Just Plain Wonderful - Scrap Our Stash Pick Your Side Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! 

Today I am sharing my take on this month's Scrap Our Stash Pick Your Side Sketch Challenge. For this challenge, you are to pick either the left side of the sketch or the right side of the sketch to base your layout on. Along with the sketch challenge you are to use a scalloped edge embellishment on your layout - this can be a scalloped circle, border, tag, journaling card, etc.  Here's a look at this month's sketch:

For my layout, I have chosen the right side of the sketch, added a scalloped edge to my photo mats, and added a few scalloped circle embellishments.

I've had these photos of Ada out on my desk for a while and I am happy to get them scrapped! I wanted to keep with the coral/pink tones of her outfit and found this pink and white paper from Echo Park and the heart paper from Simple Stories and thought they worked well with each other. 

I changed up a couple of things from the sketch - I widened the piece of patterned and moved it in from the edge of the sketch and I left off the half-circle piece, tags, and banner pieces. I tried adding the half-circle but I just didn't like it and with having the scalloped edge on my photo mat, there really wasn't a place for the banner pieces. And the tags...I completely forgot I was going to add them until after I had already glued down my title. I do plan on adding a few lines of journaling under the right photo - even if it's just the date and Ada's age, etc. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I really love making these multi-layered embellishments! If you don't mind a lot of bulk, adding in some foam tape between each layer is really cute, too, but I just left this one flat - I just added foam tape to the bottom layer to attach it to my layout.

Be sure to stop by Scrap Our Stash to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge. I hope you find some time to play along with us this month!

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

I've Been Keeping A Secret...

It's true - I have been keeping a secret from you but today is the day that I can share it with all of you! I am thrilled, excited, and honored to announce that I am joining the Challenge YOUrself Design Team!

I love the concept of this challenge blog where, along with the challenge, it is required that "you" are in at least one of the photos on your layout. So you will be seeing more of me on my layouts in the new year!

The new term will start in January and the first challenge will be posted on January 7th so stay tuned and I hope you'll play along with us! 

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

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #158

Hello, everyone! Happy Wednesday! I can't believe that it is already time for our last sketch of the month at Sketch N Scrap! I swear it seemed like it was just the first of the month not that long ago.

Here is the fun sketch that Sketch Artist Lisa has created for us to play with:

I am seriously challenged when it comes to cutting straight pieces like is shown on the sketch. I don't know if it's my trimmer or just user error, but they are never straight! I have better luck with getting a straight edge with a ruler and cutting knife! I took the easy way out for my card and just used a bold striped patterned paper!

I've been working with Fancy Pants' Wish Season 6x6 paper pad this month and when I came across this bold striped paper, I knew I would be using it for this card!

I stamped the tree from the Fir Real stamp set from Ink Road Stamps. The sentiment is from a Momenta stamp set that I picked up at Michaels a couple of years ago. It's not even right how easy this card was to make and it's one of my favorites so far this year!

Head on over to Sketch N Scrap to see how the rest of the design team took on this sketch. I would love to see what you create with it, too!

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

Mixing Up The Kits With The ScrapRoom

Hello, hello! Happy Tuesday to you! Hubby had the day off yesterday and I am trying to get back into the routine of things today. 

Today I am up on The ScrapRoom blog for the 'Mixing up the Kits' segment this month. The ScrapRoom offers a lot of great add-on kits each month that coordinate with their main kits. 

Here is a look at the patterned paper add-on kit, the embellishment kit, and the shots of life kit:

Patterned Paper Add-on Kit

Embellishment Add-on Kit

Nov/Dec Shots of Life Kit

For today's layout, I have used bits and pieces from the patterned paper add-on kit, the embellishment add-on kit, and the Shots of Life Kit.  

I loved the mix of papers that came in the patterned paper add-on kit. I could have easily used a piece of every single paper on my layout but I stuck with the Simple Stories and Fancy Pants papers - and I used a border strip from Carta Bella as my title. I used the Simple Stories Bits and Pieces, Fancy Pants Cork pieces, and the Carta Bella Chipboard stickers in each of my embellishment clusters. I added a sprinkling of enamel dots from my Shots of Life kit to finish it off.

This photo is from 2009...I think. It was one of the only times that all of the grandkids and great-grandkids (at least those that were born at the time!) were all together and we made sure to get a picture of them with my Mom and Dad - or Granny and LB as most of the grands called them.

Here are a few close-ups:

I love all of the die cuts from Simple Stories that I received in the embellishment add-on kit. Those pretty little flowers paired with the cork pieces and chipboard stickers made for some pretty embellishment clusters.

I love how this layout turned out - but then it's easy to make a great layout when you're working with great products!

Head on over to The ScrapRoom blog any day of the week to see what the rest of the design team is creating with this month's kits. 

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

Week 41/2019 With The ScrapRoom Nov/Dec. Shots of Life Kit

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

I am so excited to be sharing my first project using the Nov/Dec Shots of Life Kit from The ScrapRoom. Here is a look at what comes in the kit:

The November portion of the kit includes cut apart cards from Carta Bella, Fancy Pants, One Canoe Two, and Simple Stories - which can all be seen in the back row of the above photo. It also included a Carta Bella sticker sheet, Fancy Pants puffy stickers, a half pack of One Canoe Two ephemera, and a half pack of Simple Stories enamel dots. 

Here is my layout documenting Week 41 of 2019:

I thought all of the cut apart cards from the different lines in the Shots of Life kit worked so well together. The colors were very similar in all of the cards and that made it easy to use a variety from each sheet for my double-page spread. If the design on the card didn't work with my theme I flipped it over and used the "B" side or I covered up the parts of the card I didn't need with photos, stickers, or die-cuts. I scattered the fun Fancy Pants puffy stickers throughout the two pages to help bring it all together.

Everything on this layout came from the Shots of Life kit with the exception of some white cardstock and some stamps from my stash. 

Here is a better look at the left side of my spread:

Week 41 was a pretty busy week around here for us. It was the week of Matthew's fall break and he came home for a couple of days, so a lot of this week features him! Ada also lost her second tooth at school, Shanes DS - which we thought was done for - started working again and that made him a happy camper, Ada got lots of quality time in with her Uncle Matthew, we visited the barbershop twice for the boys, our rose bush gave us probably our prettiest rose of the season - right before we had our first frost. 

Here's a look at the right side:

Not anything too exciting but the little things are always such fun to look back on and remember what was going on in our life at this time.

Head on over to The ScrapRoom blog for more of their monthly kit inspiration every day of the week!

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

Family Fun - Counterfeit Kit Challenge - Challenge #2

Hello, everyone! Happy Monday to you! I hope that you are ready to tackle this new week!

It's time for the second challenge of the month at Counterfeit Kit Challenges. Here is what Lisa has to say about this challenge - "This month's inspiration kit features a paper design covered with pretty fairy light chains which is the paper that caught my attention in the first place. I love hanging fairy lights on the tree, around my balcony, and in the dark corners for the dark days of winter, and I adore featuring banners on my scrapbook pages. So...feature fairy lights or banners on your project."

When I put my kit together I included a paper from Crate Paper's 'Wonder' collection that had banners all over it. I knew I would be using it for this challenge! Here is what I came up with:

I started by cutting around the banners on my patterned paper. I liked that much better than a straight edge. I added a strip of solid teal paper between the banner paper and the background paper to give a bit of separation between the two busier patterns. I also added a strip of the teal paper at the bottom of my layout for a place for my title to rest instead of feeling like it was falling off the layout.

These family photos are from Easter 2013. We got lucky in that everyone was ready to take family photos and I took advantage of it! We were able to get in several fun poses that day before Shane was done with it all and these two photos were my favorites from the day. 

Here are a few close-ups:

I was able to use a couple of the forgeries I had made earlier in the month - the banner piece and this 'happy' circle that I absolutely love! It reminds me of the popular Rae Dunn font and I know I will be making up a whole page of different words to make a few more embellishments to have at the ready! I also added a cute little mint green bunny sticker to the cluster since it was Easter.

Looking at the title now I wish I would have moved the word 'family' up and overlapping the photo on the right side just a bit and then nestled the word 'fun' between the loops of the f and y...I would consider changing it, but seeing as how I tore a couple of the letters when I took them off of the backing, I think I will just leave it as it is! The title words are the only things that were not included in my kit. 

I found this wood veneer piece in one of my die cut boxes in my kit and used it as a way to add some hidden journaling. 

Head on over to Counterfeit Kit Challenges to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge. Be sure to share with us if you play along!

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

The Studio Challenges - Then and Now

Hello, everyone! Good Sunday morning to you! I do hope that you are having a good weekend. Hubby has the day off tomorrow so we get an extended weekend!

The new challenge at The Studio Challenges is "Now and Then" or "Before and After". This can be how something has changed/grown, something you've improved on, or maybe you can do a childhood photo and then the person they are now - it's up to you as long as we have a before photo and an after photo.

When I was looking through my photos for this challenge, I came across this photo of the boys from 2006. This was taken either at Thanksgiving or Christmas of that year. I knew I had a photo of them from March of this year so that is what I went with for this challenge.

In 2006 Matthew was 8 and Shane was 6 and they both look so little compared to the photo of them now! Now they both stand 6+ feet tall and both are sporting facial hair! 

My journaling says - "It seemed to happen in the blink of an eye - these two boys turned into men. Love them both to pieces!" And that is so true! It seems no time ago that they were that little, and now Matthew is out on his own, finishing up college, and living his best life right now!

For this layout, I used papers and embellishments from my September Counterfeit Kit. These Pink Fresh papers were perfect for this challenge. I kept to the black/white/grey color scheme with just a pop of green since it showed up in both photos. I love how this turned out!

Here are a few close-ups:

Head on over to The Studio Challenges blog to see how the rest of the team took on this challenge. I hope you find some time to play along with us!

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

Let It Snow - Sketch N Scrap #189

Hello, hello! Happy Friday to you! I can't believe that we have made it back around to the weekend so quickly! Of course, this time of year always seems to go by so fast - there always seems to be something going on.

It's the middle of the month and that means it is time for a new sketch challenge at Sketch N Scrap. This fun multi-photo sketch is courtesy of Sketch Artist Heather:

Here is what I came up with:

I changed up a couple of things from the sketch. First of all, I had more photos that I wanted to use than what is called for on the sketch, and then by adding the extra photos, I felt like I needed to extend the patterned paper strip just a bit. I'm sure it would have looked okay with a narrower strip, but in all honesty, I wanted to use as much of that cute plaid paper that I could!

Everything on my layout came from my November Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit. You can read more about it here. I always love having everything ready to go when I sit down to scrap. The papers and stickers are from Simple Stories 'Freezin' Season' collection. The alpha stickers are from American Crafts. I was so happy that one of the snowflakes was just the right size to be the 'o' in the word snow.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

How funny is it that these photos were taken on the Monday that we observed Veteran's Day last year - school was let out early that day and Abby had a snow day the next day - and this year - this past Monday, Veteran's Day, in fact - we got some sleet and snow, school was let out early, and Abby and Ada had a snow day on Tuesday! 

Head on over to Sketch N Scrap to see the beautiful creations from the rest of the design team. I would love to see your take on the sketch, too.

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

TN Time With Lisa & Lori November Challenge

Hello, everyone!

It's time for the November 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 November:
(Challenge open November 10th - December 9th at midnight)

Here is the sketch that Lisa has created for us:

Here is my TN spread based on the sketch and my challenge:

This photo of my sisters and me was taken a couple of weeks ago at our family Halloween party. I am so grateful to have these two in my life. Jenny shares my love of scrapbooking and Amy shares my love of cross-stitching and whenever we get together we always have fun. I could not have picked any better sisters.

For this spread I used Echo Park's - The Story of our Family - collection. I also used a couple of different stamp sets from Close To My Heart - Feel So Blessed (S1709) and For My Mother (CC4192).

I didn't have anything but a 6x4 photo all ready to go, so I went with it and just cut it down as much as I could to get it to fit on the page. That meant I had to move over the paper that was to go on the left side of the photo to more in the middle of the page.

Here are a few close-ups: 

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 fewer 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!

Here is November's prize:

I would love it if you played along with my challenge! Just link up your project below by December 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

These Are The Moments...Sketch N Scrap Monthly Challenges

Hello, everyone! Happy Saturday to you! Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? It's supposed to be a pretty weekend and I am sure we will be out trying to finish up some yard work before the cold hits on Monday. I'll also be fitting in some scrappy time this weekend, too.

Sketch N Scrap has posted the first of four challenges in our Monthly Challenges Facebook group today and I am here to share the layout that I created for it! You'll have to head on over to the group to see the sketch that I used and the optional twist. Here is the link: - https://www.facebook.com/groups/SNSmonthlychallenges/

These photos of Shane when he was 10 months old are just too cute! He was such a happy little guy and now that he is 6 feet tall, full beard, a fully grown man, it is hard to believe he was ever this small.

I will be adding some journaling to this layout, but I'm sure it will be a bit lengthy and will probably need to be added to a pocket on the back of this layout. These photos were taken about 8 months before we got the autism diagnosis and now that 18+ years have passed, I think I am finally ready to do some reflective journaling on it. 

I have used various older collections from Echo Park for this layout. I also put some of my stamps to use, too. I always love the way they look and I hope to continue to remember to use them more in my scrapping. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Be sure to head on over to Sketch N Scrap's Monthly Facebook Challenges group and join the fun.

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

Sweet Girl - Scrap Our Stash Saturday Cartoon Sketch Challenge

Hello and Happy Friday! I hope that you have had a good week and are ready for the weekend. We're getting another taste of winter yesterday and today before it warms up for the weekend. Thank goodness we get to have a couple warmer days before the next cold blast (and maybe even a bit of snow) sets in on Monday. 

Today the second half of the design team at Scrap Our Stash is up on the blog with our take for this month's Saturday Cartoon Sketch Challenge. Along with the sketch, we are to use a fruit embellishment. Here's a look at the graphic:

I loved Strawberry Shortcake when I was a kid and I guess I had strawberries on the brain because that is the fruit that I decided to go with. I also knew I had pictures of Ada in a sleeper with strawberries on it - and I know I didn't have to go so literal with the challenge - but this is what I came up with - Ada wearing a strawberry sleeper, strawberry paper, and a couple of fussy cut strawberries for embellishments:

All of the papers that I used are from various Bella Blvd collections, with the exception of the darker pink polka dot and I believe it is from a Shimelle collection. I had the "sweet" rubber word on my desk and am so glad that I was able to make it work on this layout. 

I actually pulled out my sewing machine and stitched around all of the edges of the papers. After they were attached to the background, I distressed all of the edges. I also used some messy thread in my clusters. Here are a couple of close-ups:

Head on over to Scrap Our Stash to see the rest of the design team's take on this challenge. I would love to see what you create, too. 

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

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #157

Hello, hello! Good Tuesday morning to you! I hope your week is off to a good start. This time change is always hard on me! Trying to get used to it getting dark so early takes some time for me. 

It's time for our first card sketch of the month at Sketch N Scrap today. Sketch Artist Heather has created a fun sketch to get us started:

Since it's November I figured I'd better get serious about making a few Christmas cards and this is what I came up with:

I feel like I struggle with making Christmas cards in non-traditional colors - I love my reds and greens - but I have this 6x6 paper pad from Fancy Pants, and I really do love the patterns and colors, I just find that they are a little harder for me to work with. I am going to try and see just how much of this paper pad I can get used up this year.

To add a little more interest to the plain pink piece of paper, I use a snowflake embossing folder on it. I also added a couple of die cut trees to my card. As it turns out, I really like how this card turned out!

Head on over to Sketch N Scrap to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the design team. I would love to see your take on the sketch, too!

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