

I had no idea how challenging this was going to be for me! I struggled with this big time! I originally thought - hey, tissue paper isn't too much different than crepe paper, maybe I'll make some embellishments! - did not work out at all! Tissue paper is much thinner than crepe paper! So, I went with my next plan and cut out some tissue paper circles to add to my card. Is it one of my favorite cards? No. Will I be using tissue paper again anytime soon in my crafty projects? Probably not! But, then again maybe I won't be happy until I make something with it that I like! I don't think it helped any that I kept adding sequins to it, either! Now it's a bit bling-y, but that's okay. You don't have to love every single creation!

Here is my card:

Maybe one of my little nieces will think it's great!

Be sure to stop by the Use Your Stuff blog to see some awesome creations using tissue paper. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I will be back soon with another project for you!

Lasting Memories #287

Hello everyone! Happy Sunday! I hope that you are having a good weekend. We are supposed to have sunny skies and temps in the low 70's today - you can't get much better than that!

It's the start of a new month and that means we have a brand new theme and set of challenges for you over at Lasting Memories! For the month of April our theme is - Musical Montage - and your need to base your layout on the era chosen for each week! For this first challenge it is The Disco Era!

What does the disco era mean to you? You can take inspiration from this photo, from a song, the fashion, anything to do with the disco era.

 I was born in the 70's, so I myself really didn't have a preference to any music, but with three older sisters, you better believe it was all about The Bee Gee's and Andy Gibb in our house! I immediately thought of their gold lamé outfits, and of course the disco ball reminds me of sequins, so I went with these photos of Ada from her birthday (in her gold lamé pants!) , and used some gold glitter tape and sequins to finish it off.

Since the photos I used were pretty busy, I decided to go with a more clean and simple layout. I tried adding in other colors, but nothing looked right, so I just stuck with the black, white, and gold color scheme.

Check out the Lasting Memories blog to see how the rest of the design team members were inspired by the disco era. I look forward to seeing your beautiful creations!

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