Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #232

 Hello, hello! Happy Tuesday to you! I hope that your week is off to a good start. We are going to brave the stores today and finish off our Christmas shopping. Since they are forecasting snow and bitterly cold temperatures later this week I am sure the stores will be crazy. Thankfully all we need to finish up are stocking stuffers so if it's too crazy out there we may just call it done!

Today I am sharing the card that I created for today's card sketch challenge at Sketch N Scrap. This is a card sketch that I created and I like it enough that I will know I will be using it again soon! Here is the sketch:

I used a 6x6 paper pad from Echo Park - the name escapes me at the moment - for this card. The sentiment was from one the cut apart papers and I just double matted it and added some foam tape to the back for dimension. This card sketch is perfect for those last minute Christmas cards!

Head on over to Sketch N Scrap to see the sketch and the beautiful cards from the rest of the design team. 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!

LM #630 - 2022 Favorites - Shape Challenge

Hello, hello! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend. Scott and I are still catching up on rest after having Miss Ada over. Our sleepovers are always jam-packed with fun and then we spend the next day or two "recovering" from it!

Today I am sharing a layout that I created for this week's Lasting Memories challenge. This week's challenge is a shape challenge and we are to feature one of the four shapes provided on our layout. The choices are triangles, hexagons, circles, or hearts. I chose hearts and this is what I came up with:

It seems like it has been ages since I created a traveler's notebook layout so I pulled out my 2018 Favorites of Ada notebook for this challenge. I started out my layout with a big heart that spans across both pages. It probably could have been a touch bigger but I didn't want it to overwhelm my photos, either. I also stamped a few hearts around my layout - so there are hearts aplenty!

I snapped these photos of Ada one morning back when she was not quite five. She had asked to use my stamps and she was so good with them! She listened to what I told her about cleaning them each time before changing colors, and she filled up a couple of papers with cute stamped images in no time at all. We spent many mornings at the kitchen table crafting and having fun together. Such great memories!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I found some crafty-related stickers in my stash and used what I could on this layout. I kept it pretty simple and I love how it turned out. 

I love this long title. I had originally planned on using a different font and color for the words heart and happy, but I didn't really care for it, so I opted to use all the same type.

I believe it is time to break down this traveler's notebook and add the pages to a life-crafted album! I started this notebook back in the day - before I knew how chunky these little guys can get.

It's not too terrible yet, but I know that there is no way that it is going to hold what I have left to do!

Be sure to stop by Lasting Memories to see the lovely layouts from the rest of the design team. It feels so good to finally get to play along again. Sometimes being the DT coordinator and making sure that everything is ready to go makes it hard for me to play along as much as I would like. I think I am going to make it a goal to play along more in the new year. 

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

Presents - Sketch N Scrap #263

Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! I hope your day is off to a good start and that it only gets better!

It's time for the mid-month sketch at Sketch N Scrap today! Here is the sketch that I created:

I had photos in mind when I created this sketch and then wound up not even using those photos, so you may be seeing this sketch again in the near future! Here is what I came up with:

I decided to use a few more photos from Ada's birthday last year for this sketch. This will be the left side page of a double-page spread. I just need to figure out if I want to do a traditional layout to go with it or if I want to make a pocket page for it. I guess that will all depend on which one works best with the photos that I have left. I'm thinking it will be a pocket page because I still have quite a few photos of her opening her presents. All the journaling about her birthday will be added to that layout. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I used my Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash kit for December for this layout. Everything came from my kit except the puffy dots. I don't have a ton of embellishments in my kit, so I used one of the papers to fussy cut a few presents out for my embellishments. I am pretty happy with what I have used in my kit so far. After the pocket page, I should have a double-page layout to finish up her birthday and then I can call her 8th birthday scrapped! I'm not sure if I'll get to it before the end of the month but it is definitely at the top of my to-do list.

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog to see how the rest of the design team took on the sketch. 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!

Heart's Quest Challenge Blog - Love Theme #10 - "Love" and a House

 Hello, everyone! Happy Wednesday to you! 

It is time for a new challenge at Heart's Quest Challenge Blog today. Today's Love Theme challenge is to use some form of the word "love" and to add a house to your project.  This is what I came up with:

I have been in Christmas card-making mode lately and thought this challenge would be perfect for a card. I already had these paper scraps out on my desk from the card that I posted yesterday and thought it was the perfect time to use them up instead of adding them to my scrap box. I love that house paper so much and I am so glad that I put it to use instead of hoarding it! I added a chipboard house and a sticker that says "peace love joy" on it to satisfy that part of the challenge.

Be sure to check out the Heart's Quest Challenge Blog to see the other lovely creations from the design team. The deadline for this challenge is December 27th at 12:30 AM CST. Remember - all forms of paper crafting are accepted - scrapbook layouts, traveler's notebook layouts, bookmarks, tags, cards, ATCs, etc.

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

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #231

Hello, hello! Happy Tuesday to you! I hope that you are having a good week.  We are counting down the days until Scott is on vacation for the holidays. We have no big plans - just finishing up some Christmas shopping - and of course, there will be a couple of sleepovers with Miss Ada. She already has this weekend all planned out for us. I can't think of a better way to kick off the Christmas vacation!

Today I am sharing the card that I created for Sketch N Scrap's Card Sketch #231. Here is a look at the sketch:

This was such a fun sketch to work with! I used the Simple Stories' Holly Days collection that I had pulled at the first of the month. I am so happy to be showing it some love this year! I used papers from the 6x8 paper pad and one of the tags from the 12x12 tag paper that I cut down a bit to make it fit better for the focal point of my card. I wrapped some twine around the tag and tied a bow in place of the paper strip and embellishment. That all made this card come together so quickly!

I hope you can find some time to play along with us this month!  I would love to see your take on the sketch, too!

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

Happy Birthday - Sketch N Scrap #262

 Hello, hello! Happy Friday to you! We have made it to the weekend and I am ready for it! Ada turned 9 on Wednesday and we will be celebrating her birthday tomorrow. I cannot believe that she is already 9! These last 9 years have gone by so fast and she is growing up to be such a beautiful, funny, sweet, and sassy girl! She is always so much fun and always puts a smile on my face.

Before I get all of those photos of her birthday tomorrow, I thought it would be a good idea to get her 8th birthday photos scrapped. I have only made one layout from last year's pictures and I know I would like to make a couple more to get last year's party documented. Today I am sharing the first of those layouts and I used the December 1st sketch from Sketch N Scrap to get it done! Here is a look at the sketch:

For my layout, I have used my Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash Kit for December. I even managed to use the stamp set that I included in my kit on this layout! I kept pretty close to the sketch - only changing up the placement of my title. I love the big blocks of paper on the sketch and I will be using this sketch again soon. 

These photos are of Ada with her cake. She chose an ice cream cake and it was delicious! I have a few more cake photos so I may turn this layout into a double-page layout.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I stamped the hip, hip, hooray circle and the 'let's celebrate' phrase with the stamp set that I included in my kit. I made good use of the sticker sheet and added quite a few stickers around my layout. I even remembered to pull out that green striped washi tape and add it to my cluster areas. 

The cake sticker was on the sticker sheet and was part of a tag with a sentiment. I thought it would fit perfectly in this cluster, so I  fussy cut it out and I love how it all fits together. 

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog to see the sketch and for more inspiration from the design team using this sketch.

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

Christmas/December Daily Kit

Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day - this time sharing the Christmas/December Daily kit that I plan to use this month. 

Every year when November and December roll around I get caught up in all the excitement of planning for December Daily and scrapping holiday photos. Then, the busyness of the season takes hold and I don't get a single thing accomplished in December. This year I have gathered up my December Daily goodies that I have been hoarding for the past few years and a couple of Simple Stories collection kits that I had to have last year and never even touched, and I have them all ready to go for December. I am going to make a point to do something scrappy-related every night when I am watching a Christmas movie throughout the month and see if I can at least put a dent in some of this stash!

I am not going to go through everything because that would be a lot and take forever - so here is a look at the two Simple Stories collections - Holly Day and Make it Merry:

I loved both of these collections - so much so that I have not just one of each of these collections - no, one of each was not enough, I have two of each of these collections, and then I have the foam titles, chipboard stickers, puffy stickers, journaling bits, ephemera packs, brads, the sticker books, 6x8 paper pads, washi tape, and the enamel dots. Pretty much everything in the collection and I haven't even touched it!

Here is a look at most of my December Daily goodies from the last few years - most of it not even opened:

I really hope that I can get a few of these goodies into an album this year. Now I just need to figure out if I am going to work on my 2022 December Daily, Ada's Elf on a Shelf/advent calendar album for this year, try to work on both at the same time, or if I want to try to work on one of the past two years of  Ada's Elf on a Shelf/advent calendar album.

I have also pulled all of my Elle's Studio, Studio Calico, Ali Edwards, Everyday Explorers, and Feed Your Craft Christmas stamps and put them in this basket so they are all ready to go:

I have (almost) all of my December Daily items in these two baskets:

I'm thinking I may need to clean out one of my three-tiered carts to hold all of these things until I am over scrapping Christmas...for now they will live on my shelves!

I hope I can keep the excitement for this project going all month long! At the very least, I hope I can get good progress made on these albums.

That's it for today! I need to get busy around here! Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great day!

Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash - December Kit

Hello, everyone! Happy December 1st to each of you! I can't believe that we are already at the end of another year of creating stash bash kits. I have been pretty successful with a few of my kits and the others - not so much - but it is always great to make an effort to use up my stash each month!

Before I get to my December kit I want to give an update on my November kit. I am so happy to say that the only full sheets of paper that I have left are the tag paper and the journaling box paper! Everything else was cut into and I don't even have too many scraps left over. I still have a couple of double-page layouts that I would like to make from our zoo trip so it looks like I may need to pull out the rest of the papers from that collection or dive into my stash to see what will go with it. 

I also want to thank Brandi for playing along with us last month! I loved seeing the beautiful layouts that she made using her kit.

 For those who may not know about the challenge -  here is how Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash works:

On the 1st of each month, we will post a challenge prompt and the stash kit we have created using that prompt. During the month we will try to use as much of our stash kit as possible on different projects. Then, on the last day of the month (or in my case on the first of the next month!), we will do a recap post showing what stash we were able to bash!

This will be a just-for-fun challenge so there is no monthly prize - but isn't the real prize using up our stash?  We hope you will join us in our quest to bash our stash! If you play along - link up on either my blog or Lisa's blog (or both if you choose) so that we can see who is joining us each month!

Now, on to December's kit. I had such a hard time deciding what to pull for my kit this month. I really want to work on Christmas stuff - past December Daily albums for Ada (I'm two years behind there and year three for them started yesterday) and I really want to try and do another December Daily for us this year, too...but trying to whittle down all of those supplies just wasn't happening for me for this challenge. So, I decided to pull papers for Ada's 8th Birthday photos from last year. She turned 9 yesterday - I don't know how she can already be 9! - and we are having her birthday party on Saturday, so more birthday photos will be taken and more birthday layouts will need to be made! I would like to get her 8th birthday photos all scrapped and in the books before I need to start on her 9th birthday photos!

Here is the recipe for December:

Our focus item for this month is stamps - which makes me happy! Hopefully, I will get a stamp or two used this month!

Here is my Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash Kit for December:

My kit mostly consists of Echo Park's Happy Birthday collection but there are a couple of papers -  the light blue paper and the yellow paper - that are from Echo Park's Let's Be Mermaid collection. The theme for Ada's party last year was Spongebob so the decorations were mostly all blue and yellow - with a touch of green and orange. The colors in this collection are pretty much perfect!

Here is a close-up of the papers:

I added in a couple of pieces of navy cardstock and white cardstock because I plan on making a single-page layout and at least one - maybe two - double-page layouts to finish out her birthday photos.

Here is a look at the embellishments:

For the embellishments, I have the sticker sheet from the collection, wood veneer birthday words, some washi tape, and a birthday stamp. I may pull other stamp sets once I get to work on the layouts, but this stamp set has yet to be inked up, so I am giving it a shot first.

Here are the scraps that I pulled:

I didn't have many scraps in the colors that I needed but I did pull what I could. I would love it if I didn't have to put these back into my scrap bins at the end of December!

I can't wait to get started using my kit and getting Ada's 8th birthday photos scrapped!

Head on over to 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 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, and link it below.

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

 

Stay tuned because I will be posting my Christmas kit a little later today. I have no intention of using all of it up - that would be impossible - but I would like to go over my plans for it at least, and see just what I can do with it!

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

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