Sketch N Scrap's 13th Birthday Bash Sketch #4

Hello, everyone! Happy Saturday to you! I hope your weekend is off to a good start! We are supposed to have sunshine and temps in the 70s today, and I am so ready for it! 

Today is the last Saturday in May, and that means Sketch N Scrap has one final 13th Birthday Bash Sketch for you to try. Here is a look at the fun sketch Lisa has created for us to use:

And this is what I came up with:

My good friend, Willa, came to see me at the beginning of May! We met each other on the Inspired to Scrap message board 10+ years ago and became (online) friends right away. She is so good to check in on me from time to time and to lend an ear when I need someone to talk to. I am so grateful that their vacation brought them close enough for a visit. She and Barry are the sweetest people you will ever meet, and our visit went by too quickly! I hope we can make it happen again someday!

For this layout, I have used Cocoa Vanilla's - These Days - papers and embellishments, and the yellow paper is from Die Cuts With a View. Here are a couple of close-ups:

For the title area, I backed one of the die-cuts with vellum so the puffy alpha stickers would stand out a little more than just on the patterned paper. I fussy cut a few flowers, added a butterfly die-cut, a few enamel dots, and a phrase sticker to complete that cluster area.

I repeated the same thing - fussy cut flowers, a butterfly die-cut, enamel dots, and phrase stickers for the bottom cluster. I love how this layout turned out!

Be sure to stop by Sketch N Scrap to see all of this month's sketches. There were a lot this month! There is a $25 gift certificate to an online store of choice for one lucky random participant! All you need to do is play along with any of our sketches this month and add them either to the Sketch N Scrap Blog or in the private Facebook group here. You'd better hurry - the deadline to enter the blog challenges is 9:55 PM CST tonight, May 31st, and midnight tonight CST for the Facebook group. 

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

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #285

Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! I hope you have had a good week and that you are ready for the weekend. We are (finally) supposed to have a sunny, warm weekend. We've had unseasonably cool weather for the end of May. As I type this, we are sitting at 58 degrees with a high for today around 65, and we have another chance for rain. I am just ready for a few days filled with lots of sunshine and warmer temps!

Today I am sharing the card I made using Sketch N Scrap's May 5th card sketch.  Here is a look at the fun sketch:

It feels like it's been forever since I made a card! This sketch was perfect for getting back to it. Everything came together so easily!

This card was made completely out of scraps. I pulled out my Cocoa Vanilla These Days collection pack, and these scraps were all in with it, and almost all were the perfect size already! I just needed to cut the yellow piece down to size. The floral piece and the woodgrain piece were just the right size. I love it when I can use up scraps and not leave any more behind!

The flower was fussy cut from another one of the patterned paper scraps, and the sentiment was stamped from an older Close To My Heart stamp set.

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog to see all of the fun sketches that were posted this month. I hope you've had a chance to play along!

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

You & Me - Sketch N Scrap's 13th Birthday Bash Sketch #2

Hello, everyone! Happy Wednesday to you! I hope you are having a good week. Ada and Abby are excited because tomorrow is the last day of school, and it's a half day! Bring on summer vacation! Now, if we could only get the weather to cooperate! Upper 60s and low 70s are nice, but I am ready for a little warmer weather.

Today, I am sharing my take on Sketch N Scrap's 13th Birthday Bash Sketch #2. Here is a look at the fun sketch Lisa created for us to use:

I love this sketch! The three wide strips across the page are perfect for your favorite papers! Here is a look at the layout I created:

For this layout, I have used another one of my layout kits that I made for this month's Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash Kit challenge. One of the papers in the kit was perfect for the top paper strip where the title was to go. I love it when titles are easy!

These photos are of Abby and Ada on one of our girls' days. I love the photo of the two of them walking hand in hand. Lots of feels with this layout - which will all be in the journaling, either hidden or written on paper and put in with it. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I've been trying to use my stamps more on my layouts. I figure the more I use them, the easier it will get! The stamping isn't perfect, but nothing I can't live with. 

Be sure to check out all of the challenges this month at Sketch N Scrap. I would love to see you playing along with us!

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

Chillin' With You - Sketch N Scrap May 15th Throwback Sketch Challenge

Hello, hello! Happy Thursday to you! I hope you are having a good week. It is starting to feel a little more like summertime with temps in the upper 70s and 80s, and I couldn't be happier! 

It's the middle of the month, and that means it is time for Sketch N Scrap's mid-month throwback sketch challenge. Here is a look at the sketches we have to choose from:

I chose throwback sketch #106 for my layout:

Guys! Guess what?! I have used almost every bit of this boy-themed layout kit from my Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash kit for this month, and I made two 12x12 layouts with it! The only thing that is left is scraps and the sticker sheet. I am so happy to get it all used.

This photo is of me and Shane from back in 2016 when he actually liked taking photos! It's so funny because he loves to look at pictures when I have them out - especially pictures with him in them, but for the last few years, when the camera comes out, he hollers "Not yet!" and runs the other direction! Nowadays, I have to get pretty creative to get him in a photo - and he's usually not looking at the camera! #becauseautism

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I smooshed some ink around on the white cardstock and then added some stamped stars around the layout. I found vellum stars in my stash, which were the perfect colors. I sprinkled them around the stamped star clusters. I added some wood veneer pieces and finished it all off with a few phrase stickers. 

Head on over to the Sketch N Scrap blog for more inspiration all month long. I hope you find some time to play along!

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

Cousins - Sketch N Scrap's 13th Bday's Bash Sketch #1

Hello, everyone! Happy Saturday to you! I hope your weekend is off to a good start. It's looking like it's going to be a beautiful one here in SW Missouri. I think we will be spending lots of time outside enjoying it!

We are celebrating Sketch N Scrap's 13th birthday with a new sketch every Saturday in May, and since last week was iNSD, that means today is the first of four new birthday bash sketches.

Here is a look at the sketch:

And this is what I came up with:

This is my second layout for Sketch N Scrap this month, and the second layout that is a "then and now" type of layout! I didn't intend for it to be that way; those were just the photos that were speaking to me.

This layout is about the special bond Shane has with his cousin, JT. JT has always looked past Shane's autism to see Shane for who he is. Shane has always gravitated towards JT because of that. He has never been afraid to rough-house and play with Shane. Even though Shane has a hard time communicating, JT seems to understand what he needs. I wish more people could see Shane like JT does. It is definitely a special bond.

The photo on the left was taken in 2008, and the one on the right was taken on Easter this year. It had been a long time since Shane had seen JT, and before we left Shane walked up to JT, ready for a big bear hug and a bit of rough-housing. 

I will add some hidden journaling talking about the special bond these two have behind the photos or one of the paper layers.

I used one of the layout kits that I put together for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash this month. I'm pretty sure I cut into every paper in the kit, used some of the stickers, and the metal star dies that were in my kit. There's not much to put back in my stash, and that makes me so happy!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I printed off the "a special bond" phrase on a piece of vellum on the computer and layered it over the alpha stickers.

Lots of stars on this layout, but JT is definitely a star in our book!

Be sure to check out Sketch N Scrap for inspiration all month long.

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

Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash May Kit Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy May 1st to you! My goodness, this year is going by fast! 

It's time for a new Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash kit challenge! If you don't know what this challenge is all about, here's how it 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. 

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

May is going to be super busy, scrappy-wise, with iNSD and Sketch N Scrap's 13th Birthday celebration, so my kit for this month is full of layout kits to help me get lots of scrapping done!

Here is a look at the May recipe:

To create your kit, pull 10 papers, 3-4 embellishments, 5-7 scrap papers, and for May, our focus item is flowers.

Instead of one big coordinating kit, I have made not one, not two, not three, but four layout kits! And I made sure to shop some of my older stash to get it used this month!

Here is layout kit #1:

This kit consists of Cocoa Vailla's No Limits collection. This is all that I have left of this collection, and I would love to use it up this month! I don't have many coordinating embellishments, so I have pulled some star dies, star stamps, and a sheet of puffy stickers. There are a couple of stickers on there that I think I can use for the layout I have in mind.

Here is layout kit #2:

This kit is made up of a few different collections. The dandelion paper came from a "Best Of" paper pad that I picked up from Dollar General a couple of years ago. I'm not sure what collection it is originally from, but this paper pad had a variety of older American Crafts collections in it. The yellow stripe and navy and light blue paper are from an older Pink Paislee collection, and the tone-on-tone navy is from One Canoe Two's Goldenrod collection. The green is from my scrap pile. No embellishments to go along with these papers, so I pulled out a couple of stamp sets. I know I will need more, but this will get me started!

Here is layout kit #3:

The purple papers in this kit came from another one of those paper pads from Dollar General, and all of the black and white papers came from a Die Cuts With a View paper pad. I pulled some flowers - our focus item this month - a couple of stamp sets and metal dies for the embellishments. I am going to have to get creative this month!

Here is layout kit #4:

This kit has two papers from Fancy Pants' The Bright Side collection, a paper from Jillibean Soup, one from The Paper Studio, and a piece of cardstock. I did add in a couple of scraps I had on my desk from last month. More metal dies and a floral stamp for embellishments.

Here is a photo of all of the stamp sets and metal dies I have pulled to help me out this month. The stamp sets are all from Close To My Heart and have good phrase stamps, icon stamps, and stamps that will go on just about any layout.

I am also keeping these boxes of random goodness out with my kit: 

I am sure I will find some things that will work with the layouts I plan on making this month!

I already have photos and sketches picked out for these kits and am ready to have some scrappy fun this month. If I need more scrappy kits, I will pull in some of my past Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash kits that I haven't broken down and put back in my stash.

Be sure to head on over to Lisa's blog - My Creative Endeavors - to see the fabulous kit she has put together.

Remember - 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 #lisaandlorisgreatstashbash2025

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

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