My Happy Life: January 2021

Sunday, January 24, 2021

The Studio Challenges - Handwritten Journaling

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend.

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges and for this challenge we want to see handwritten journaling on your layout. January 23rd is National Handwriting Day and in honor of that, we want to see your handwritten journaling.

This photo of Ada popped up in my Google photos memories and when I saw it I knew it needed to be scrapped. It brought back memories of this day like it was just yesterday! Ada was going through a phase of being pretty dramatic over the smallest things and then when I would try to take a photo she would strike a pose. We were getting ready to go to town and I'm not sure if she thought that Shane and I were taking too long to get ready or if she just wasn't wanting to go, but she had a slight pout on her face and was just too cute for me to resist taking a photo. Looking at it gives me a glimpse of the beautiful young girl she is becoming.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I am in love with my new date stamp! The way this one is made I am not limited to just a few years.

I am somewhat playing along with Shannon's (She's Crafty on Youtube) Mini Paper Pad class. I say somewhat because it started the first of January and I am just now getting my kits made and a layout done with the first kit. The general idea is to get some use out of those 6x6 or 6x8 paper pads - which I have more than a few of! We are to pick 5 paper pads and 2 - 12x12 papers for the background and make 2 layouts per paper pad, resulting in 10 layouts. It's not intended for us to use up all of the paper pad but to get them out and get some use out of them instead of letting them sit on a shelf.

Here is my first kit using Illustrated Faith's You are Loved 6x8 paper pad:

I used the white tone on tone dot paper for the background and a few different papers and scraps from the paper pad. I didn't use any of the embellishments on this layout, I just die cut my own hearts. I am excited to see how much more of this paper pad I can use on another layout.

Be sure to check out The Studio Challenges blog to see the layouts from the rest of the design team.

I hope you have a chance to play along with us, too!

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

Friday, January 22, 2021

Week 51/2019 - The ScrapRoom January Shots of Life Kit

Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you all! I hope that you have had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend! I know I sure am! Hubby has been working lots of overtime and when you're used to a 3-day weekend and then they go down to a 2-day weekend, well, we just really miss that extra day off - or maybe I should say that extra day of sleeping in a bit!

I am playing catch-up here on the blog today. It's been a crazy start to the month - and new year - and I had so hoped to feel on top of things instead of behind, but it just hasn't worked out that way just yet. I had so many extra posts planned for January - like my scrappy plans for 2021 - and sadly they are still on my to-do list. But hey, I still have a little over a week to get to them before January is over...

Today I am sharing my layout using the January portion of the Shots Of Life kit from The ScrapRoom. First, here is a look at the kit - which I do believe is still available:

And this is my layout - Week 51 of 2019:

I was able to mix the winter-themed cards from Carta Bella and the love-themed cards from Photo Play to make this layout.

Here is a closer look at the left side of the layout:

This side is full of snow day fun and pre-holiday treats from my sister. Here are a couple of close-ups:

For my title card, I used one of the 4x6 cut apart cards from the Winter Market sheet. It had a design on it that I knew I wouldn't use, so I covered it with a piece of white cardstock and added a few stickers. Since the first day of winter fell in this week, the winter banner stickers were perfect.

Ada had a few days off from school because of the snow and ice - which made her - and Abby - really happy! Abby snapped a few photos of her playing out in the snow and sent them to me. I even ventured out to take a few photos of the white stuff, too.

Amy made up a bunch of cookies for Christmas treats and then she and Rick braved the icy roads to deliver them to us! The bottom photo is the day after we got the snow and ice. The sun came out and all of the iciness just sparkled. It was beautiful!

Here is a look at the right side of the layout:

This side of the layout is all about the last half of the week. The snow and ice were gone and we were back to a little warmer weather.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I had a little extra room so I made the "Highlights" card using a stamp from Elle's Studio to give a sort of overview of the week. Ada woke up with a fever on the last day of school before Christmas break and missed her school holiday party. I snapped the photo of me and her waiting for Abby to get done for the day.

The top photo of Ada has a pull tab on it to reveal another photo of her with her advent calendar treat for the day - nail polish. She looked so cute with her robe on and her sleep mask pushed up on her head. I didn't want to create a flip pocket so I went with this instead. The other photos are of her - practicing headstands, which she was obsessed with trying to do, and playing with their cat Whisper.

And lastly, these photos are of a tote full of cross stitch fabric that I thought I had gotten rid of long ago and a Taco Bell run for Shane! The cross stitch fabric find was pretty great for both me and Scott - I suddenly had a ton of new fabric to add to my stash and he made a little extra room in the shed!

I am so happy to get another week of 2019 in the albums!

Be sure to check out The ScrapRoom Blog every day throughout the week - there is a ton of inspiration for all of the kits all month long.

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

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Eager To Learn - Scrap Our Stash January Sketch Challenge

Hello, hello! Happy Thursday! I hope that you are doing well.

Today I am sharing the layout that I created for the February sketch at Scrap Our Stash. Along with this great sketch we have the added challenge to use journal strips on our layout. Here's a look at the sketch:

I was going through some photos of last year and realized with all the craziness of 2020 that I haven't scrapped a lot of photos from last year - especially from early in the year - so when I came across these photos of Ada doing her "homework" I had to get them scrapped. Here is what I came up with:

Ada was - and still is - so eager to learn! I mean she is a first grader reading at almost a fourth grade reading level so her eagerness is paying off! On this particular day, she and Abby had come over to the house for supper. The minute Ada got in the house she got into her backpack and pulled out "homework." Now being a kindergartner at the time she didn't really have homework, but she was wanting to more work so Abby printed her off a few papers to work on. She was quite pleased with herself for getting it all done.

I pulled out the Doodlebug Designs School Days collection for this layout. The die cuts in this collection were perfect for this layout. Here are a couple of close-ups:

For the circle elements on the sketch, I traced a circle metal die with a white gel pen and then added little white dots around the circles and within the clusters.

Be sure to stop by Scrap Our Stash to see how the rest of the design team took on the sketch. I hope you have a chance to play along with us!

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

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #186

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

Today I am sharing the card that I made for today's sketch at Sketch N Scrap. Heather has created a fun sketch for us to play with:

I've been reorganizing my scrap room and I came across a few 6x6 paper pads that have just a few papers left in them and I would really like to get them used up. This sketch was perfect for some of the scraps from the Pebbles' Happy Day paper pad that I found. Here is what I came up with:

I started by using my swiss dot embossing folder to give a little oomph to my plain white card front. Then, I cut a few different sized squares and layered them up on the front of the card. I fussy cut flowers from one of the patterned papers to add behind the sentiment. I added a couple of foam dots to some of the flowers to give a little dimension. I finished off my card by adding a few black enamel dots around my card.

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

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

Monday, January 18, 2021

A New Chapter - Counterfeit Kit Challenge - Challenge #2

Hello, everyone! Happy Monday to you! I hope you had a good weekend. We made a grocery delivery to my oldest son who has tested positive for Covid-19 and is in quarantine. We left the groceries at the door and waved to him from the parking lot. It's hard not being able to take care of your baby - although at almost 23 he's not a baby! He is feeling much better and should be out of quarantine on Tuesday.

It is time for the second challenge at Counterfeit Kit Challenges today. For this challenge, Master Forger Lisa is asking us to create a layout about the start of something new. This could be a fresh start or a restart, or maybe you could try a new technique for the first time on your layout. Maybe you want to try a new color combination or a new design...the possibilities are endless!

I decided to make a layout of my oldest son who is continuing on with his education and working towards his Master's Degree - he is definitely starting a new chapter in his life.

I used a mix of some of the winter papers and the generic papers that I included in my kit. In fact, everything on this layout came from my kit with the exception of the alphas. The ones that I had included did not have most of the letters that I needed so I had to look for some in my stash. All of the embellishments that I used were included in the die-cut boxes that I included in my kit.

For this layout, I included a photo of the screenshot of the acceptance email that Matthew received and then sent to me, along with a photo of him from earlier in the year. I do plan on doing a bit of journaling - but it will be hidden behind the photo block.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I loved that I was able to find so many great embellishments that fit my layout!

After taking a closer look, I see that the striped tab that I had intended to layer behind the white tab on the side of Matt's photo got lost. I will be sure to add it back to the layout to help that tab stand out a bit more and to get that striped paper in another place on my layout.

Head on over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge.

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

Friday, January 15, 2021

Family Fun Night - Sketch N Scrap #217

Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you! I hope that you have had a good week and are ready for the weekend. We are supposed to see some snow flurries today...I guess we will see!

It's time for the mid-month sketch at Sketch N Scrap today and Heather has a fun one for us to play with:

I love all of the squares on this sketch! This is what I came up with:

For this layout, I have used Carta Bella's Family Night collection. I received this collection in my kits from The ScrapRoom back in April. When Abby sent me this photo of them having a family game night playing "Sorry" - I thought it was finally time to pull out this kit and put it to use and I really like how it turned out.

I cut my paper into 2.25 x 2.25 squares and I layered them up behind the photo. I just used one 4x6 photo in place of the three smaller photos. I used one of the die cuts as my title piece and moved the placement of the title over to the lower-left corner of the photo. I added a doily underneath the die-cut, as it was blending in with the squares a little too much for my liking, and I added another die-cut piece to the opposite corner of the photo. I wrote out a little bit of journaling on a label from Elle's Studio and added it to the title cluster under the photo.

I really like how this turned out! All of those squares might be a little intimidating at first but they were pretty fun to play with.

Here is a close-up of the title area:

I am so grateful that Abby shares her fun family photos with me!

Be sure to stop by Sketch N Scrap to see how the rest of the team took on this sketch. I would love to see your take on it, too!

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

Sunday, January 10, 2021

TN Time With Lisa & Lori January 2021 Challenge

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

It's time for the January edition of TN Time With Lisa & Lori! I am so excited to be continuing on with this challenge for another year! We are changing things up a bit for this year and this will now be a just-for-fun challenge. We do hope you will still play along and share your beautiful creations with us in the linky below.

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 complete just Lisa's sketch challenge, link up over on her blog my - My Creative Endeavors. You can find the full list of rules here.

Here is my challenge for January:

I am doing things a little differently for my challenge this year. Every month I will post a color for you to use on your spread. It does not have to be monochromatic, it doesn't even have to be primarily that color, you just need to use the color for that month on your spread. Along with the color, there will also be a stash item that you need to use. January's color is blue and the stash item is washi tape.

Here is a look at Lisa's sketch:

And this is what I came up with:

This photo of Ada making a silly face makes me smile every time that I see it. We were keeping her for the day and she was being her usual funny self and this was her version of duck face. I love my silly girl!

I used the Live Life Happy 6x8 paper pad and a scrap piece of pink paper for this spread. The fun bright colors fit Ada's fun-loving personality perfectly! I used blue paper and blue and minty green washi tape to satisfy my challenge.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I love the scalloped chipboard sticker and it fits perfectly under my photo. It's pretty low profile for chipboard so I didn't remove any of the layers. I added in a few puffy hearts around my spread to finish it off.

Now for the winner of last quarter's prize:

We had 3 people link up - Anna, Becca, and Sandi. Thank you all for playing along with us! The winner of my prize is:

Sandi! Congrats, Sandi! I still have your address and will get your prize in the mail this week!

Don't forget to stop by Lisa's blog to see her beautiful creation for this challenge! I do hope that you play along with us!

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

Dear Sweet Girl - The Studio Challenges - Old and New

Hello, everyone! Good Sunday morning to you! I hope you are having a good weekend. It's going by way too fast for my liking!

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges today. Before I get to the challenge, I did want to let you know that we have a design team call going on now. You can find out all of the details in this post here. It is a great team to be on and we would love to have you join us!

Now on to this week's challenge - we are starting the year off with an easy one for you - Old and New - just use something old on your layout and something new and tell us what it is!

For my layout, for something old I have used a splatter stamp, doilies, a glassine bag, old alphas, and acrylic hearts. For something new I have used the Simple Stories Hip Hop Hooray papers and enamel dots and the heart die cuts are from a new metal die:

I am so glad that I remembered to pull out that splatter stamp - it's actually Close To My Heart's Ink Flair (D1660) stamp set. I can't remember when it came out exactly, but I have had it since it came out and this is the first time I inked it up. It is such a great way to make the splatters without making a mess - or smearing the splatters before they are dry! I only had white doilies and I knew they would not show up on the white background, so I went old school and inked up a piece of a sponge and covered the white doilies with Juniper ink. I think they turned out perfectly!

I added a glassine bag behind my photo for my journaling. I wrote a letter to Miss Ada about this day and had quite a bit to say, so I folded it up and added it to the bag. Here is a close-up:

This photo was taken back in 2017. It was one of the hardest times that we have had with Shane. School was hard for him - new teachers that didn't understand him, and didn't want to take the time to understand him or to listen to our ideas of what would help. He was only going to school for 2 hours in the mornings and more often than not I was turning around and picking him up before I had even had a chance to get home because they couldn't handle him. This was one of those mornings. Ada and I had dropped him off at school after I picked her up from Abby and we had just got home and they called, telling me to pick him up. He was very frustrated - as anyone who cannot express what was happening would be. Even after we'd gotten home it took him a while to calm down. I always tried to keep him and Ada separated until he calmed down, but on this day he reached out and hit her on the back as she walked by him. And dear sweet Ada - at her tender age of not quite 4 - knew that if she full out cried that it would only cause him more frustration, so there she sat, tears in her eyes, and it broke my heart. She should not have had to hold in those tears, but she did for her Uncle Shane, and to this day when I see this picture, it still breaks my heart. I just wanted her to know that I saw what she did, how brave she was - and still is. She has had to deal with a lot more than most kids should with having a special needs uncle and she always handles it like a trooper.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Layouts like this one are always hard for me to make but I think it is important to document the hard days, too. And 30 minutes after all of this took place Shane calmed down, he was in his safe place again, and all was well in the world. Oh, the roller coaster ride of the autism life! Ultimately, 2 months later in November of 2017 we and the school agreed that Shane was done with school and he graduated out early. Here we are, 3 years later, and if anyone mentions the word school he still gets upset.

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges blog to see the rest of the design team members take on the old and new challenge. I would love to see what you create, too! Don't forget about the design team call!

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

Friday, January 8, 2021

Little Suzy Homemaker - Scrap Our Stash Remix Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you! We have made it to the weekend and it has been a long first week getting back into the groove of things after a couple of weeks off for the holidays! This weekend is much needed!

Today I am sharing the layout that I created for the new remix challenge at Scrap Our Stash. This is a fun new challenge for the new year where you are given a layout from a current or past Scrap Our Stash design team member and you are to remix - or scraplift - the layout. There will always be an additional challenge and this month it is to use mixed alphas on your layout.

I am quite honored to have the first layout to be "remixed"! Here is a look at the graphic:

This is what I came up with this time around:

I stuck very closely to the original layout in my scraplift. The only major change was adding a bigger embellishment cluster in place of the journaling on the original and then adding hidden journaling behind the photo.

I used the Simple Stories Apron Strings collection that I had received in my kits from The ScrapRoom in October 2020. The little aprons and homemade vibe of this collection were perfect for these photos of Ada on the day of her birthday party. She loves to play that she is a baker and has a restaurant so for her birthday this year that is the theme that I went with. I dusted off those sewing skills and made her apron and then bought her three different felt food sets - a taco set, a sandwich set, and a sugar cookies set. She had so much fun taking our orders and then making our "lunch" for us. In this day and age of kids loving their electronics and devices - it just makes me so happy to see her playing pretend!

She was all for posing for pictures for me in her new apron. She even came up with the idea to pretend like she was stirring something in a bowl!

Here are a couple of close ups:

Instead of using paper strips at the top and bottom of my layout, I cut pieces of washi tape into narrower strips and added those. One of my goals this year is to actually use my washi tape - especially when it comes in a kit! I still need to add my journaling. I just need to figure out how to condense down all that I want to say in the amount of space I have.

I fussy cut this cute little apron from one of the patterned papers. I think it makes the perfect embellishment!

Be sure to stop by the Scrap Our Stash blog to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge. I would love to see your take on it, too!

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

Friday, January 1, 2021

Lisa and Lori's Great Stash Bash January 2021 Edition

Hello again! I am back with another kit share for you today!

I am super excited that my friend Lisa wanted to continue on with our great stash bash challenge this year! Making these monthly kits helps me to keep familiar with what I have in my supplies and it keeps me motivated to keep using them instead of collecting them.

The only thing we have changed up this year is instead of pulling 7 older papers and 3 newer papers, we will be just be pulling a total of 10 papers - no matter how old or new that they are.

Here is the January graphic. Along with our papers and embellishments we will be working on using up some of that ephemera that we have been collecting.

And here is my kit for January:

I went with all older papers and I believe that they are all from Echo Park.

Here is a better look at the papers:

The back row of papers is from the Creative Agenda collection. This is an older collection but I just purchased the collection pack from Tuesday Morning earlier this year, so it is new to me!

The papers on the front row are from the Head Over Heels collection - with the exception of each of the end papers - the paper on the far left is from the Creative Agenda collection and the paper on the far right is from the Photo Freedom collection. My plan is to use this set of papers for a couple of layouts of Ada when she was a baby.

Here is a look at the embellishments that I picked and at the scraps that I pulled:

I pulled a couple of different sizes of doilies, a few buttons, (I forgot to add the sticker sheet from Creative Agenda to this photo but it can be seen in my kit photo above) and a pack of brads. Not all of the brads will match but I am hoping to use what I can! Since our focus item is ephemera, I went through my die cut boxes that I have sorted by color and pulled a few items that I thought would match and then I will have these ephemera boxes on my desk all month long, as well:

I went ahead and pulled a few of my sticker books for the "baby" papers because I didn't have a lot of embellishments to match those papers and I don't want to have to go looking when I pull this kit out to scrap. Here are the three that I pulled - all heavy on the pink!

I cannot wait to dive in and play with this kit!

We would love it if you played along with us! Just use the "recipe" from graphic above and link up below or use this hashtag on Instagram - #lisaandlorisgreatstashbash2021 - I will remember to post my kits to Instagram this year!

This is a just for fun challenge but we do have to have a few rules - or guidelines - to follow. Here they are:

1. Follow the challenge prompt to create a kit to work with throughout the month. You may use other items, but please concentrate on using your kit.

2. Create new, not previously posted projects using your stash kit.

3. If you have a blog - please include the challenge graphic and a link to our challenge in your posts.

4. You may link to social media if you don't have a blog. If you share on Instagram, please make sure to use - #lisaandlorisgreatstashbash2021

I hope you join us this month! I would love to see your stash bash kit!

Be sure to stop by Lisa's beatiful blog - My Creative Endeavors - to see the kit that she has put together for January.

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

Counterfeit Kit Challenge January 2021 Kit Reveal and Blog Hop

Hello, everyone! Happy New Year to you all! I cannot believe that it is January 1st! Here is hoping that 2021 has lots of good things in store for each and every one of us.

The start of a new month means it is time for a new inspiration kit and blog hop at Counterfeit Kit Challenges. Master Forger Lisa had chosen the Flurries Deluxe Theme Kit from the Not Just For Boys Kit Club. Here is a look at the inspiration kit:

This kit has a winter theme to it with snowflakes and touches of blue, but it also has a bit of red and green so if you want to go festive and get those Christmas photos scrapped - well, you can find inspiration for that, too. I have gone with more of a winter theme for my kit, but I also included some red and green in it, as well.

Here is a look at my kit:

Guys, my goal this year is to keep my kits to a more manageable size and I think I actually did that with this month's kit! I included 16 papers - 2 of those are navy cardstock - a sticker sheet, chipboard stickers, enamel dots, wood veneer pieces, a stamp, a couple of alphas, and some die cuts. I already have 4 layout ideas for this kit, so here's hoping I can kill it in January!

Here is a closer look at my papers:

I was mostly inspired by the winter theme and that is where I started - pulling the Carta Bella Winter's Market papers, which are all on the front row. I knew I had a few papers that were a good match (mostly to the B side papers in the inspiration kit) so I pulled those as well. They are the back row of papers. All of the blue, red, and green papers are from different Echo Park collections, the white small dot paper, and the wood grain paper are from two different Simple Stories collections, and the cream tone on tone big dot paper is from Crate paper.

Here is a look at the embellishments that I pulled for my kit:

Carta Bella's Winter Market sticker sheet, chipboard stickers, and die cuts. Wood veneer pieces, enamel dots, a stamp set from Elle's Studio, and some random die cuts and sticker books to go with the non-winter themed papers.

I pulled 2 alphas - a white foam Thicker and a minty green alpha that I hope to use and a few scraps that I pulled:

Since I don't have a lot in the way of embellishments for the non-winter themed papers, I went ahead and pulled a couple of my ephemera boxes that had a lot of green items and red items in them: