Just Saying Hello - AHSC #314

Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Tuesday Morning Sketches reveal, please scroll on down.

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge has a fun new sketch for us this week. When I first saw it, I knew I would be pulling out my washi tape and putting it to use.

Once again I have used Carta Bella's - Flower Market - 6x6 paper pad and washi tape. This card came together so quickly by using the washi tape. 

I punched out a couple flowers and layered them on top of one another. I then added a circle punch for the center of the flower. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts stamp set and I finished off my card with a few Stampin Up candy dots that I have had in my stash for a long time!

Be sure to stop by Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge tomorrow for the full design team and last week's Top 3.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

Tuesday Morning Sketches #501

Hello, everyone! Good Tuesday morning!

It's time for a new sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches! If you missed my winner's post from our 500th Sketch Blog Hop - you can see it here.

This week we have another great sketch created by Melissa:

Here is what I came up with for the sketch:

I used Carta Bella's - Flower Market - 6x6 paper pad and washi tape for this card. The washi tape got a little lost on the card when I put it directly on the pink paper

so I added it to a piece of white cardstock to help it show up a bit more. 

I popped up the sentiment piece with a bit of foam tape and added a puffy heart underneath the sentiment. A pretty quick and easy card all ready to go!

Be sure to stop by Tuesday Morning Sketches to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the design team. We would love to see you playing along with us this week!

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

Tuesday Morning Sketches #500 Blog Hop Winner

Hello, everyone! Good Monday morning to you!

Thank you to everyone who  visited my blog and left a lovely comment for the Tuesday Morning Sketches 500th sketch!

And the winner is - courtesy of Random.org...

Rose

Congratulations, Rose! Email me at loristroup@yahoo.com and I will get your prize out to you asap!

Thanks again to everyone that played along with us! We will be back tomorrow with a new sketch for you to try.

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

Lasting Memories #444

Hello, hello! Good Sunday morning to you! I can't believe that the weekend is almost over. It has been a busy one for us and that always makes the weekend seem short!

Lasting Memories has a new theme and a new set of challenges starting today. This month our theme is "Stamp Your Stash", and our first challenge is alphabet stamps. Pull out those alphabet stamps and use them on your layout.

Here is what I came up with:

If the photo looks familiar that is because I posted a 12x12 layout of it last week! This week I am working in my 52 Favorites album and this photo was my favorite of Week 14.

Not only did I use alpha stamps, but I also pulled out some flower stamps and roller stamps for this spread. The alpha stamps are from Pink Paislee - Paige Evans - Pick Me Up - collection. They are such a cute alpha set with half of each letter being solid and the other half dotted...no matter how much I "seasoned" these stamps the dotted half just looks almost solid...Maybe it's the stamps, maybe it's the stamper...who knows, but I will keep using them because they are such a fun size!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

When I was looking through my roller stamps I knew I had one that said "hello sunshine", but the happy surprise was when I found the stamp that said, "You make me happy". How fitting since the caption that Abby put with the photo when she posted was "You are my sunshine"! Ada is definitely our sunshine girl! I also get tickled because this is her go-to pose these days when we take her picture. What a fun thing to remember.

Head on over to Lasting Memories to see the layouts using alpha stamps from the rest of the design team. I hope you have a chance to play along with us this week! And we have a design team call going on now! You can read all about it here.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

Scrap Our Stash - Pick Your Side Sketch Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! I hope that you are having a good week.

Today is my day to be featured on the Scrap Our Stash blog with my take on the Pick Your Side Sketch Challenge. This is such a fun challenge where we pick which side of the sketch we want to use and create our layout based on that sketch. There is always an added challenge and this time around that is to use buttons, brads, or enamel dots. Here's a look at the sketch:

I chose to use the right side of the sketch since it fit my photos.

I've used the super cute "Oh, Happy Day" collection from Simple Stories. The colors in this collection are perfect for photos of Miss Ada.

The story behind these photos - Ada found Willie's old Halloween costume and thought it would be fun to try it on him again. He's not much of a fan of it but he was a good sport and wore it long enough for me to get a couple of photos. I'm really quite surprised that he hasn't ripped this cute little shark head to shreds like he does most of his stuffed toys! Maybe he secretly likes it after all!

Here is a close-up of one of my clusters:

Be sure to check out the Scrap Our Stash blog for more inspiration from the design team. I would love to see your take on the challenge, too!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

Tuesday Morning Sketches #500 Blog Hop

Hello, everyone!  Thank you for celebrating with us at Tuesday Morning Sketches. This is our 500th sketch challenge and it is quite a milestone!  We're so excited about this accomplishment that we decided to have a blog hop.  Be sure to start (and end) with Tuesday Morning Sketches blog.

I'm Lori and I've been on the Tuesday Morning Sketches team for about 6 months now. I love to work with sketches and the sketches at Tuesday Morning Sketches are some of the best around. And - I truly believe that we have the most talented readers joining in on our challenges each and every week!

Our sketch this week is a little challenging at first glance, but really it's super easy and open to so much possibility with stamps, dies, and borders.  Here is a look at the sketch:

Here's my card and it features Carta Bella's Flower Market collection:

The prize I am offering is....

Be sure to comment here and link up your creation on the TMS blog to be considered for prizes.  Yes! You can win here on my blog and the TMS blog.

The next stop on the blog hop is...Melissa! Head on over to her blog to see her beautiful creation.

Enjoy!

The Studio Challenges - SPRING

Hello, everyone! Happy Easter to you! I hope you are having a good holiday weekend. We have had a busy one so far and today looks to be even busier.

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges. This time around we want you to use a scrappy item for each letter in the word "spring" and add it to your layout. We have a list of items over on the blog if you need some ideas.

For my layout, I have used:
S- scallops, stickers
P - punches, patterned paper, puffy stickers
R - roller stamps - phrase and date
I - ink
N - number 5
G- gold splatters

Abby posted this picture of Ada on Facebook a couple of weeks ago and it was too cute not to scrap! She had even captioned it "my sunshine girl".

The yellow paper is from Simple Stories "I Am..." collection and the wood grain paper is from one of their Christmas collections. I wanted to keep to mostly yellow on this layout - which limited my embellishment choices but I think it turned out pretty cute.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Be sure to check out The Studio Challenges to see the layouts from the rest of the design team. We would love it if you played along with us!

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

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #144

Hello, everyone! Good Saturday morning to you! I hope you all are enjoying this holiday weekend.

It's time for the last card sketch of the month at Sketch N Scrap today. Lisa has created a wonderful card sketch to finish out the month:

I was in need of a special birthday card this past week so I took a break from the thank you cards to get it made.

I used the Simple Stories - Posh - 6x6 paper pad for this card. It is one of my all-time favorite collections and perfect for a special card. All of the flowers are fussy cut from a couple of different papers in the collection. I popped one of the clusters up on foam tape for a little bit of dimension.

The sentiment is from an Art C stamp and die set.

I love how this card turned out and that is all thanks to a great sketch!

Now for some exciting news...

We are going to have a lot of exciting things happening next month when Sketch N Scrap turns 7 - and for National Scrapbook Day! Along with our regular monthly sketches and online crop, we will have a new sketch for National Scrapbook Day AND we will be playing Birthday Bash Bingo all month long in a closed group on Facebook! You do not want to miss it! Be sure to "Like" our Sketch N Scrap Facebook page so you will be up to date on what's going on! More information on our Birthday Bash Bingo to come over so stay tuned!

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog today to see all of the beautiful cards from the rest of the design team. I hope you play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

Atlanitc Hearts Sketch Challenge #312

Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Tuesday Morning Sketches post, please scroll down.

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge has a great new sketch this week. This sketch is a great go-to sketch - especially if you need a quick card:

I'm still working on building up my "Thank You" card stash. Just a few more and I should be good for a little while!

I used Pebbles - Girl Squad - 6x6 paper pad for this card. I just love that floral pattern. The cardstock is from Close To My Heart - lagoon and mint. The mint cardstock is a perfect match to the mint background in that paper. The sentiment is from Close To My Heart  - Sunny Thoughts (S1802).

Be sure to stop by Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge tomorrow for the full design team reveal and last week's Top 3.

I hope you find some time to play along with us this week!

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

Tuesday Morning Sketches #499

Happy  Tuesday! This week is moving right along. Maybe it seems to be going fast because it is a short work week for us. Gotta love those shorter work weeks!

It's time for a new sketch challenge at Tuesday Morning Sketches. Melissa has created a fun sketch for us this week:

This is what I came up with:

I've been working on building up my thank you card stash so I have another thank you card today and I think it might be my favorite so far!

I used Pebbles' - Girl Squad - 6x6 papers for this card. The stamp is a Stampendous set that I picked up at Hobby Lobby for a couple of bucks. The sentiment is perfect for that fun coffee cup paper. I wanted to add a heart below the sentiment and I found a little heart stamp in an Elle's Studio stamp set that was the perfect size. All of my ink colors seemed to be off just a bit so I did the second generation stamping to fade the color just a bit.

I love how it turned out!

Head on over to Tuesday Morning Sketches to see the rest of the design team's take on the sketch. We also have a guest designer joining us this week so be sure to leave her some love! This week's prize is a package of flowers perfect for those spring projects! I hope you have some time to play along with us. I would love to see your take on the sketch.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

Scribbles Designs Challenge #76 - Pastels

Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Use Your Stuff reveal, please scroll down.

It's time for a new challenge at Scribbles Designs Challenge Blog. Challenge #76 is - Pastels. Create a project that prominently features different pastel shades.

For my card, I have used pink, blue, green, and yellow - although they may be a little brighter/bolder than intended! All of these pieces came from my scrap box. Gotta love when you can use up some scraps!

I used #B 16 Tag 1 for the tag on my card and #F 21 Daisy (free). I colored the center of the flower with my Shinhan markers and fussy cut it out and added some foam tape to the back for a bit of dimension. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts sentiment stamp set. I really need to build up my thank you card stash and I thought this card worked well for that.

Head on over to Scribbles Designs to see the pastel projects from the rest of the design team. I hope you find some time to play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have a great day!

Use Your Stuff #355 - Easter/Spring

Hello, everyone! Good Monday morning to you! I hope that you had a good weekend. It was a nice, quiet weekend around here. Lots of time to just rest and relax.

It's time for a new challenge at Use Your Stuff. This week's challenge is - Easter/Spring. We want to see your Easter or spring themed projects.

I needed one more Easter card so this challenge was perfect. Here is what I created:

I've used Echo Park's - Sunny Days Ahead - 6x6 paper pad and stickers for this card. I know I bought two of these paper pads when they first came out and I'm getting down to just a couple of full sheets and some scraps. I'm going to be ready to buy a new spring/Easter collection next year!

I am also entering this in Sketch N Scrap's Spring Fling pre-crop challenge which is to use one of their older sketches and add an animal to your project. That cute little bunny fits the bill!

Here is the sketch that I used (Sketch #138 from January 20, 2018):

Be sure to check out Sketch N Scrap's Spring Fling Crop!

Head on over to Use Your Stuff to see the Easter/spring projects the rest of the design team has created. I hope you have some time to play along with us this week!

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

LM #442 - Look Up At The Sky Day

Hello, everyone! Good Sunday morning to you! I hope you are having a good weekend. Our weather has returned to feeling more like winter than spring and there is even a chance of that s-word in the forecast for this morning. Thank goodness we are supposed to be back to the 70's tomorrow!

It's time for a new challenge at Lasting Memories today. For April our theme is Holiday Insights for Interesting Prompts - so we are focusing on the not-so-well-known holidays. This week's holiday it - Look Up At The Sky Day.

Look up at the Sky Day is a fun day to check out what's up there. 'Ya never know what might be up there. An asteroid or meteor may be on its way. A solar eclipse could be on display. A flock of geese or birds may be overhead (you may need to duck for cover!). or, the clouds may be forming into interesting characters and patterns. Take a few minutes out from your busy day to look up at the sky today. If nothing else, the break from the routine will be relaxing.

Create a layout about what you see looking up at the sky.

This is what I came up with:

I have created a traveler's notebook spread for my 2018 52 Favorites. I am really enjoying going back and looking through photos from last year and picking out a favorite for each week.

Scott and I were on our evening walk last August (I just realized I dated this April instead of August - it will be fixed!) when we happened to look up to see this glorious sight! The sunrays coming out from behind the clouds were just unbelievable. It was quite a sight to see!

I kept my spread pretty simple because I wanted to keep the focus on the photo. I wanted my title to stand out a bit more but I didn't want to outline each of the letters, so I gave each word a line to sit on.

Head on over to Lasting Memories to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

Beautiful - Counterfeit Kit Challenge - April Showers

Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you! Are you ready for the weekend? I sure am!

It's time for the first of two challenges at Counterfeit Kit Challenge. Challenge #1 - When we think of April we often think of April showers and the inspiration kit has a lot of weather elements included - rainbows, umbrellas, parasols, and sunglasses. Let's be inspired by the weather for this challenge!

Here is what I came up with:

I am so glad that I included the Pink Fresh Studios - Dream On - 6x6 paper pad in my kit because it was perfect for these photos. The die cuts are from the same collection. I also had this Heidi Swapp stamp set out on my desk and a couple of the sayings in it were perfect. I didn't feel like any of the few alphas that I included in my kit were right for this layout, so I pulled this gold glitter word for my title.

About the photos - we had severe thunderstorms roll through our area in May of 2017. A tornado touched down a mile or so from our house and we had such extreme wind! We lost half of our pear tree - it split right down the middle - and our trampoline was lifted up and blown about 100 yards into our neighbor's tree line. There were multiple trees down in our area - 2 or 3 across the roads. Talk about a scary day! Thankfully, none of us were hurt and there was no damage to the house - and at the end of the day, we were blessed with this beautiful - most vibrant rainbow that you would ever see. The photos do not do it justice!

Here is a close-up:

Stop by the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to see the other design team member's take on the challenge. I hope you have a chance to play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

Heartbroken - Scrap Our Stash Saturday Morning Cartoon Challenge

Hello, everyone! Good Thursday morning to you. I hope you are having a good week. Now that the weather has gotten warmer time really seems to be flying by for me!

Today is my day to share my take on the Saturday Cartoon Inspired Stash Challenge at Scrap Our Stash - and it is a fun one!

This month's challenge is to pick a care bear and create a layout based on the sketch. You must include the color of the bear you choose on your layout and you must use an embellishment(s) - or use patterned paper - with the symbol on the bear's chest.

For my layout, I chose Tenderheart Bear. Tenderheart Bear is light brown in color and has a single red heart on his chest. 

I used Kraft cardstock for the light brown color and a single red heart for one of my embellishments. I also used a heart patterned paper on my layout. All of the papers were in my April Counterfeit Kit which you can read about here.

Since the papers were pretty busy I kept my embellishing very minimal.

About the photos - one day last April, Abby and Shawn took Ada to the McDonald's so she could play in the play place, and she had so much fun! I even made a layout of the visit with a photo that Abby had sent me. You can see that layout here. It wasn't even two weeks later when we saw on the news that they were tearing down that same McDonald's to build a new one. When Abby showed Ada the photos of the building being torn down it brought tears to Ada's eyes! All she could say was that she had so much fun there! She was heartbroken that it was gone.

Thankfully, they were building a new McDonald's with a play place and it was done just a few months later. Ada has already been there several times and approves of the upgrade!

Be sure to stop by Scrap Our Stash for more inspiration from the design team. I would love to see your take on this challenge!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

TN Time With Lisa & Lori April Challenge

Hello, hello! Welcome to my blog - I am so happy that you are here today!

It's time for the April Challenge at TN Time With Lisa and Lori! Here's how it works - Lisa will be providing a TN sketch on her blog for us to work with. I will be providing a random challenge here on my blog for you to use in your TN, planner, or bullet journal spread.

You can complete the challenges together or separately - it's your choice. If you complete my random challenge - link up below in this post. If you combine my challenge with Lisa's Sketch Challenge - link up your layout both here on my blog and on Lisa's blog. If you just complete the sketch challenge, then just link up on Lisa's blog. You will have a chance to win a prize from me and a prize from Lisa. 

Here is my challenge for April:
(Challenge open April 10th - May 9th at midnight)

That's it - use 2 or more of the above colors on your spread. Other colors can be used but your spread must be predominantly these colors.

Here is the sketch that Lisa has created for us:

Here is my TN spread based on the sketch and using the light pink, dark pink, and mint colors in the color board:

I'm back to working in my current 52 Favorites TN. Some weeks it is seriously hard to pick one photo/story to tell! 

I've skipped a few weeks to get to Week 11, but Lisa's sketch was perfect for this photo of Ada at her kindergarten orientation. No worries - I will be going back and sharing the other weeks as I get them done.

About the photo - the closer that it gets to being time for Ada to go to school - the more nervous she gets and says she doesn't want to go. Abby was worried about how she would do when they had kindergarten orientation. Worried that she would be clingy and not wanting to be with the other kids. There was no need to worry! When Ada got around the other kids she was off and playing, and at the end of the night, she didn't want to go home! I think it's safe to say that she is ready for kindergarten!

Now for the rules. You can always find the rules to our challenge under the tab at the top of the page, but as a refresher, here they are again:

1. Create a TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK, PLANNER, OR BULLET JOURNAL spread based on the CHALLENGE THEME and/or our sketch. 
2. You must be a follower of my blog.
3. Create a new, not previously posted project.
4. You are welcome to combine with other challenges.
5. If you have a blog please include the challenge graphic & a link to our challenge in your post.
6. You can link to social media if you don't have a blog. If you show your project on IG, please make sure to use #TNtimewithLisaandLori.
7. You can submit multiple projects but they must be posted to Inlinkz or social media separately.
8. If there are less than 3 players for our challenge, no winners will be chosen.
9. We ship only in the USA but our challenge is open to everyone so feel free to join us if you are an international player! 
10. Most importantly have FUN!

How about a winner for March? I had 6 beautiful entries and I loved seeing every one of them! My winner is:

Congrats, Sandi! Email me at loristroup@yahoo.com with your address and I will get your die cut words and puffy shapes out to you!

Here is April's prize:

I would love it if you played along with my challenge! Just link up your project below by May 9th at midnight! Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog to see her take on the challenge!

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tuesday Morning Sketches #498

Hello, everyone!

It's Tuesday and that means there's a new sketch challenge at Tuesday Morning Sketches! This week Debbie has provided our sketch and it's a great one!

I love all of the layers on this sketch! I pulled out a few scraps from my April Counterfeit Kit that were out on my desk from a previous project and went to work. I don't go with the color combo of pink and yellow very often, but I am really liking how this one turned out!

The sentiment is from Bo Bunny's "Positive Vibes" stamp set. This set is quickly becoming one of my favorites to use!

Be sure to stop by Tuesday Morning Sketches to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the design team. I would love to see what you create with this sketch, too!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have a great day!

The Studio Challenge - Sketch

Hello, everyone! Good Sunday morning to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend. Ours has been great so far - warm weather, windows open, yard work being done...you can't get any better than that!

It's time for a sketch challenge at The Studio Challenges today! Anna has created a fun sketch for us to work with:

This is what I came up with:

I really liked the big triangles on each end of the photo block, but I just could not get them to look right - they were either too big or too small, so I decided to leave them off and just add a couple smaller triangles in opposite corners.

Everything I used on this layout is from my April Counterfeit Kit. You can read all about it here. It's always great to have papers already picked out and ready to go when I sit down to scrap. I even use one of the cameras that I created for my forgeries.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

When I added in the black and pink splatters I got a big blob of the two together and it didn't look very pretty, so I added a puffy heart on top of it and then sprinkled a few more down my layout.

I love these photos of Ada trying to sneak up on me in the car. She looks so darn cute in her little sunglasses peeking over the seat!

Head on over to The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. I would love to see your take on the sketch, so be sure to share it with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - Forgeries On The Fourth

Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday! It is almost the weekend - do you have any fun plans? Ours is looking to be pretty quiet and relaxing and I am hoping to get lots of scrappy time in.

Today is the 4th and that means it is "Forgeries on the Fourth" day at Counterfeit Kit Challenges. This month's inspiration kit had a few items in it that I wanted to try and counterfeit. Here's a look at the inspiration kit from Hip Kit Club March 2019. You can find more photos over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog today.

Here are two of the papers that I wanted to counterfeit:

I love the black and white striped paper with the brighter stripes on the bottom, so I grabbed one of the black and white striped papers and the washi tape that I had included in my kit and went to work.

First, I cut about 2 inches off the bottom of my striped paper and attached it to a piece of white cardstock. 

Then, I started adding washi tape to the white cardstock - trying to keep close to the colors in the inspiration piece.

Here is the end result:

I love the way this paper turned out and I can't wait to use it!

For my next paper, I pulled out a piece of white cardstock, a circle stamp and some ink that matched some of the papers in my kit.

I randomly stamped the circles all over the cardstock - trying to not go overboard because less is more sometimes!

This is what I ended up with:

I can see myself pulling ink pads in all of the colors in my kit and making more of these papers!

Next, I was inspired by the butterflies and camera images in the inspiration kit. I found a few stamps in my supplies that would work and stamped them out in a variety of colors to match my kit:

I then fussy cut them out so they are ready to use when I need them.

Here's a look at my forgeries all together:

I cannot wait to put these forgeries to work! Head on over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to see the other forgeries from the other Master Forgers. We would love to see what you create, too!

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