Warm Winter Wishes - Sketch N Scrap Sketch #219

Hello, everyone! Happy Wednesday to you! I hope you are having a good week. The sun is shining and it is a nice 48 degrees out this morning - so much nicer than the cold and snow that we had last week!

Today I am sharing a layout that I created using the February 15th sketch from Sketch N Scrap - using photos that I took last week of the unbelievable winter weather. Here's a look at the sketch:

I took these photos last week after we'd gotten the first round of snow - which was about  5 inches. That is quite a bit at one time for us - usually, we're lucky to see 2-3 inches at a time. Scott and I ventured out into the cold to check out the snow and take some pictures. Usually, when we get snow it starts out as freezing rain and turns to snow, so we have a nice layer of ice to deal with. Not this time - it was cold enough to be all snow - and powdery snow at that.  Then we got another round the night that these photos were taken and added about another 3-4 inches to it. Scott was off work (mostly because of the problems with the electric grid) until Thursday and the kids were out of school all week. Even MSU closed down so Matthew had the week off, too.  It sure was pretty but I am so glad it is all gone now and warmer weather is here this week.

For this layout, I used an older Simple Stories collection - Sub Zero. I have always loved the colors in this collection and I was happy to finally have some good snow pictures to put it to use! The "Warm Winter Wishes" heart that serves as my title was one of the 4x6 cut apart cards. I wanted to do a little something different with it and luckily I had a heart die big enough to fit the sentiment. I love how it turned out. I also did a lot of fussy cutting for this layout. The two larger snowmen and the "cold hands, warm heart" words are from a couple of other cut apart cards, and the small snowman and the "up to snow good" saying were on one of the patterned papers.

Here are a few close-ups:

Be sure to stop by Sketch N Scrap to see all of the sketches for February. The deadline to enter is Sunday, February 28th at 9:55 PM CST.

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

Um...No, Nana - Scrap Our Stash February Sketch 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.

Today I am sharing the layout that I created for the February sketch challenge at Scrap Our Stash. Along with the sketch you are to use a heart embellishment and/or heart patterned paper. Here's a look at the sketch:

Here is my layout:

I had taken this photo of Ada one day while we were shopping. Her Peppa Pig had been a big hit and was showing some wear and tear, so I thought we would look for a new hat. I tried this Hello Kitty hat on her and she was not impressed - at all. I'm not sure if it was because we tried it on in the store or if she just really does not like Hello Kitty, but it was a hard no for her!

I used papers from my February Great Stash Bash kit. The only full sheet of paper that I used from my kit is the pink paper that I matted my background - the rest are all scraps that I had included in my kit and I did a pretty good job at using all of the ones that I pulled out. I think the multi-colored striped paper is the only paper that I had enough leftover that I could put back in my kit. 

I stuck pretty true to the sketch - only changing up the triangle pieces with hearts. Try as I might, I just couldn't get the triangle pieces to work. I decided to replace them with hearts and I liked it so much better. 

Here are a few close-ups:

Since I have nothing "Hello Kitty" in my scrappy supplies, I found a free clip art image on the internet, resized it to a size that I wanted, and fussy cut it out. 

Every time I see this photo this phrase is the first thing that pops into my head. Her expression definitely says - I don't think so!

 

I liked the look of the doily on my layout but the white on white was just not showing up so I added a pink circle a little bigger than the doily for it to sit on. I added that minty green heart from Pink Fresh and then I didn't really care for it - it's not exactly the color I wanted but trying to get it off was not happening without ripping everything underneath it. Pink Fresh adhesive really sticks - so it will stay. It doesn't look as "off-color" in person as it does in this photo.

Be sure to stop by the Scrap Our Stash blog to see the beautiful creations from the rest of the design team. 

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

The Studio Challenges - Selfie Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you all! I hope that you are having a great weekend. The temperatures have finally gotten above freezing, the snow is melting, and I say - bring on spring! I've had enough of winter these past two weeks and I am ready to spring.

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges! Since this is the first week that the new design team members are joining us, and so you have a chance to get to know them, this week's challenge is a selfie challenge! Just scrap a photo of yourself!

Here's my layout:

I took this selfie a few weeks ago just for this challenge. I titled it - Right Here, Right Now - mostly because Shane has been listening to Jesus Jones' song by the same name over and over and singing the chorus as he roams around the house! I guess it has sunk deep into my subconscious mind because when I was trying to come up with a title, that is all I could think of  - right here, right now - and I decided to do a "currently" list that is hidden behind the paper layers.

I used papers that I had put into my 100 patterned papers pile. I still need to do up a blog post about that... Anyway, these papers are mostly from Echo Park. The pink stripe paper is from Crate Paper and the wood grain paper from We R Memory Keepers. I managed to use up three papers and a couple of scraps on this layout.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

The "right now" card is from Elle's Studio and reads - 

Loving - cross-stitching

Eating - country fried steak sandwiches (these have been my go-to lunch lately)

Reading - no time for reading!

Watching - WandaVision and Hallmark

Listening - The Maine and Luke Bryan

Creating- Lists and TN's

Date - February 19, 2021

I really need to do these types of layouts more often! I think it will be fun to look back on down the road.

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful work from the rest of the design team. I hope you have a chance to play along with us!

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

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #188

Hello, everyone! Happy Saturday to you! We have made it to the weekend and after a very unusual weather week, I am ready for it! Miss Ada, Abby, and Shawn are coming over today - we haven't seen them in over 2 weeks - and we have plans to play games and I am sure we'll have to play in the snow!

It's time for the last card sketch of the month at Sketch N Scrap today. Lisa has created a great sketch for us to play with and it's one that I am sure I will be using again:

This is what I came up with:

I found these papers in my scraps a few weeks ago and set them aside to use on a card or layout. When I saw this sketch I knew I would be using that floral paper as the main background of my card. I used a metal flower die from Momenta for my flower and a stamp from Art C, I think, for my sentiment. Having all of these papers already pulled out and waiting made this card super quick to make. 

Be sure to stop by Sketch N Scrap to see the sketch and the beautiful cards 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!

TN Time With Lisa & Lori - February Challenge

 Hello, everyone! Happy Wednesday to you! I hope you are having a good week. Winter has definitely set in around here. We've had icy/slick roads since Monday morning and the coldest temps of the season. This yuckiness is supposed to last for another week...I am so ready for spring!

On the bright side - it is time for the February edition of TN Time With Lisa & Lori! Here's how it works:

This is a just-for-fun 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 Creative Endeavors.

Here is my challenge for February:

For February I want you to use the color red - a little of a lot, it is up to you - on your layout and a heart(s).

Here is the fun sketch that Lisa has created for us to use:

And here is my layout:

One of the TN's I am going to be working on throughout this year is a TN with photos of Scott and me - and Shane may even join us once in a while. I don't have a lot of photos of just the two of us and I thought this would be a good way to remember to take a photo of us every month to document our adventures and have them all together in one place. This photo was taken on Superbowl Sunday and in true Scott style, he was making faces and cracking me up, so the photo wasn't the best quality, it was a little blurry. I changed it to black and white and you can't even tell it.

I used the Simple Stories - Sweet Talk - papers and stickers that I included in my February Great Stash Bash kit. I am happy to say that I used quite a bit of what I had included in my kit. Every paper got cut into for a couple of different layouts, and I have used all scraps on this spread. 

Here is a close up of each side of the layout:

I added this foam sticker banner to the bottom of the photo. It's adding a little thickness to my TN but with this one only holding 12 spreads for this year, I think it will be fine.

I didn't have a whole lot of journaling for this layout and I really should have stamped my lines a little farther down because then I was left with a pretty big open area between my journaling and the bottom cluster of embellishments. I decided to fill that area with a few phrase stickers so it wouldn't look so bare.

Even though this is a just-for-fun challenge we do have a few rules:

1.Create a TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK, PLANNER, OR BULLET JOURNAL spread based on the CHALLENGE THEME and/or our sketch. 
2.Create a new, not previously posted project.
3.You are welcome to combine with other challenges.
4.If you have a blog please include the challenge graphic & a link to our challenge in your post.
5.You can link to social media if you don't have a blog. If you show your project on Instagram, please make sure to use #TNtimewithLisaandLori 
6.You can submit multiple projects but they must be posted to InLinkz or social media separately.
7. Most importantly have FUN!

Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog - My Creative Endeavors to see her beautiful spread. I hope you have some time this month to play along with us! If you do play along, be sure to add your project to the linky below or use the hashtag #TNtimewithLisaandLori. I would love to see your take on our challenge and to leave you some love!

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

I Love Us - Scrap Our Stash February Remix Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Monday to you! I hope that you had a good weekend and are ready to get this week started.

Today I am sharing the layout that I created for this month's Scrap Our Stash Remix challenge. For February we are scraplifting a fun layout from DT member Anj with the added challenge to use word paper on our layout. Here is a look at Anj's layout:

And this is what I came up with:

I had pulled the scrap of black paper with the words on it for my February Great Stash Bash kit but I wasn't really feelin' the other papers that I had in my kit for this photo. I found the 6x6 paper pad (Simple Stories Love & Adore) and went with it. I was pretty limited with the papers - I have actually used a lot of the papers in this paper pad - but I did find enough to work with. I opted for big intertwined hearts instead of circles on Anj's layout. Since my hearts aren't quite large enough to go behind the photo and really see what they are, I added them below my photo.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Once again, I put the Close To My Heart - Heart Shaker Window thin cuts (Z3870) to use on this layout. I just love those tiny hearts! I also added a few phrase stickers around my page. 

My title came from a Hampton Arts foam sticker sheet. I picked up a set from Peachy Cheap a while back and they are perfect for titles. 

Be sure to stop by Scrap Our Stash 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!

You & Me - The Studio Challenges Sketch Challenge

Hello, everyone! Good Superbowl Sunday morning to you! Will you be watching the Superbowl tonight? I'm sure we will have it on. Even though we live in the heart of Chief's country, we are not Chiefs fans...it's all silver and black here at our house, but the Chiefs are fun to watch and it will be fun to see Mahomes go head to head with Brady. And there's always the commercials!

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges today and it's my favorite - a sketch challenge! Anna has created a fun heart-themed sketch since it is nearly Valentine's Day:

Isn't that a fun sketch?! I had a lot of fun putting my layout together:

This layout came together so quickly and I love the end result. I used the Simple Stories Sweet Talk collection that I included in my February Stash Bash kit. I die cut a bunch of different sizes of hearts and then scattered them in a diagonal fashion as shown on the sketch. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I popped the title up on foam tape and added the "Love is..." phrase sticker so the title actually reads - Love is...You & Me.

I added phrase stickers to several of the hearts around the layout.

The tiny hearts - outline and solid - are from my favorite new die set from Close To My Heart - the heart shaker window thin cuts (Z3870). I have yet to use these dies to create a shaker, but it's working overtime cutting these little hearts!

This photo is of Abby and Ada from September of 2019. Ada had gotten an award for knowing all of her upper and lowercase letters and Abby had gotten a big brag from the principal and Special Ed. director for doing such a good job working with her students and for being so organized. I thought both accomplishments were worthy of a photo and Abby snapped this one for me. You may see this photo again when I get around to documenting those stories!

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. I would love to see your take on this sketch, too!

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

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Mini Kit Reveal

Hello, hello! Happy Saturday to you! I hope that your weekend is off to a good start. 

I am on mini-kit duty at Counterfeit Kit Challenge this month and today is reveal day! Here is a look at the inspiration kit that Master Forger Lisa picked for us:

This kit is courtesy of Scrapbook Werkstatt in Germany. Their Herzstuck kit is their current kit and it is filled with soft tones, florals, and hearts. The hearts and colors are what spoke to me and I think you can see that in my kit:

I went a little overboard with my embellishments but I have been reorganizing my scrap room and finding things that I would really like to get used. When I put my kit together I had two layouts in mind that I would like to get made with it, maybe 3, so I included just enough papers for those layouts.

Here's a closer look at the papers:

I started looking for heart paper and ended up including three in my kit. I then started picking out papers that would match, keeping in my mind the colors in the inspiration kit. The back row includes Simple Stories Posh heart paper, Echo Park's Soak Up The Sun's mustard-yellow paper, Pink Paislee's Whimsical pink paper, and Echo Park's So Happy Together wood-look paper. The front row includes Close To My Heart's Happy Heart heart paper, and their So Much Happy floral paper, Dear Lizzy's Lovely Day mint paper, and Echo Park's I am Mom stripes with hearts paper. 

Here is a look at my embellishments:

I won't go through everything - that would take me all day - but there is a good mix of Citrus Twist, Pink Fresh, Gossamer Blue, Maggie Holmes, and Doodlebug Designs. I even added a piece of heart embossed vellum, although you cannot even see it in the photo. Not everything matches what's in my kit, but a good portion does and I hope to use as much of it as possible!

I found a gold alpha in my stash and the word Thickers were stuck to the back of them, and I had an idea for the "major heart eyes" sticker, so I went ahead and included it, too:

I also added this chipboard sheet and sticker sheet from Maggie Holmes: 

And here is my first layout using my kit:

I used the pink, mint green, and blue stripes with hearts paper on this layout. I gutted the pink paper that I used for a background mat so I would have some pink to cut my hearts from. I die cut three pink hearts and three smaller vellum hearts to layer on top. The vellum hearts were not showing up well so I inked the edges. From there I created my clusters using the die-cut packs, chipboard pieces, and puffy/enamel hearts, and word stickers. 

Here are a few close-ups:

These photos were taken way back in 2011. It was just a couple of months before Abby's wedding and Shane was taking full advantage of her being home from college. He loved spending time with her when she was home and she doted on him constantly. I knew with the wedding coming up and her moving out that I would not get a chance to capture these sweet moments as easily, so I grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos of the two of them together. 

Now here we are almost 10 years later and just as I thought - these moments are few and far between! She still dotes on him when she comes over and once in a while he'll sit still long enough to show her some affection, but these sweet moments are nothing like when they were both younger. 

Be sure to stop by the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to see Clair's fabulous mini-kit and project. 

I will be working on my second layout with this kit soon, so stay tuned!

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

Lisa and Lori's Great Stash Bash February Edition

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

It is time for the February edition of Lisa and Lori's Great Stash Bash! If you don't know what the Great Stash Bash is - it is a challenge that my good friend Lisa and I do every month. We pull items from our stash based on a "recipe" (which you will see below) in an effort to get our scrappy stash used up!

I can't believe it is already time to put another stash kit together! January just seemed to fly by, and even though one of my goals this year was to work with my stash bash kit during the month and hopefully get it used...well, I had good intentions, it just didn't happen! I am not putting that kit away anytime soon. I will make a project or two out of it yet!

With that being said, let's move on to what I pulled together for February.

Our kit "recipe" is 10 patterned papers, 5-7 scrap papers, 3-4 embellishments, and our focus item this month is 12x12 sticker sheets.

Here is my kit:

I took a little different approach to putting my kit together for February. I decided if I was going to be successful at using up my kit this month then I needed to take the time to do a little extra planning. I started with our focus piece this month - 12x12 sticker sheets - and picked three that I knew I had photos for. There's no need for me to pick more - these three will be plenty for me to work with this month!

Simple Stories' Sweet Talk and Little Princess sticker sheets and Carta Bella's Soak Up The Sun sticker sheet. I have photos of Ada in her Elsa costume - both at Halloween from a couple of years ago and her in it just playing. I have photos of Abby, Shawn, and Ada camping at the lake last year, along with a ton of other summertime photos that I can use for the summer collection, and with Valentine's Day a couple of weeks away, the Sweet Talk stickers will be perfect for some cards.

Here are the papers I picked to use this month. At first, I thought they were just going to be a hodgepodge of papers, but when I laid them all out together I was surprised at how well they went together!

I picked two papers from the Sweet Talk collection, three papers from the Little Princess collection, and five from the Soak Up The Sun collection to make my 10 papers.

Here are the embellishments. A few more than the called for 3-4 but it's a good variety - especially in the "summer" category - to get a few pages done:

After the first of the year, I took a couple of weeks to rearrange and reorganize my scrap room. I found a lot of things that I would like to get used up - like the October Afternoon summer sticker sheets and the alphas stickers that have been in my stash for ages! I also came across the pack of vellum die-cut pieces from Amy Tangerine and there are several that I think will work with the layouts I have planned for this month. If I could put a dent in those items, I would be a happy camper!

Here are the scraps that I have put in my kit:

Again, with my rearranging, I took the time to get my collections all put back together instead of my paper being a mixed-up mess. What scraps I had with the collections all went into a 12x12 page protector, so it was super easy to find some scraps that matched for this kit.

I had just a few more pieces of paper that I wanted to include:

The cut apart papers will be used for titles and embellishments and the other three are just extras in case I need them. I figured while I had them out I might as well add them. I want to have everything I might possibly want to use on a layout together and ready to go.

As I was pulling my kit I made sure to jot down what layouts - or projects I would like to get made with this kit:

I know this seems like an unnecessary thing to do...I have already pulled this kit with these layouts in mind. My problem is that sometimes when I sit down to scrap I let my mind wander and then I start thinking of other photos to maybe scrap with these papers - which is fine - but more often than not I'll go in search of the other photos only to find that they really don't go with what I picked, and then I'm off looking for more papers, and that is not what I want to happen! If I have my plans already written down and make myself stick to them, then I should be able to get this kit used up!

Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog to see the beautiful kit that she has pulled together for this month. This is a just-for-fun challenge, but if you play along and put together your own stash bash kit add it to the linky below and we will be sure to check it out and cheer you on! Here are the rules:

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

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrap N Scrap #218 - Winters Beauty

 Hello, everyone! Happy February 1st! 

It is time for a new sketch at Sketch N Scrap today and Sketch Artist Lisa is getting us started with a great 2-photo sketch:

This is what I came up with:

I opted to use 1 - 6x4 photo in place of the 2 -3x4 photos shown on the sketch. Other than that I stuck pretty closely to the sketch. I used Carta Bella's Winter Market collection that I had included in my January Counterfeit Kit. 

I took this photo on New Year's Day. We had gotten just a little snow and freezing rain the night before and (almost) everything was covered in white. Scott and I took a walk down to the creek and it was just so pretty, I had to snap a few photos. 

Here are a few close-ups:

I got these great wood veneer snowflakes from the Redefined Kreative Shop. When I checked to see if they are still available, I did not see the snowflakes, but she has a ton of other great pieces in her shop.

For my title, I used the minty green alphas that I had included in my January Counterfeit Kit and these great Alpha Cuts Stamp and die from The Stamp Market. I ordered these back early last year and I can't believe that this is the first time that I am using them! If you like the look of the tiny tile alphas you should check these out.  

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog today to see the sketch and the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. 

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

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