Sketch N Scrap's 14th Birthday Bash Sketch #2

Hello, everyone! Happy Saturday to you! I hope you've had a good week and your weekend is off to a good start.

It's Sketch N Scrap's 14th birthday, and they are celebrating all month long with a new sketch every Saturday. Lisa asked if I would like to play along with one of their sketches as a guest, and of course, I said yes!

Here is a look at the sketch:

And my layout:

This layout is of Miss Ada at the mall waiting for her yummy Boba. I think somewhere there is a rule that you must have a Boba when you go shopping, and if not, there should be!

I used my May kit for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash for this layout.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I "roughed up" all of the edges of the pattern paper with my fingernail. It gives just the right amount of dimension to the papers, and I love the cute little puffy boba cups!

I die-cut my title with a metal die set from Lawn Fawn. It was the perfect size to fill in the blank on the "is always a good idea" stamp.

Another stamp used on this layout! It always makes me happy when I can use some of my neglected supplies!

Be sure to check out Sketch N Scrap all month long for fun sketches and inspiration!

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

Ada's Favorite - Sketch N Scrap #323

 Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! I hope you are having a good week so far. 

Today, I am sharing my take on the December 1st sketch at Sketch N Scrap. Lisa has created a super fun two-photo sketch for us to work with. Here's a look at the sketch:

And here is my layout:

I am still chugging away at my 2023 December Daily album, and I am so happy to be getting these stories done!

For this layout, I have used my December kit for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash. I really wanted to use that ornament paper, and when I saw I hadn't told the story of Ada's favorite ornament of 2023, I knew that's what I would be using it for. 

Since I'm working in a 6x8 album, I moved the embellishment clusters around.  If I had kept them as they appeared on the sketch, they would have looked like they were stacked on top of each other. I could have scaled down the circles, but I needed the bigger size to fit the ornament embellishment and the title.

Ada had a new favorite ornament in 2023! The little white reindeer won her over, and she declared it her favorite. I love looking back at what her favorites have been each year. 

Here are a few close-ups:

I loved this ornament die-cut and added a gold metallic thread bow to finish it off!

I actually stamped my title for this layout! I have so many stamps, and I always love it when I pull one out to use!

After I added the black ink to the title, I felt like I needed to add a little more black around my layout, so I stamped a few more phrases around my layout.

The accompanying pocket page will have my favorite ornaments and the stories for both pages.

If you haven't checked out the new sketch at Sketch N Scrap this month, head on over and check it out. I would love it if you played along!

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

Sketch N Scrap's Crop Challenge #3 - Who Knew?

Hello, hello! Happy Sunday to you! I hope you are having a good weekend. The sun is out and shining brightly this morning, and it is looking like it's going to be a beautiful day.

Today, I am sharing the layout I created for Sketch N Scrap's June Crop Challenge #3. These challenges are posted in the SNS Monthly Challenges private Facebook group, and the deadline to enter is June 30th at midnight CST.

Crop Challenge #3 is our small-format sketch challenge with a twist. The twist for this challenge is to use a patterned paper for your background. Your layout does not have to be a small-format layout; it can be any size you would like.

Here is a look at the sketch:

And my layout:

For this layout, I used the oddball extra layout kit that I added to my June kit for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash. I didn't have any embellishments for this kit, so I made good use of the patterned paper and fussy cut some of the plants out of it.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I fussy cut one of the plants from the patterned paper and added it to a punched-out circle. I found the "Do your thing" phrase on a stamp set I had on my desk, and thought it was perfect for encouraging my plants to grow!

Another fussy cut plant and enamel dots for this cluster.

I added my journaling to the tag that sits behind one of the paper layers. Ideally, it would have gone behind the photos, but I had too much to say about my plants, and the tag would have been too long for that area. Plus, I didn't want to cover up any more of that plant paper than I had to!

This layout is about - who knew I would become a plant person? My track record with keeping plants alive is not the greatest, but I am giving it a try after seeing Abby's beautiful plants. I love how much they brighten up a room, and they are sure to bring me a smile any time I look at them. Here's hoping they continue to grow and do well!

Be sure to check out all of this month's crop challenges at SNS Monthly Challenges on Facebook. We would love to see your take on the challenges, as well!

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

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! 

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!

Autumn Is In The Air - Sketch N Scrap #309

 Hello, everyone! Happy Tuesday to you! I hope your week is off to a good start. 

Today I am sharing the layout I made for Sketch N Scrap's November 15th challenge. Here is a look at the sketch:

And my layout:

For this layout, I have used my November kit for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash. The papers are from Imaginisce and they are from 2015! I only have the papers from this collection - no stickers or die-cuts, so I had to really dig into my supplies for my embellishments.

I kept my photos 4x6 instead of cropping them to 4x4 because I didn't want to cut out any of our pretty trees. I took these photos of Abby and Ada earlier this fall and it's a good thing we took them when we did because a few days later almost all of the leaves in these trees were gone!

Here are a few close-ups:

I fussy cut the title piece from a cut-apart card I happened to come across while reorganizing my scrap room closet. I'm pretty sure it was in one of my stash bash kits from last year that I never broke down and put back into my stash. I felt like it needed a little something besides just the the title, so I added in a leaf wood piece. 

This bottomo cluster is full of wood pieces! Thank goodness they are all relatively thin pieces! I love all of the different types of wood pieces and I think this may be my favorite cluster in a while!

I had so much fun digging into my stash looking for embellishments to go on my layout. It's always quick and easy when you have everything you need from a collection, but sometimes it's good to dig back into your stash and find some of the treasures you might have forgotten about!

Be sure to check out Sketch N Scrap for more inspiration for this month's sketches.

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

Sketch N Scrap #304 - Yes, Please!

 Hello, everyone! Happy Wednesday to you! I hope you are having a good week. Thanks to the long holiday weekend, I can't keep track of what day we are on!

Today I am sharing my take on the September 1st sketch at Sketch N Scrap. Here's a look at the fun sketch that Lisa created for us to use:

And here is my layout:

I used my September kit for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash for this layout. I think the donut paper is from an old Dear Lizzy paper pad, but I am not certain, and it was perfect for these photos of Abby and Ada's trip to Hurts Donut Co. I pulled four papers for this layout and only have a few scraps left. I also used quite a few of the embellishments that I had pulled with this layout in mind. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I had planned on adding a couple of tags for hidden journaling like is shown on the sketch, but when I tried that huge donut die-cut in that area, it was a perfect fit. I just moved my journaling over to the side of the cluster. I could have added my journaling to the bottom of the page, but it got lost amongst the busy patterned paper. 

I love how this bottom cluster turned out! Just a couple of donut stickers, a word phrase sticker, a chipboard heart, and enamel dots leading into the title. I love that the right photo shows the wall that says, "Wanna Hurts Donut?" The title is the answer to that question!

Be sure to stop by Sketch N Scrap for more inspiration using this 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!

Ready For An Adventure - Sketch N Scrap #302

 Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend. It has been another busy weekend around here with celebrating Scott's birthday and later today I will be helping Abby get her classroom all ready for the new school year. It's hard to believe it is almost time for school to start!

Today I am sharing my take on the August 1st sketch at Sketch N Scrap. Here is a look at the sketch:

I had a lot of fun working with this sketch. I used my Lisa & Lori's Great Stash kit for this layout. I had minimal embellishments in the page kit for this layout, but I made what I had work and I love the end result! 

These photos are of a road trip that we took earlier this summer. It was the first road trip we had taken in years that the whole family was able to go. I do have a longer story to tell about it, so I added the photo on the right onto a card base that can be opened up to read the story.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

The "adventure" piece and the alphas were in the sticker book I had in my kit. I added the alphas onto some foam tape to add some dimension. Before I added them to my layout, I put down a strip of thin washi tape to help ground them - and to actually use the focus of this month's kit!

I needed something a little bigger than what I had in my kit for the above embellishment cluster, so I pulled out one of my stamps and made my own. The stamped piece paired with stickers and wood veneer makes for a nice cluster piece. 

I added phrase stickers to one of the photos and then added a cluster of labels with just the facts! I was happy that I had added the wood veneer to my kit. It was the perfect little extra to add around my layout. 

This is all of the paper scraps that I have left:

The paper with the geotags has 4x4 cut-apart cards on the back. One of the 4x4 squares has labels that I will fussy cut and one is a "Top 5" journaling card. I will be able to use those easily. The yellow piece and whatever is left of the geotag paper will go into my scraps bin. I think that is a win and I can call this page kit killed!

Be sure to check out Sketch N Scrap for more inspiration for this sketch. I hope you have some time to play along with us. I would love to see what you create!

Besties - Sketch N Scrap #299

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

Today I am sharing the layout  I made using the June 15th sketch from Sketch N Scrap and my Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash kit for June. Here is a look at the sketch:

And here is my layout:

For this layout, I pulled papers - and a few scraps - from my June kit for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash. I knew I wanted to use the paper with all of the fun words on it for these photos of Ada and her bestie on their first sleepover. I pulled papers that matched the colors in the text paper and went to work. 

My kit didn't include many flowers, so I raided my die-cut stash and found a few that would work. This layout came together so quickly and I love the end result!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

When I was looking for the flowers, I came across the paperclips and thought they were perfect for this layout and they tucked in nicely in each of the clusters. 

For the title, I cut the letters from each of the patterned papers to mimic the words in the text paper. I then added foam tape for a bit of dimension.

Be sure to stop by Sketch N Scrap for more inspiration. I hope you have a chance to play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have an awesome day!

Sketch N Scrap's Birthday Bash Sketch #3

Hello, hello! Happy Saturday to you! We have made it to the weekend - and it's the long holiday weekend, too!  We have a few little projects around the house that we will be working on this weekend - as long as the rain holds off.

Today I am sharing the layout I made for Sketch N Scrap's 3rd - and final -  exclusive Birthday Bash sketch. Here is a look at the sketch, created by me:

And here is my layout:

I have had these photos of Shane lying around for 20+ years and I thought it was about time I got this story told! We were at the Christmas parade, it was a beautiful day, there were tons of people out for the parade, and lots of candy was being thrown from the floats. We had given Shane a couple of pieces of candy throughout the parade, so we didn't think anything of it when we went to leave and he had a mouthful of something that he was chewing on. When we looked closer we saw he had a big wad of bubblegum in his mouth and he was enjoying it immensely! He was only three at the time and tended to swallow gum if we gave it to him, so he rarely had it. Where he got the bubblegum is a mystery. We don't know if he found a piece that was thrown into the crowd and unwrapped it himself, or if the unthinkable happened and he found a piece of chewed gum on the ground and took it for himself. We really hope that that was not the case! Regardless, we made him spit the gum out before he could swallow it. He keeps us on our toes - and still does 20+ years later!

I pulled out the little bit of Simple Stories' So Rad collection from 2015 that I had left. The background paper with all of the stars was the only full sheet of paper from that collection I had left. I still have a few of the cut-apart pieces that I will hang onto for future boy layouts, but other than that and a few stickers, this collection is done!

Here are a few close-ups:

I always find it a bit of a challenge to embellish layouts like this one - a general "boys will be boys" type layout. Other than stars, there's not much to go by, so I did a lot of fussy cutting and punching out the circles for this layout. 

This is the only area of the sketch that I strayed from. I knew I had a lot to say, so I moved my journaling down to the bottom left corner and added embellishments - or words in this case - to the area where the journaling was to go. 

I fussy cut the camera from one of the papers and the "Dude" word, too. I really wanted an exclamation point after it because we were definitely saying "DUDE! What are you chewing?!" so I found a white exclamation point in one of my alphabet sticker books. I think it adds a little interest.

The background paper is pretty busy, which is another reason I kept my embellishing to just a few stars and circles. 

Be sure to check out the Sketch N Scrap blog and the Sketch N Scrap Facebook page for more inspiration all month long!

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

Summer Vibes - Sketch N Scrap's May Challenge #1

Hello, hello! Happy Thursday to you! I hope that you are having a good day. 

 If you haven't heard - Sketch N Scrap is turning 12 this month and we are celebrating all month long. Every Tuesday and Thursday of the month, the design team will be providing a challenge for you to try over in our private Facebook group, and today is the first one! I was tasked with the first challenge. My challenge to you is to use the following sketch to create your layout - AND - you must add at least one heart to your layout. Here is the sketch that I chose:

This sketch is from May 2018 and it is one of my favorites! Here is my layout:

For this layout, I have used photos of Miss Ada when they went to Florida a couple of years ago and my Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash kit for May. The colors in my kit were a good match to the colors in Ada's swimsuit. I didn't have any beachy-themed items in my kit, but I didn't worry about that and I just used what I did have in my kit that would work. These pictures will be documented elsewhere and I can use all the beach things then.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I am so glad that our focus item this month for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash was flowers, and I am so glad that I found these paper flowers from Close To My Heart in my stash. I probably would have never thought to use flowers on this layout otherwise. I thought the yellow flowers were giving out a sunshine vibe.

My challenge was to use at least one heart on your layout and I added a few stamped hearts around my layout. The heart stamp is from the Simple Stories Life Captured stamp set. It's always scary to stamp directly on your layout, and I did have a little oopsie, but I just added a couple more flowers to cover it up!

For part of my title, I used the alpha stickers that I had in my kit. I wanted to use different font styles for the two words so I dug in my stash and found the perfect smaller black alphas. It always feels good to show some of those older supplies some love.

Head on over to the Sketch N Scrap Monthly Challenges group on Facebook to check out all of the fun that is going on this month.

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