Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #212

Hello, hello! Happy Monday to you! And what a happy day it is! The ice that we got last week is almost completely gone, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and we are supposed to reach 60 degrees today and 70 by mid-week - spring is on its way! 

I hope that you had a good weekend. We had a last-minute sleepover with Miss Ada and after not seeing her for two weeks - it was wonderful! She kept us busy wanting to do all the things and we all had so much fun! Lots of  "sledding" on the ice, lots of Yahtzee, Uno, and Guess Who, and lots of Spongebob! We definitely made up for those two weeks that we missed.

Today I am sharing the card that I created with the February 20th sketch from Sketch N Scrap. I had a lot of fun with this sketch and I think I'll see if I can't make another card or two from it. Here's a look at the sketch:

And this is what I came up with:

Back sometime last year I got rid of all of my scraps. I was tired of dealing with them and looking through the same ones over and over again. I guess I just wasn't inspired by them anymore. And it was so freeing! But - when it came to making a card or needing just a small piece of paper for a layer here and there - I kind of missed having those scraps to go through! Am I sorry I got rid of them? No. I do think I could have gone through them and picked out a few to keep, but it has been really nice to start over fresh!

Since then I am back to saving my scraps. I don't save every single teeny tiny piece of paper - I am much more selective these days in what stays and what goes - and most of the time I keep the scraps with the collection until the collection is gone or mostly gone. But - I do have one 12x12 page protector (that is all I will allow myself to have) that has random scraps in it. I went through it this weekend and put everything in rainbow order and I even pulled out a few coordinating scraps for some cards - and that is how this card came to be!

This card is made up completely of scraps - right down to the alpha stickers I used on it! I'm not sure why I had the alpha stickers in my scraps but they went well with these papers and instead of putting them back into my stash, I thought I would put them to use!

I matted all of the papers with navy cardstock scraps so each piece would stand out a bit more. I added foam tape to the sentiment and lined it up with the background paper. I did not add an embellishment to the top of the card like the sketch calls for - I just felt like everything I tried got lost on the busy paper - and that paper is pretty enough that it doesn't need anything more!

This was such a fun sketch to work with and I know I will be using it again!

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog for more inspiration using the February sketches. Today is the last day to enter the challenges, so don't delay!

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

 

Lasting Memories #588 - Stickers

 Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend. Miss Ada spent the night last night and we had quite the adventures! I'm sure today will be more of the same until it's time for her to go home.

It's time for a new theme and a new set of challenges at Lasting Memories and since I am in charge of this month's challenges - I am also going to try to play along! For our March challenges, I went with something near and dear to me and chose the theme of "Love Your Stash." All of our challenges this month will help you put your stash to use and this week's challenge is - Stickers! Just use stickers on your layout. This can be cardstock stickers, chipboard stickers, puffy stickers, sticker books - if it is sticky on the back then use it on your layout. 

This is what I came up with:

I am working on my February 2022 traveler's notebook and these photos of Ada out in the snow that  Abby sent me paired perfectly with the Simple Stories Feelin' Frosty collection. I challenged myself to work only with the 12x12 sticker sheet for my embellishments and the only other things that were added were enamel dots and a bit of washi tape.

Abby snapped these photos of Ada after we'd gotten a bit of snow earlier this month and they were just too cute not to scrap! She wanted to wear her blue light glasses outside and they just add to the cuteness.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

There are a few cute critter stickers in the collections but I went with the cute little grey...fox - at least I think it's a fox or wolf...whatever it is, it is cute! I thought it brought a bit more grey over to the left side of the spread. 

I added some foam tape on the back of one of the word phrases and let that serve as my title. I love the look of the washi tape on the bottom of the photos.

I punched out a couple of tabs to layer at the bottom and added a phrase sticker on top. I also added a few little snowflake stickers around it to finish it out. 

Be sure to stop by the Lasting Memories blog to see how the rest of the design team took on this week's sticker challenge. I would love it if you played along, too!

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

The First Time - Sketch N Scrap #243

Hello, hello! Happy Saturday to you!  Do you have any fun plans for your weekend? Are you lucky enough to have a long weekend with President's Day being Monday? This is the first year that hubby's work has made it a paid holiday so we will be enjoying the extra day off. And Sunday and Monday are both supposed to be in the 60s, so you know we will be outside getting some work done. We love those warm February days and will take them any time we can get them!

Today I am sharing the layout I created using the February 15th sketch from Sketch N Scrap. This fun sketch was created by Heather and I had a lot of fun creating with it! Here's a look at the sketch:

I always love a sketch that features a big block of paper on it - that gives me a great excuse to play around with patterns! 

This is what I came up with:

I have been wanting to scrap these photos of Ada and the first time that she drew a person with a body instead of a stick figure. She was so proud of herself and I was proud of her, too! I used a paper from Bella Blvd's Mom Life collection for the background. It's quite busy but with the big block of paper on top of it, I feel like it helps to calm the busyness down a bit. I knew that this was probably the only time that I would have the chance to get that paper used.

I wanted to be sure to add the story to the layout so I added a journaling block to the right side of the photos. I tried adding it to labels and putting it in place of the banners at the bottom of the page, and I tried to add a tag that could be hidden - or partially hidden - around the cluster but they both seemed to get lost in that busy background paper, so a journaling block it is!

Here is a close-up of the cluster:

I really didn't know how I was going to embellish this layout - so I went with a large die-cut heart as my cluster base, added a couple of flowers that I found in my stash from an old My Mind's Eye collection, and I fussy cut a few of the drawings from the background paper to add to it. I finished it all off with a few enamel dots. 

And I just now realized that the little red heart that is supposed to be at the end of my journaling is about to fall off of the journaling block! That has now been fixed!

Have you had a chance to play along with the Sketch N Scrap sketches this month? I would love to see your take on them!

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 Valentine's Day to you! I hope that you had a good weekend and that you are ready for the new week. 

It is time for the TN Time With Lisa & Lori February Challenge! If you are new here and you don't know what it's all about - here is 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. If you combine both challenges - be sure to link up on both Lisa's blog and here on my blog.

Here is my challenge for February:

It's an easy peasy one this month - just add a heart - or hearts - to your layout! This can be a heart embellishment or stamp or heart patterned paper.

Here is the fun sketch from Lisa:

And this is what I came up with:

For this spread, I used the Cocoa Vanilla papers and embellishments that I included in my February Stash Bash Kit. I am so happy that I finally got a few of these papers out of my stash and onto a layout or two this month. These are some of my favorites from the collection. When paired with my two favorite girls - well, I couldn't help but love how this spread turned out!

I have officially started my 52 Favorites of 2022 traveler's notebook and this is my favorite photo from Week 5! The girls were over for supper and we finally had a chance to watch Encanto with them. I snapped this photo of the two of them before Scott got home with the food - and I love it!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I used one of the die-cut pieces for my title. I have some pretty thin foam tape that I added to the back of it. I don't tend to use a lot of dimension in my traveler's notebook but I really wanted to pop this title piece up and I will just make sure to not overload this notebook!

The little banner piece is from the cut apart paper and I added a few punched hearts and a phrase sticker for this little cluster.

The die-cut flowers in this collection are so pretty and I wish I had a bunch more of them in my stash!

I am excited to work in my 52 Favorites of 2022 TN this year - and hopefully, keep up with it!

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 and check out her beautiful spread for this month's 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 wonderful day!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sweet Little Moment - Sketch N Scrap February Crop Challenge #3

Hello, everyone! Happy Super Bowl Sunday to you! Will you be watching the big game or will you be scrapping the night away? I know we will have it on and we will be rooting for the Bengals - even though they beat out our Raiders in the first playoff game - but really we won't care either way. We just want it to be a good game. And if it's not - you can bet I will be working on a layout or card!

Today I am sharing a layout that I created for Challenge #3 over in Sketch N Scrap's Monthly Challenges Facebook group.  I chose Sketch N Scrap's Sketch #152 from May 1, 2018:

And this is what I came up with:

I used papers and embellishments from my February Stash Bash kit on this layout. All of the papers are from Echo Park's Hello Baby (boy) collection - except the orange - which is an old My Mind's Eye paper.

I only had this one sweet photo of my boys -  from 20 years ago - to use on this layout. I can't remember if this was the day we finally got to bring Shane home after spending 16 days in the NICU, or if it was a few days later. It couldn't have been too long after as I see the cords from his heart monitor in the photo. 

This photo just melts my heart every time that I look at it! Matthew is loving on his little brother and I can just imagine him letting Shane know that everything's going to be okay - that he is there to watch out for him!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I tried really hard to use those big rosette embellishments that I had included in my kit but they just turned out to be way too big and way too bulky for my liking, so I made my own version with my circle punches and pinked circle dies. I love how they turned out and with making my own version, I could make them as big or as small as I wanted. I finished off this cluster with a few stickers from the sticker sheet. 

For the title, I used the mirrored word "Sweet" from Pink Paislee. I almost didn't use it - the "W" looks a little foggy about halfway down. I tried to get the plastic off it but it was like it had melted onto the letter. I decided to just go ahead and go with it. 

I am so glad that I finally got this photo scrapped!

Be sure to stop by Sketch N Scrap's Monthly Challenges Facebook group and check out our challenges for February. We would love it if you played along with us!

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

Happy Valentine's Day - Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #211

 Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! I hope that you are having a good week. The snow that we got last week is the same as all gone and we've been enjoying temps in the 50s for the last couple of days. I say just go ahead and bring on spring now! If only it worked that way!

Today I am sharing a Valentine's Day card that I created using the February 5th sketch at Sketch N Scrap. Here's a look at the fun sketch that Lisa has created for us:

This sketch is definitely going into my favorites folder. You know that big oversized banner has my heart! I have a couple of more ideas for this sketch so I am going to keep it on my desk and see if I can't get a couple more cards made with it.

This is what I came up with this time around:

Valentine's Day is just a few days away and so I made a card to be sent to someone special! I used Pebbles' Be Mine 6x6 paper pad for this card. The sentiment is also from Pebbles but I think it is from a different collection. I die cut a heart from one of the papers and added a few enamel dots to finish it off. This card came together so quickly. The hardest part was picking which paper to put where!

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog and the Sketch N Scrap Facebook page for more inspiration throughout the month.

I hope you have a chance to play along with us! I would love to see your take on the sketch.

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

Fun Day - Sketch N Scrap #242

Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you! I do hope that you have had a good week and that you are ready for the weekend! 

Today I am sharing the layout that I created using the February 1st sketch at Sketch N Scrap. This sketch is courtesy of Sketch Artist Lisa and I had a lot of fun playing with it! Here is a look at the sketch:

And this is what I came up with:

For this layout, I used the Cocoa Vanilla's These Days collection that I had included in my February stash bash kit. These papers are so pretty and I have been hoarding them since I bought them back when they first came out back in July of last year. I decided it was time to get some of them used instead of sitting in my stash taking up space! I have told myself that I cannot get any of their new "No Limits" collection unless, and until,  I get some of this one used up!

These photos are of Ada at Nathanael Greene Park last summer. Abby and Shawn took her there so she could ride her scooter on the trail and along the way, they stopped at the play pods for her to try them out. I believe there are 5 different play pods along the trail and I know they for sure stopped at 2 of them...I am not sure if they hit the other 3 or not. Ada had so much fun!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I cannot believe I got these tree die cuts used on the first layout that I created with this collection. I thought they were perfect for an outdoorsy layout. I added foam tape to the yellow tree and the word sticker for a little dimension.

I went with the Heidi Swapp enamel word stickers for my title. I had a hard time deciding on whether to use fun day or happy day as my title but "fun day" fit the area a little better. I left a bigger space between the words than I really intended so I added a little heart between the words. 

Here I had included all those stickers in my stash bash kit - since they are our focus item - and ended up only using 3 phrase stickers and a circle sticker - everything else was from the ephemera pack or from the cut apart paper...that just leaves me plenty to work with on my next layout!

Be sure to check out the Sketch N Scrap blog and the Sketch N Scrap Facebook page for more inspiration using this sketch.

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

Love You! - Soul Scrappers Feb. Sketch Challenge

 Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! I hope that you are all doing well. We are getting our first big snow of the season today - which means hubby has a nice long weekend and I have been camped out in my scrap room scrapping the day away! This is what it looked like from our front porch this afternoon:

It's hard to tell how much snow we actually have - the wind has been blowing it all around - but our best guess is 6 or 7 inches and we could see another inch or so tonight. We will see what it looks like in the morning!

I did manage to work on a challenge today. It seems like it has been forever since I have participated in a challenge and I picked the February sketch challenge at Soul Scrappers to join in on. Soul Scrappers has moved to a private Facebook group and it's a little easier for me to remember to check in!

Here is the layout that I created - if you want to see the sketch, come on over and join the fun at Soul Scrappers:

I used the super fun Happy Hearts collection from Simple Stories for this layout of Scott and myself. I am so happy that he is always so willing to take a picture with me! 

I used two of my favorite pieces of paper from the collection for this layout. I even managed to use a couple of pieces of washi tape and several of the die cuts, word stickers, and brads. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

This little cluster makes me smile! It must be that cute little heart die cut!

I fussy cut the big floral heart from one of the cut apart papers and then added a couple of die cuts, phrase stickers, and brads to make an oversized cluster below my photo. I really like how this turned out. Of course, I really like this photo so it's hard not to like the layout!

Head on over to Soul Scrappers and check out their February challenges. I am hoping to get a couple more of them done this month!

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

Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash February Kit

 Hello, everyone! I hope that your week is off to a good start! We are preparing for some major winter weather around here starting tomorrow. We have a chance for ice and snow and bitterly cold temperatures so we will see what we end up getting! Sounds like it is going to be a great time to spend some time inside scrapping and stitching!

I cannot believe that it is already the first day of February and time for a new stash bash kit! I did fairly well with my January kit and hope to do just as well, if not better, with my February kit! I will try to do a January recap post later this week. Let's get on with my February kit.

 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) and use those items throughout the month in an effort to get our scrappy stash used up!

Here is February's recipe:

Our "recipe" is to pull 10 patterned papers, 5-7 scraps, 3-4 embellishments, and our focus item for February are stickers.

I played nice this month and stuck pretty close to the recipe! I created two mini-kits to work with this month. Here is my first mini-kit:

This kit is made up of Cocoa Vanilla's - These Days - collection and a couple of coordinating papers from a DCWV paper pad. I've added in the ephemera pack and all of the stickers that I have for this collection - since that is our focus item this month. I also included a set of Heidi Swapp word stickers that I thought I might be able to use. 

Here are the papers that I included:

The mustard yellow and green dot paper are from the DCWV paper pad and the rest are from Cocoa Vanilla. I have two layouts planned out for this kit and then we'll see what's left and go from there! I may fussy cut that floral paper...or at least a portion of it.

Here are the embellishments:

I have included a Heidi Swapp word sticker sheet, the Cocoa Vanilla ephemera, and all of the stickers that I had from this collection - the alphas, the cardstock stickers, the puffy stickers, the clear stickers, and the word stickers. I would love to get a few of these used!

I also included the cut apart paper and the butterfly paper - for more fussy cutting:

Here is my second kit:

This kit was completely centered around one photo of my boys - Matthew was 2 and Shane just a couple of months old - that I cannot wait to get scrapped! It is made up of mostly Echo Park's Hello Baby - boy collection. There are hints of orange in this collection but no orange paper so I pulled in an old My Mind's Eye orange paper.

Here is a look at the papers: 

I also added a navy piece of cardstock and I will probably cut the border strip paper apart.

Here is a look at the embellishments:

For the embellishments, I included the 12x12 sticker sheet and ephemera pack from the Hello Baby collection, a set of baby-themed stickers from Simple Stories, the mirrored...glass look word sticker from Pink Paislee, a couple of pinwheels from a different Echo Park collection, and a stamp set from My Mind's Eye - in case I feel like getting inky! I have just a few scraps from this collection so I included them. I would love to get them used up this month. 

So, I ended up with a total of 13 papers - not counting the papers that I plan to fussy cut - and a few more than 3-4 embellishments - but the majority of those are stickers which are our focus item this month!

I am super excited to get started with my kit and see how much stash I can bash this month!  

Now, be sure to stop by Lisa's blog to see the fun kit that she has pulled together for this month. This is a just-for-fun challenge, but if you do 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 - #lisaandlorisgreatstashbash2022

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

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