Hello!

So, once again it's been awhile since I blogged. This little sweetie has been keeping me busy!

 

I am watching sweet little Ada when her Mommy goes to work. It has cut into my scrappy time - but I don't mind at all. She's just giving me more photos to work with when I do have the time!

I have once again joined in the 52 week layout and card challenges over at Scrappin' -N- Chattin' this year. So, I should get at least one layout and one card done a week. We are already on week #4 and I have learned to make the most of my scrappy time on the weekend in order to get these done.

The prompt for the card challenge this week was to make a birthday card. We have lots of birthdays coming up in February and now I have this card made for my aunt when her birthday rolls around on the 15th.

supplies used - Patterned papers - My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary Jack and Jill 6x6 pad, stamp set - Close To My Heart B1417 Perfect Fit Birthday, ink- Close To My Heart - Juniper, 1 1/4" circle punch - McGill.

I came across this blog post yesterday using this sketch from an older Freshly Made Sketches challenge, and I thought it would make a quick and easy birthday card.

I love how quickly it came together and I know I will be using the sketch again! I am also linking this up to The Memory Nest's Crafty Creations link up.

For my layout this week I made a layout of Ada. Abby and I had taken some photos of her on Dec. 30. I can't believe how fast that first month went - and in just a few short days, she'll be 2 months old! She changes so much every single day.

supplies used - Patterned Paper - Doodlebug, Silver Stardust paper - Making Memories, bling - The Paper Studio, Word strip - Elle's studio, Alphas - "simply" - Close To My Heart B1416 Keyboard Upper, "Sweet" Close To My Heart - Houndstooth  Irresistibles, doily.

Deb, over at Inspired To Scrap has a fun challenge this month called One Page, One Pic Wonders and I decided to play along. Her challenge was to use a 12x12 paper for the background, a 10.5x10.5 paper to layer on top of that, 3 - 3.5x3.5 squares, and one photo - any size. For the first time in a long time I did not use a sketch. It took some playing around with the squares, but I like the end result.

Once again this year I am using up my stash. I'm not on a complete spending freeze, but I'm not buying a lot until I get some of what I have used up. I have had that solid and plaid paper for at least 10 years and the dots and stripes since 2005. Yikes! It is time to get it used up!

I am also going to try my hand at Project Life this year. It's a little intimidating, but I know once I get started it won't be so bad. I have a planner and so far am keeping up with writing down everything, and I have the photos I want to use printed for these first 4 weeks. I just have to make the time to get it done! Hopefully I will soon have some Project Life spreads to share with you. Ada helps to make things a little more exciting around here!

That's all for now - thanks for stopping by!

Gotta Love The View From Here

supplies -  Patterned Papers - Echo Park, Cardstock - Close To My Heart, Alpha stickers - EK Success, Alpha stamps - B1416 Keyboard Upper, Close To My Heart, Journal lines stamp - Paper Smooches, Best Day Ever and Enjoy the ride Stamps - CC1020 Close To My Heart, Enamel dots - My Mind's Eye, Wood Arrows - Close To My Heart.

You would think, with me being a scrapper and all, that I would have dates/places, etc. on the back of my photos, but no, a lot of my earlier photos have nothing. Nada. Zilch. So then it's a guessing game of when and where. At least now with digital I have them dated on the computer.
Anyways, here is a layout of Shane - I'm thinking he's about two and half in this photo, so summer of 2002, and I think we are at the zoo...but I'm not 100% certain. But that's not the reason I scrapped this photo. I just loved this photo of Shane on top of his Daddy's shoulders. When he was little he was not a fan of walking long distances, so this is where he usually wound up - just chillin', not a care in the world. And after we measured him today, some 11 years later, and he is now taller than his Daddy - well it's just fun to remember him being so little!

I used this sketch from Scrappy Sketches.

I fell in love with the sketch the second I saw it and when I started looking for photos this one just popped out at me. It was the perfect picture for this sketch. I also dug into some of the super cute Scoot papers from Echo Park. I absolutely love their stuff!

Hopefully I have learned my lesson and will remember to at least date and give a brief description about where we are/what we are doing on my pictures when I get them printed.

Hello?

As promised, the challenges for the So You Think You Can Scrap challenge over at Colorful Creations are getting harder each week - at least for me! This week we were to use this sketch, we had to have tearing, distressing, and a recycled item on our layout.

I struggled with what to use for my recycled item - that was definitely the hardest part for me this time. I found these old pictures of Shane in a pile on my desk and it finally clicked that I could use the page out of an old phone book for my recycled item. Once again these are old photos - I think from 2004 - I'll have to check and make sure. I can barely remember Shane being this little! To see him standing on that stool and to know that now he is almost 6 feet tall and towering over me...Wow!

supplies used: Patterned Paper - Echo Park, Jillibean Soup, Provo Craft, Cardstock - Bazzill, stamps - B1416 Keyboard Uppercase, grid stamp - Studio Calico, Alpha stickers - Doodlebug Simply Sweet, tab - Quickutz, Speech bubbles - Cricut George cartridge

The colors match a lot better in real life - not sure why they are looking so off in this photo!
I distressed the edges of my circle with my edge distresser, tore one side of the yellow paper (you can barely see it) and the light blue paper at the bottom, then used the page from the phone book on the circle underneath the title and on the speech bubbles. I was so excited to use my new alpha stamps from Close To My Heart on this page. I love those little square letters, and to know that I can make them whatever color I want is heaven!  I'm sure you'll be seeing them on more pages! I added a little potty person boy to the speech bubble at the top - just because I like him! This is one of my favorite layouts - mostly because of the photos and I am happy to say that it was a featured layout in the gallery at Colorful Creations!