Growing Up Gamers - Scrap Our Stash Sept. Pick Your Side Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Saturday to you! We have made it to the weekend and we are waiting for Miss Ada to come over for a visit. Now that she is in school we jump at the chance to keep her when her Mom and Dad have things to do!

It's time for the Scrap Our Stash - Pick Your Side Sketch Challenge Designer Inspiration Part 2. Here is the sketch that we had to pick a side from and the added challenge this month is to use banners/pennants on your layout:

I chose the right-hand side of the sketch but I rotated the sketch a half turn and used two landscape photos:

These photos are from 2001. I have really been enjoying going back through old photos that I never got around to scrapping at the time and scrapping them now. Looking back at them now the story - or perspective - is so different than what it would have been if I had scrapped them at the time.

This was a nightly occurrence in our house - the boys "playing" video games with their Dad. I think Matthew may have actually been playing with Scott, but Shane was just happy to hold onto the controller (the cord of the controller looked like it was plugged in, but it wasn't). I know this is where the boys' love of video games started and I love that we now have this memory documented. 

I have used my September Counterfeit Kit to create this layout. I am so happy that I included these older Echo Park papers in my kit - they were perfect for these photos!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Be sure to stop by Scrap Our Stash to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge. I hope you have a chance to play along with us this month!

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

Selfies With Pops - Sketch N Scrap #185

Hello, hello! Happy Sunday to you! Can you believe it is already the middle of September?! The holidays will be here before we know it!

The middle of the month means it's time for a new sketch at Sketch N Scrap. Heather has created a fun sketch for us to work with:

Last Friday was Grandparent's Day at Ada's school. Our situation with Shane being what it is and someone needing to be with him at all times, we knew only Pops or I would be able to go and the other would need to stay with Shane. We gave Ada her choice and it was no surprise that she wanted Pops to be the one to come! Scott promised he would take lots of photos that afternoon, and guys did he deliver! He took so many good photos for me - I felt like I was there! The photos on this layout are two of my favorites:

The first selfie that they took they were all smiles and Ada said it looked silly, so Pops said they would make a grumpy face and she thought that was pretty funny! I think that both photos are adorable!

For my layout, I veered a little way away from the sketch. I completely ignored the circles and size of the photos, but I do think you can see the sketch!

Everything on this layout came from my September Counterfeit Kit except the ribbon, puffy hearts, and the small black letter stickers. The background paper with all the little text bubbles is the backside of one of the papers in my kit. I love having everything already together and ready to go when I sit down to scrap. I mean, these photos hadn't even been taken when I made up my kit, which leads me to a whole other point...

Since I have been scrapping I have always felt like everything needs to match - the colors in the photos should match the colors of the papers, etc. Since watching Janet at RTS Scrapbooking, I have been learning to let go of the need to have everything match and go with the mood and feel instead. Sometimes it even works out that I get my cake and eat it, too, with color matching and mood and feel. 

Take this layout for example. I had picked out a dark red to match Ada's shirt, a yellow paper, and a graph paper. It matched beautifully and it would have worked fine, but it definitely wasn't the mood and feel of a fun day for Ada and Pops. When I went back through my 'girly' papers in my kit, I came across this one with the text bubbles and knew it was going to be just what I wanted for this layout - and I LOVE how it turned out!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I fussy cut the little word bubbles from the background paper and added a wood veneer camera for this fun little cluster. 

I included a couple of tags for my journaling. I know I have quite a bit I want to document about this and I thought the tags were the perfect solution. And I love the addition of the ribbon! I haven't used ribbon in ages!

Head on over to Sketch N Scrap to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. I can't wait to see your take on the sketch, too!

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

Hello Handsome - Sketch N Scrap September Monthly Challenge #1

Hello, everyone and Happy Saturday to you! Are you glad it's the weekend? I know I sure am! My only plan for today is to scrap and then tomorrow all the kids will be here for football and I can't wait! We are all Raiders fans living in Chiefs country so when they play each other we all have to get together to cheer on our team! Here's hoping for a good game!

Today the first challenge of the month has been posted in Sketch N Scrap's Monthly Challenge Facebook group. You can join us by going here. I am hosting the first challenge but you'll have to go to the group to see which sketch I picked and what the optional twist is!

Here is the layout that I created for it:

Back in August, I was going through some older photos of the kids that I have never scrapped and I pulled out a bunch to work on. These photos of Shane just a couple a weeks before his second birthday were on the top of the pile! I had actually written on the back of the photo that he had just gotten his hair cut and the date - something I have not done nearly enough!  It was so nice to have the actual date and the reason for the photo instead of just guessing.

Everything on this layout came from my September Counterfeit Kit and I even managed to do a bit of stamping on it. Here are a few close-ups:

I fussy cut all of the ticket pieces from one of the patterned papers that I included in my kit. 

For my title I stamped the 'hello' and fussy cut around it and popped it up with some foam tape. I then die cut the letters for 'handsome'. I love the mix of the stamping with the die cut letters.

I love how this layout turned out. Of course, when you have such a cute subject to scrap it makes it easy to love the end result!

Be sure to join us in Sketch's N Scrap Monthly Challenges group for a lot of scrappy fun this month!

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

Matt's Amazing Spiderman Collection - Counterfeit Kit Challenge #1

Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday!

It's time for the first challenge of the month at Counterfeit Kit Challenge today.

Here's a reminder of this month's inspiration kit:

For our first challenge of the month, we want you to "curate" your own project.

As you know, we are working with a curated kit this month which is rather exciting. When you look up the meaning "to curate" in the dictionary, this is the definition you will find:

verb (used with object), cu·rat·ed, cu·rat·ing.

to take charge of (a museum) or organize (an art exhibit)

to pull together, sift through, and select for presentation, as music or 

 website content

Lisa says, " I love the idea of pulling together some sort of exhibit or collection - after all, isn't that what we do with our memories all the time in this wonderful hobby of ours?"

This challenge was just the push I needed to get these photos of Matt showing off his Spiderman collection scrapped. Here is what I came up with:

Yep, these photos have been floating around my scrap room for the last 17 years and have not been scrapped. And they are so cute! Why in the world did I wait so long?! Probably because I was waiting for just the right paper or embellishment that just hadn't come along! Whatever the case may be, I'm glad now that I waited because they were just what I needed for this challenge!

Matt was so obsessed with Spiderman when he was little. Heck, he still loves to go see the movies as soon as they come out now! This shirt that he has on was by far his favorite and whenever it was clean - he was sure to have it on. He even had Spiderman sandals that he wore all summer long.

He had collected quite a few of the figures, books, the video game, and a movie. I guess I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of his collection. I am so glad I did! I know we will probably always remember how much he loved Spiderman when he was little, but it'll be fun to look back at the toys and the books to see what he had.

Everything on my layout came from my September kit - except for the small red alpha letters. I did pull those from my stash. All of the papers - except the background - were all from the scraps the I included with my kit, and the striped paper is the only one that has anything left of it. It always feels so good to get some scraps completely used up!

Be sure to stop by the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to see how the other design team members took on this challenge.

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

Queen Poppy - The Studio Challenges - Chevron Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope you're having a good weekend. After a few cool days, it is back to feeling like the middle of summer around here. 

It's going to be a busy day here on my blog, so let's get started.

The Studio Challenges has a new challenge today and for this challenge we want you to create a layout with chevrons on it.

Chevrons have always been one of my favorite patterns but it's been a while since I used chevron pattern paper on a layout so it was fun to work with them again.

Here is what I came up with:

Even though I love chevrons, they can be a little on the busy side for me, so I like to use them in small doses. I cut the chevron paper at 5 1/2 inches and ran a narrow piece of washi tape along the edge. I fussy cut all of the flowers from a piece of patterned paper to cluster up at the bottom left of the photo and the top right. Everything on this layout came from my September Counterfeit Kit.

About the photo - Ada and I were shopping one day and she caught sight of these Poppy sunglasses and thought that she needed them. Of course, when she tried them on and looked so cute, I thought she needed them, too! I've never watched the Trolls movie to know much about Poppy but when I looked up a description of Poppy it said she is the happiest troll ever, and I thought, yep, that sounds just like Ada. Not so much the troll part but she is the happiest kid ever!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

 

It took a while to fussy cut all of those flowers but it was totally worth it! I love how this layout turned out!

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful creations from the rest of the design team. I hope you're able to play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I will be back in a bit with another layout to share with you.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge September Kit Reveal and Blog Hop

Hello, hello! Happy Sunday and Happy September 1st! How in the world can it already be September? I mean summer just started, right?! Summer has been so fun this year and I know we still have some summer left, but I am really looking forward to fall. Cooler days - even cooler nights...yep, I think I am actually ready for fall!

The first of the month means that there is a lot going on here on the blog today, so let's get started.

It's time for the September inspiration kit reveal and blog hop at Counterfeit Kit Challenge today! Lisa has taken a different approach with this month's inspiration and had the fabulous Khristina Sorge from The Secret Not Secret Kit Club curate a kit especially for us!

Here is a look at the fantastic inspiration kit:

Here are the kit contents!

--Vicki Boutin Molding Paste

--Kaisercraft Dots & Dashes Stencil

--Three cut file viewfinder discs

--Up, Up, & Away Airplane Cut File (Confessions of a Paper Addict) 

--Three white tags

--Three kraft tags

--Five mini metal stars

--Scrappin Happy Studio Epoxy Flair

--Boys Will Be Boys Exclusive Stamp Set (Ink Road Stamps for SNSKC)

--Cocoa Vanilla Studios Boys Rule ephemera pack

--Jillibean Soup Rainbox Roux Foam Stickers

--Thickers--Twilight (black foam block letters)

--Jillibean Soup Epoxy Stickers

--two sheets of graph paper

12x12 Paper

--Cocoa Vanilla Studios--Boys Rule--Boy Stuff

--Cocoa Vanilla Studios--Boys Rule--Messed Up

--Cocoa Vanilla Studios--Totally Rad--Line Up

--Heidi Swapp Wolf Pack--Zodiac

--Heidi Swapp Wolf Pack--Mountainside

--Heidi Swapp Wolf Pack--Woodsy

--Vicki Boutin Color Kaleidoscope--Beyond Words

--Vicki Boutin Color Kaleidoscope--Say Cheese

--Vicki Boutin Color Kaleidoscope--Side Note

--Vicki Boutin Color Kaleidoscope--Kaleidoscope 

You can also see most of the items here.

I gotta say - this kit could have been made for me personally! I love the colors in this kit and I love that it has a masculine feel to it. I have so many photos of my boys that I still need to scrap and this kit was just what I needed to get motivated to not only pull a mostly masculine kit together but to also go through and pull a bunch of photos that I want to get scrapped!

Even though I could have made an all-masculine kit, I know that I will "need" to scrap some girly photos, too, so I definitely took a cue from the Vicki Boutin papers to pull in some pinks, yellows, orange, turquoise...well, all the colors! What I ended up with are 2 kits - one mega kit geared towards the boys and one good-sized kit geared towards the girls! 

Here is a glimpse at my kit (Yeah, this is just a sampling! You'll have to look at all the pictures to see it all!):

I took a little different approach with my kit this time around. I checked out all of the items in the inspiration kit, I wrote down the colors/patterns/embellishment types, and the mood and feel of the inspiration kit like I always do, and then I really didn't look at the inspiration photos again! I almost always try to match my kits as close to possible to the inspiration kit, but this time I didn't dwell on that, and I love the end result! I mean, I literally had to stop myself multiple times while pulling papers because I wanted to go make a layout right then and there. Which is great, but I needed those papers for the photos of my kit! 

Here are my "guy" papers:

When I saw the Cocoa Vanilla "Boys Rule" papers I immediately thought of Simple Stories "So Rad" collection. I loved this collection and I only have one full sheet of patterned paper and one cut apart sheet left - along with a few scraps. That is where my kit started. I used that navy sheet with the multi-colored stars as my inspiration piece. I pulled in more oranges, yellows, blues, greens, and I even added in a bit of red. 

I also pulled out several pieces from different Echo Park collections that I have. I couldn't stop there - even though I could have! I also pulled in a few papers from Bella Blvd, some of Pink Fresh's "Boys Fort", and a few papers from Crate Papers older collection - Boys Rule. I added in quite a bit of grey, black and white, and woodgrain papers, as well. I think it's safe to say that I can scrap anything from baby photos to toddler photos to teenage photos and beyond with what I have here!

And, as if that wasn't enough paper, I found a few more after I thought I was done!

Here are the scraps from Simple Stories - So Rad - collection that I want to try and use up:

And, because 48 full sheets of paper might not be enough to get me through, I pulled in some more scraps to use! These range from 3x12 inches all the way up to 11x12 inches...yeah, I need to use some scraps before I cut into a new piece of paper for a one-inch strip!

Oh, and then here are a few more scraps that I forgot to add in with the others:

I added a couple of sheets to do some fussy cutting with:

And then came the rest of my embellishments:

We have star stickers, chipboard stickers, puffy stickers, cardstock stickers...lots of stickers in this kit. (Which means lots of choices for me, which is what I like!) I added in chipboard frames, wood veneer, fabric pennants, and some tab die cuts, too. Everything I could possibly need right here!

Here are my alphas:

I pulled the Simple Stories alphas just as a representation and reminder to myself that I have them to be used instead of forgetting that they are there, in front of my face, on my desk!

I also pulled a few sticker and alpha sticker sheets that coordinated with some of the collections in my kit.

And since I still might not have enough paper, I pulled in a couple of 6x8 paper pads from Bella Blvd, a 6x6 paper pad from Crate Paper's "Cool Kid" collection, and a 6x6 paper pad from Simple Stories' "Daily Grind" collection. I also added in the Vicki Boutin sticker book (which will also work for my girlie kit) and a sticker book from My Mind's Eye:

Now, on to my girlie kit! It's not as big, so not as much to tell here!

I had the Vicki Boutin - All The Good Things- paper pad and pulled a few pieces of paper from it for inspiration for my girlie kit. This collection had a lot of the same colors as the Kaleidoscope collection and the papers I pulled are the first six papers in the back row - and then I just expanded from there! 

I really wanted to include a lot of the pinks and turquoise, and yellow that was represented in the Kaleidoscope collection (especially the cut apart sheet) so I raided my Bella Blvd drawer and pulled some papers that I thought would work. 

I have a lot of Bella Blvd scraps in the same drawer, so I pulled out all that would go with the papers I pulled to try to get them used up this month:

I don't have nearly as many embellishments for my girlie kit - just a few stickers, cork pieces, enamel dots/shapes, and few die cuts and 3x4 sheets. I do have the Vicki Boutin sticker book that will work, too:

Here are the sticker and alpha sticker sheets that I included with my girlie kit:

I also pulled a ton of stamps and a few dies to work with this month:

Since the inspiration kit had a stencil and molding paste in it, I pulled a couple of stencils and molding paste (I forgot to add it to the photo, but I do have it!) for my kit. I'm not a big fan of mixed media, so we will see if those get used this month!

The inspiration kit didn't have any washi tape in it, but I pulled a few rolls to see if I can put it to use:

There you have it - my two kits for September - and beyond, I am sure! I am so excited to start using up my kit this month!

If you have stuck with me this far - thank you! I know it's been a long post today! Don't forget to hop along to the other design team member's blogs to see the kits that they have put together. Here's the list:

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

Khristina Sorge -https://www.redefinedkreative.com/blog

Cindy - http://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/

Leslie - http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

Lisa - http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

Lori - https://loriannie670.blogspot.com/

Tina - http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com 

Laura - https://www.instagram.com/mrsp_scrapsandtea/

 I hope you are inspired to play along with us and pull your own kit together!

We always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us.

You can use our Monthly Link-up page, post them in our Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcseptember2019).

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I will be right back with my first project using my kit!