LM #554 - All About the Photos - Throwback Photo

Hello, hello! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a great weekend. I have had a fun weekend filled with a shopping trip with my daughter and granddaughter, then a day of scrapping, and today looks to be a nice relaxing day at home.

Today I am sharing a layout that I created for this week's challenge at Lasting Memories. The theme for this month has been "All About the Photos" and today's challenge is to use a throwback photo that is at least 10 years old. If you don't have an old photo, you can use a selfie.

Recently I found a folder of photos from when my oldest son was in kindergarten - 18 years ago! This is what I came up with: 

I just love this photo of Matthew and his best bud, Charlie. I don't know - or remember - any of the details from this day - just that they were blowing bubbles out on the playground. These two became fast friends in kindergarten and still good buddies - and roommates - today.

I used the masculine papers in my June - Lisa and Lori's Great Stash Bash kit - which you can see here. I managed to use all but one of the papers that I included in this "masculine" mini-kit. I did pull in a cut apart sheet and a few stickers from the Echo Park  - Little Dreamer - Boy collection.

I based my layout on this sketch from PageMaps from March 2021:

Here are a couple of close-ups:

All of the star stickers are from one of the sticker sheets that I included in my stash bash kit. The word stickers, 3x4 cards, and enamel dots are all from the Echo Park - Little Dreamer - Boy - collection. I thought this collection matched pretty well with the Crate Paper collection that I had included in my kit.

I love how this layout turned out and I am so happy to get a photo of "little" Matthew scrapped! It's always fun to look back at photos of the kiddos when they were little and see how they've grown.

Be sure to stop by the Lasting Memories blog to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge. I hope you have some time to play along with us this week!

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

You Are So Sweet - Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #195

Hello, hello! Happy Saturday to you! I do hope that your weekend is off to a good start. It's looking to be a quiet weekend for us, which is always a good thing.

Today Sketch N Scrap has posted the first card sketch of the month and it is a fun one - created by sketch artist Heather:

This is what I came up with:

I am going to try to send my granddaughter a card regularly this summer. She always loves to get something in the mail, so I created this card with her in mind. Maybe it will have a little "treat" in it for her to get her own sweet treat this summer.;)

I used Echo Park's - A Slice of Summer - 6x6 paper pad for this card. I have included this paper pad in my June Great Stash Bash kit and this is the first time I have used it. The sentiment piece was fussy cut out of one of the cut apart sheets and then I added foam tape to the back of it for a bit of dimension. I added a couple more popsicles to the bottom of the card - adding foam tape to the one on top. 

Card sketches like this one always make for a quick and easy card. 

Be sure to stop by the Sketch N Scrap blog to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the design team. I hope you have a chance to play along with us!

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

Whatever It Takes - Sketch N Scrap #226

Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you! It's been a fast week around here trying to get back into the routine after the long holiday weekend. We are finally drying out after so much rain and it was good to see a bit of sunshine yesterday, and hopefully, we will see a little more sunshine today.

Today I am sharing the layout that I created using the June 1st sketch at Sketch N Scrap. This fun sketch is courtesy of sketch artist Heather:

I wasn't really feeling like a big circle for my layout so I changed things up a bit and replaced the circle with a square. I kept everything else the same except I did put my title above the photo and added journaling below:

For this layout, I have used my June stash bash kit that you can see here. When I pulled the papers and embellishments for this kit I hadn't even taken this photo yet. I can't believe how many of the puffy sticker embellishments I could have used on this layout - they were all so fitting and it made it hard to pick which ones to use. Funny how things work out like that! The only things that weren't included in my kit were the doily, the alphas, and the navy cardstock.

About the photo - I recently made my title page for my 2021 Project Life album (which you will see later this month) and realized that we did not take a single family photo last year. Not a one! I have photos of all the kids together but not a single photo with all of us in it. I am determined to change that this year! That may be easier said than done! Shane - the one who is usually pretty willing to take a photo has now decided he ain't havin' it! Anytime I pull out my phone or camera, whether it's to take a picture of him or something else, he hollers "not yet!" and runs in the opposite direction. 

All of the kids came over for a BBQ over the Memorial Day weekend and I was determined to get a family photo. As luck would have it, Shane came in and laid down for a nap. I told everyone to gather around the couch and we would get our family photo. Is it the best photo? No. None of us are big on taking selfies and when you add a selfie stick into the mix, well, it's safe to say there's a bit of blur, and in the first photo we took you could only see me from the eyes up! Shane even woke up in the middle of our picture taking but did not object. Even though it's not a great photo, it is one of my recent favorites!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I did not have enough e's in the white alphabet so I had to use an f and cut up another letter to make it an e. You can see it in the photo above but it's not that noticeable when you're looking at it in person. 

I was so happy that this love chipboard fit perfectly inside the center of the doily. I added a little bit of foam under the puffy phrases since I layered the ends of them on top of the chipboard. 

I'm sure you will be seeing this photo again in my 52 Favorites TN. It is definitely my favorite photo from that week.

I hope you find some time to play along with us - 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 fantastic Friday!

Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash - June Kit

Hello, everyone! Happy Tuesday and Happy June 1st! How can it possibly be June already?! Our weather the past few days - or really the whole month of May - has felt nothing like late spring or early summer days. It has been so cool - let's face it, downright cold for this time of year -  and so much rain. I mean low 60's for highs and 40's for lows - no thank you! I say bring on the sunshine and summer temps!

Enough about the weather around here, let's talk about something fun - a new kit for Lisa and Lori's Great Stash Bash! 

If you don't know what the Great Stash Bash is - it is a challenge that my good friend Lisa and I do every month. We pull items from our stash based on a "recipe" (which you will see below) in an effort to get our scrappy stash used up!

Here is the June recipe:

Our "recipe" is to pull 10 patterned papers, 5-7 scraps, 3-4 embellishments, and for June our focus item is 6x6 paper pads.

For June I decided to make up two mini kits - one geared more towards masculine layouts and one that's a little more girlie, although I have an idea for a family layout with it, as well. Here's a look at my kit:

I have a stack of papers in my scrap room from past kits that I have put together or that didn't make the cut for a past kit and I decided to go through those to pick my kit for June. Let's take a closer look at each kit. 

First up is the "boy" kit:

I have been going through photos lately and I still have so many of my boys that I haven't scrapped - all the way from toddler to their teen years. So I wanted papers that would work for them.

Here are the papers:

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I have papers from Fancy Pants, Pink Paislee, Crate Paper, Echo Park, and Crate Paper from left to right. 

Here are the embellishments that I have pulled:

 

I went through my stickers and found several that I thought would work with the papers. I also pulled my die-cut book since it has a couple of Simple Stories sets in it. I should have plenty to choose from here!

So, I did a thing earlier in May and tossed a bunch of my scraps. I had been working with the same scraps for a couple of years and just decided it was time to get rid of them. I have enough paper that I could not save another scrap and I wouldn't go wanting! Luckily, I had kept some scraps from a few different collections/manufacturers and I was able to find scraps for both of my mini-kits. Here are the "boy" scraps:

Now for my "girlie" mini-kit:

Lots of corally pinks, mint, teal, and navy in these papers. I was intending to use them for photos of my girls, and I more than likely still will, but we just took some family photos over the weekend that I would really like to get scrapped, too.

Here's a better look at the papers:

I have papers from Maggie Holmes and Dear Lizzy in this mini-kit.

I don't have any specific embellishments from the collections that go with these papers so I went back to my stickers and found several that will work:

I picked several different sticker sheets that had the same colors that were in my papers - and a few could be used with the boy kit, too.

Here are the "girl" scraps that I picked:

I feel like the paper with the circles could always be used for embellishments if I need something more.

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I had pulled out these papers, too, but they didn't make the original cut for my ten papers. I am going to keep them with my kit just in case I "need" them!

I also found these two papers that will be great to fussy cut and use as embellishments:

I can't wait to use those little frames on a layout!

Our focus item for June is 6x6 paper pads - which I have a ton of! Here are just  a few of what I have:

I have four of these bins on the top of my cube organizer and two more below those. Each one can hold up to 40 paper pads depending on how full that they are. That means that I have well over 200 6x6 paper pads and these aren't even all of them. Most of my newer 6x6 and 6x8 paper pads are all in another bin across the room. And this doesn't even include my Elle's Studio (both 6x6 and 6x8 which I think I have every single one that they have ever made). They are all currently housed in one of my 3-tier carts. I think it's safe to say that I need to definitely "focus" on my 6x6 paper pads!

I did pull out a few to keep with my kit - mostly as a reminder to use them! I have a few of the newer ones that I have picked up recently ( all of the top row) and a few older pads that I thought would work with my kit:

I also have some 6x6 papers that were about all used up so I put them in a plastic 6x6 case - and I don't think I have opened the container since! I pulled those in hopes that I can use them for layering, cards, or maybe even their own layout:

I am also playing along with the Allison Davis Sketches for 6x6 Paper Pads class (for one-page sketches and I am still working on the double-page sketch class, too) so I am hoping I can get at least some 6x6 paper pads put to use this month!

Now to get scrappy and create a few things this month!

Be sure to stop by 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 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. 

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 - #lisaandlorisgreatstashbash2021

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

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