It's a Beautiful Day...LM #504 - 3 Photo Sketch

Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day! If you are looking for my reveal for The Studio Challenges, just scroll on down.

We are starting our July challenges at Lasting Memories today! It has been a while since I have been able to play along and I am hoping to be able to play along a lot more often now. 

Our theme for July is one of my favorites - Sketches! DT member Lori K has picked out 5 sketches for us to work with this month. You can change up the sketch to work with your photos but we should be able to see the overall sketch design in your layout. Here's a look at the first sketch - a PageMaps sketch from January 2020:

For my layout, I have used Close To My Heart's Blues Skies paper and Beautiful Day stamp set (CC5202). 

These photos are of Ada playing at the park in 2017.  I will add my journaling - kind of a retrospective take on the day. I need to figure out what all I want to say to see if I will have enough room to add it to the front or just journal directly on the back.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Sometimes I really love to challenge myself to pull out my stamps to create some embellishments. I always love the end result! The sun and two of the clouds are from the sticker sheet that goes with the Blue Skies paper pack, and everything else is stamped - title included! I scattered around a few enamel dots in pink, navy, and turquoise to finish off the layout.

Be sure to stop by the Lasting Memories to see the layouts from the rest of the design team. I would love to see your take on the sketch, too! I hope you can find some time to play along with us!

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

What It's All About - The Studio Challenges - Slant or Angle

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend. It has been a busy one around here. My daughter, granddaughter, son, and I all ventured out to do a little shopping (other than just grocery shopping) on Friday - the first time since the pandemic started. We were sure to wear our face masks and I was happy to see the majority of people had them on and the stores still were not overly crowded.

The Studio Challenges has a new challenge up today. This week we want to see your layouts on a slant or angle.

I like to do these types of layouts once in a while. It's kind of fun to have a reason to not have everything lined up perfectly! For my layout, I scraplifted one of my own layouts from a few years ago. You can see my original layout and the sketch from Stuck Sketches that I used here. 

Here is my layout for this week's challenge:

This is one of my favorite photos from this year so far and I already know I will be scrapping it again - I have another story to tell about - along with more photos - and I know it will be in my Traveler's Notebook for this year, too. 

At this point, we were a little over a month into the pandemic. Scott had been laid off, Abby and Ada were doing school from home, Matthew's college courses had gone to all online and his internship was having him work from home. The only time any of us were getting out was just to pick up groceries and Abby had to go into work a few times to get more homework packets made up for her students - which I believe was the reason they were even at our house on this day. 

It was so good to get together for a visit. Ada told Pops that she wanted to play Mario Kart on the Wii and they had so much fun! We all laughed and joked and it just made things feel a little like normal again. It was such a fun day.

For my layout, I added some paint around the edges for a change. I also wanted the vellum hearts to stand out a bit more so I outlined them with the paint, as well.  I also used the paint for the splatters around my page. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I used staples as much as possible to fasten down my vellum hearts and when that wasn't an option I had to get a little creative!

I love this layout just as much as the original!

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge. I hope you find some time to play along with us - I would love to see your take on the challenge, too!

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

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #172

Hello, hello! Happy Thursday to you all! I do hope that you are having a good week. I'm not sure, but I think tomorrow Abby and I will meet Matthew in Springfield for a little shopping trip - the first time out to stores other than Wal-Mart or the grocery store since the pandemic started. We will have our face masks on and be armed with lots of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes!

Today  I am sharing my take on Sketch N Scrap's June 20th card sketch - Sketch #172. Here's a look at the sketch:

And here is my card:

I am still working with the Simple Stories Summer Farmhouse 6x8 paper pad. I just love the colors and patterns in this paper pad and will continue to use it for a few more cards I am sure. The flowers are from a Close To My Heart stamp and thin cuts set - Beautiful Day (CC5202). This stamp set is my new favorite and I have put it to use several times since I got it a couple of weeks ago. In fact, I have been using it so much that I have made a spot for it in my most used stamps basket on my desk. The sentiment is from an older Close To My Heart set - Sunny Thoughts (S1802).

I love how this card turned out and I hope the recipient likes it, too!

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

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #374

Hello, everyone! Happy Monday to you! I hope that your week is getting off to a good start.

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge has a new sketch posted today and it's a fun one! I can see myself using this one again very soon. Here's a look at the sketch:

I used up a few more scraps from Simple Stories' Summer Farmhouse collection and the Beautiful Day stamp set and thin cuts (CC5202) from Close To My Heart. The flowers look so much like the flowers on the Simple Stories paper. I popped up the two smaller flowers on foam tape for a little dimension.

This card came together so quickly and is all ready to be sent out to someone special.

Be sure to stop by the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog on Wednesday to see the full design team reveal and last week's Top 3. 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!

July 4th - Scrap Our Stash Sketch Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there. I hope you all have a wonderful day! All of our kiddos should be over for a bbq, homemade ice cream, and fun today.

Today I am sharing my take on this mont's sketch challenge at Scrap Our Stash. Along with the sketch challenge we are to use kraft paper and at least one metal embellishment. Here's a look at the sketch:

 I have quite a few old metal embellishments - like from 2004 or so - that I need to use. I went through those and had some for the 4th of July and some for Christmas and I felt more like doing a summer layout, so the 4th of July it is! I also found a pack of paper frills. Anyone remember those from Doodlebug Designs? There are a variety of borders in a pack and they were from 2006. I uncovered these little gems in my stash a while back and set them out to try to use them. I think I have used a total of 11 borders out of the 32 that came in this pack...yeah, I've got a lot to still use! Here is a photo of the older stash that I used on this layout. As you can see, I still have a ways to go before I get them completely used up!

Here is my layout - our traditional 4th of July family photos:

I used the kraft paper for the middle section of my layout and the blue paper is from Close To  My Heart's Blue Skies paper pack. Along with the red paper frills, I used my big scallop punch to make a double border above and below the middle section. 

I really love these metal words from Making Memories. I think I bought about every theme that they had in these. Those little flag stickers are some of my favorite and I finished off what was left in the pack on this layout. I die cut and punched different sized stars to scatter around my layout.

These metal looking words/phrases are from Die Cuts With A View from the early 2000s, too. I am so happy that I had this challenge to make me get them out and put them to use!

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

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

Week 24/2019 - The ScrapRoom Shots of Life Kit

Hello, everyone! Today I am here to share my Week 24/2019 using the Shots of Life Kit from The ScrapRoom.

Here is a look at the May/June Shots of Life Kit:

And here is my layout:

Week 24 was my birthday week so I was able to use a couple of the cut apart cards from Fancy Pants' Cake Smash and the rest of the cards are from the cut apart paper from Simple Stories' Summer Farmhouse. Father's Day also fell during this week and I will have an insert with photos from our Father's Day celebration - and I used the Fancy Pants Cake Smash cut apart paper for that - so stay tuned! Everything on this layout came from the Shots of Life kit with the exception of the white cardstock, the white enamel hearts, the week stamp, and the small blue alpha stickers

Here is the left side of my spread:

I used one of the 4x3 cards from Simple Stories and mounted it on a 4x6 card for my title card. The rest of the photos are from my birthday - except for the photo of Ada in the left bottom corner. I journaled about Ada's photo around the edge of the filler card.

I had a lot I wanted to remember from my birthday, so I turned the "Happy Birthday" filler card into a flip-up to hold all of my journaling:

My birthday fell on a Wednesday so it was just me, Scott, and Shane. Scott made supper for me that night, I had lots of birthday wishes via phone calls and Facebook, we found our Matthew had made the Dean's List for the spring semester, Jenny made my favorite German Chocolate pie and brought it over, we had a pop-up thunderstorm in the evening and was blessed with a beautiful rainbow, the neighbor's sheep came over for a visit, and the Blues won the Stanley Cup!

We never really watched hockey before last season but Matthew's college roommate was from St. Louis and a big Blues fan. He got Matthew hooked on it and then Matthew got us hooked on it when he would watch it when he came home on the weekends. And the whole story behind last season was just so awesome - how could we not become fans! Anyway, I wanted to include the story of how we became Blues fans and I had another photo of the team with the trophy, so I added it behind the photo that is shown. I forgot to take a photo but you can see the pull tab above. I am so sad that we haven't been able to watch the Blues play this season because of Covid-19. I know when it does finally come back on that we will be catching as many of the games as we can!

The right side of the layout shows photos from the rest of the week:

Abby and Ada started marking things off of their summer bucket list with a trip to the park and a movie - The Secret Life of Pets 2:

I'm working on a Traveler's Notebook of their bucket list so I didn't go into much detail here - just the highlights.

The middle row shows Willie getting his summer hair cut - which he was needing badly - and our kittens, Mike and Sully playing on the back deck:

The bottom row is a photo from Father's Day and a bit of journaling about the day. As I said before, I am adding an insert with more photos and journaling from that day and will share that with you a little later.

Another great kit to get my summer memories documented!

Be sure to check out The ScrapRoom to see all of their great kits each and every month. Also, check out The ScrapRoom blog for lots of inspiration using their kits all month long!

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

Sketch N Scrap #203 - Nature Girl

Hello, everyone! Good Monday morning to you! I hope that you had a good weekend and are ready for the new week.

It's time for the mid-month sketch challenge at Sketch N Scrap today. This sketch is courtesy of our newest Sketch Artist, Stacy, and it is a fun one:

And here is my layout:

For this layout, I have used the Simple Stories "Summer Farmhouse" portion of my June Flavors of the Month kit from The ScrapRoom. I must admit that when I saw this collection I had to go ahead and get the whole collection, so I had my choice of die cuts and stickers from the sticker book, but all of the papers and some of my die cuts came from my ScrapRoom kit. I love that you get everything you need in these kits to make at least one layout and I still have enough leftover that I can make another layout with this kit. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I moved the title up from the bottom of the sketch to the top - just my personal preference with the alphas that I used - which are my new favorite find! I'm always on the lookout for new tools that will give me a lot of bang for my buck. Alphabet dies can be a bit pricey upfront but for me, they pay for themselves in no time and I always have the ability to make as many E's, or A's, or whatever letter I need multiples of and I can make them whatever color that I need. These particular alphabet dies are from Concord & 9th and I can't get enough of them!

Be sure to check out Sketch N Scrap to see the beautiful layouts 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! Have a great day!

Easter Fun - The Studio Challenges Sketch Challenge

Hello, everyone! Good Sunday morning to you all! I hope you are having a good weekend. We have had a great weekend filled with lots of family time celebrating my birthday!

Today I am sharing my take on this week's challenge at The Studio Challenges. This week we have a fun sketch challenge for you. Here's a look at the sketch:

This sketch was based on DT Member Michelle's layout here.

This is what I came up with:

These photos are of Ada from Easter this year. It was supposed to be pretty rainy Easter weekend so they decided to put on her Easter dress and take a few photos and do their egg hunt a little early.

Ada's dress was yellow with pretty pink flowers all over it and this yellow paper from the Brushed paper pack from Close To My Heart was just perfect for these photos. This is an older paper pack that they have brought back for June and July. I already know that I will be purchasing another pack of this paper before it is gone!

I stuck pretty closely to the sketch and mixed in a few details from Michelle's original layout like the rounded corners and embellishments under the photos. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

The flowers are from one of my favorite older Close To My Heart sets - Gimme Some Sugar Scrapbooking - D1758. They are so easy to stamp and fussy cut. I sprinkled a few enamel dots around my layout to finish it off.

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see how the rest of the design team took on the sketch. I would love to see your take on it, too!

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

TN Time With Lisa & Lori - June Challenge

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

It is time for TN Time With Lisa & Lori's June challenge today! Here's how it works - this is a monthly challenge that starts on the 10th of each month and ends on the 9th of the following month at midnight CST. If you complete my random challenge for the month - link your TN, bullet journal, or planner spread below. If you combine my challenge with Lisa's sketch challenge - link up here and on Lisa's blog  - My Creative Endeavors - and you will have two chances to win a prize. You can find the full list of rules here. 

Here is my challenge for June:

(June 10th - July 9th)

I've made it an easy one for this month - Anything Goes! Create a TN, Bullet Journal, or Planner spread about anything you want!

Here is the fabulous sketch that Lisa has created for us:

I just loved the sketch this month and so my layout is, of course, using both challenges!

I finally was able to dig into my Great Stash Bash kit for June that Lisa sent to me, and I am happy to say that everything, well, almost everything, that I used on this layout is the scraps that she sent me! I did cut into the reddish-pink paper for the paper behind my photo, but even the black cardstock was in my scrap box. I also used a few stickers from the sticker sheet that she sent me. 

If this photo looks familiar that is because I shared a 12x12 layout earlier this week using this sketch! It is one of my favorite photos of Ada that I have taken recently and wanted to scrap it in my May TN as well. On this particular day, I think it is safe to say that Ada wasn't really feeling the summer vibes! She had gotten in the pool for just a few minutes, but that water was still on the cool side! She needs more sunshine and warmer temperatures for it to feel like summer!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I clustered several of the circle stickers from the sticker sheet to mimic the look of the paper on the right side of the spread. I added in a few phrase stickers that say - Keep Smiling, Whose Ready For Summer, and Come On Summer - I thought they were fitting for this spread. On the right side, I added a die-cut piece from this same collection.

Now, on to the prize! I have a winner from the last few months' worths of entries! Before I get to the winner, I want to let you know that Lisa and I have decided to continue to do prizes in this way - quarterly - sort of - at least we will be drawing a winner every 3 months! We're not quite lined up right to be exactly quarterly for the rest of the year, but we'll get it straightened out eventually!

Now for my winner! A big thank you to Anna, Sandi, and Becca for playing along with us these last few months! Each of your layouts was just beautiful! By random draw my winner is:

#4 - Sandi

Congrats, Sandi! Email your address to me at loristroup@yahoo.com and I will get your prize out to you!

Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog and check out her TN spread. I hope you have a chance to play along with us!

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

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Click here to enter

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #372

Hello everyone! Happy Tuesday to you! 

Today I am here to share my card with you for this week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. Here is a look at the sketch that Michelle has created for us:

And this is what I came up with:

Since I am a designer for The ScrapRoom's Shots of Life kit, every month I get a good supply of cut apart cards and I am always looking for a way to use them up. Not only are they great for use in my Project Life pages, but they are also great to use on cards. 

For this card, I have used a cut apart card from Carta Bella's - Oh Happy Day - collection. The card already had a sentiment on it but I didn't want that particular sentiment, so I changed it by cutting a strip of paper from another one of the cut apart cards that I knew I would not be using and stamped "thinking about you" in its place. Doing this not only gave me the sentiment that I wanted but it also added a little interest to the card. To finish it all off I added a few black gems to the card. Looking at the finished card now, I think I will move the gems in the lower left more to the corner.

Another quick and easy card ready to be sent out for #joyinjune! Want to know more about #joyinjune? Head on over to my friend Lisa's Facebook page to read all about it - Created By Lisa.

Be sure to check out the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog tomorrow to see the full design team reveal and last week's Top 3. I hope you have some time to play along with us!

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

The Paper Girls Challenge #201 - Color Challenge

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

The Paper Girls Challenge has a new challenge posted today. This week's challenge is a beautiful color challenge and all you have to do is use the colors in the photo below on your project:

This is the card that I created for the challenge:

So, my colors may not be exact - my teals are a little more green - but I think it's close enough! The papers I have used are from an old Project Life collection...Jade, I believe, and it is one of my favorites because of these colors. 

I tore one side of each strip of paper and adhered it to some navy cardstock. The sentiment stamp is from Close To My Heart (S2005 - Time To Celebrate) and it was last month's stamp of the month. I just love all of the different sentiments in this set!

I have another card ready to be sent out for #joyinjune! Want to know more about #joyinjune? Head on over to my friend Lisa's Facebook page and read all about it - Created By Lisa.

Be sure to stop by The Paper Girls Challenge Blog to see how the rest of the design team took on the challenge. I hope you have some time to play along!

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

Bring On Summer - Scrap Our Stash Recipe Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Monday to you! I hope that you are all doing well.  It's the start of a new week and my to-do list is pretty long, so here's hoping it's a good - productive week!

Today I am sharing my layout for the Scrap Our Stash - What's My Challenge - Recipe challenge. Here is a look at the recipe:

And here is my layout:

I used 5 different patterned papers - 6 if you count the background - behind the photo. My 4 different types of embellishments are - die cuts, stickers, puffy dots, and hearts, and rubber pieces. 3 word title - Bring on Summer, 2 different types of alphas - I used tiny letter stickers and a Thickers puffy word, and last but not least, my 1 photo. 

The papers and most of the embellishments are from a couple of Pebbles collections - Oh Summertime and Sun and Fun. I love both of these collections and I am sure you will be seeing more of them with me scrapping summertime photos for a while.

I added the journaling to a tag and added it behind some of the layers behind the photo. This photo is of Ada from just a week or so ago. The weather in May here was rainy and cool and we didn't even get the pool up and going until the week before Memorial Day. Ada has been so looking forward to getting to swim and the weather just wasn't cooperating! We finally had a few sunny days but that pool water was a cool 72 degrees when she got in. She was a trooper and stayed in for a few minutes but there was no fight when we asked if she was ready to get out. She sat out in the sun for a while - all covered up with her towel - and said what we have all been thinking - I'm ready for summer! Now, this past week we have seen temps around 90 and the pool water feels great! I guess we were just needing to give it time. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

It doesn't look like you can see the title very well on that colorful rainbow striped sticker, but it all really pops off of there in person.

I am so happy to finally be able to use a couple of these grey rubber shapes from Amy Tangerine! I love them but some of the colors are hard to match with anything. I'll keep working at it and get the rest of them used up one of these days!

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

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

Challenge YOUrself #78 - Summer Dreams

Hello everyone! Good Sunday morning to you! We've had a good taste of summer this weekend with temps right around 90 and I am loving every minute of it! Of course, if I am outside I am usually in the pool and I am sure if I wasn't I would think it was way too hot! Gotta love summer!

It's time for the June challenge at Challenge YOUrself today. This month our challenge is - Summer Dreams - scrap those summer memories, summer plans, etc. and remember to include yourself!

I went way back to 2012 and a day trip we took to Bennett Springs. I've scrapped a few photos from this day already, but not these particular photos. Sometimes I love going back and scrapping older photos again because now that time has passed, there may be a whole different story I want to tell! 

Here is my layout:

I used Photo Play's - Stuck on You - collection for my layout. I wanted to focus on the fun memories that were made that day, the feeling of togetherness, and just the overall happy feeling of getting to spend time with the family, and this collection was just what I was looking for.

I just loved the stickers that were included in this collection and I was actually able to use a couple of the bird stickers on this layout - which I thought would never happen!

I had lots of close up photos to share with you but my camera and laptop decided to not play nice together, so those will have to wait until my new cable gets here this week!

Be sure to check out the Challenge YOUrself blog to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. I hope you have some time to play along with us, too!

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