New Babies - The Studio Challenges - New Life

Hello, hello! Happy Sunday to you all! I hope you are having a good weekend. We started our weekend off with a fun family pizza night on Friday with all of the kids, and we have been enjoying the warmer - sunny - weather yesterday and today.

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges today. Since yesterday was the first day of spring - we want to see new life on your layouts. Maybe it's the spring flowers coming up, a new baby or new puppy, etc. - it is up to you!

Growing up on a farm - when spring rolled around it meant lots of new babies being born. I always loved it when one of the cows would have a calf and we always had several bottle calves to take care of. They were always so cute running and bucking around the fields. I don't live on a farm now but our neighbor raises beef cattle so I get to see new little cuties like this every spring: 

For this layout, I used a paper pad from Die Cuts With a View - Spring Bloom. I thought these papers were perfect for a springtime page featuring a cute little calf. I didn't have any embellishments from this collection so I fussy cut several of the flower clusters from the patterned paper for my layout. I never dreamed I would make such a flowery layout about cows - but I like it!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I added a few puffy dots around my layout to finish out the layout. 

Be sure to head on over to The Studio Challenges to see the lovely layouts 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! I will be back soon with another layout to share with you!

The Studio Challenges - Selfie Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you all! I hope that you are having a great weekend. The temperatures have finally gotten above freezing, the snow is melting, and I say - bring on spring! I've had enough of winter these past two weeks and I am ready to spring.

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges! Since this is the first week that the new design team members are joining us, and so you have a chance to get to know them, this week's challenge is a selfie challenge! Just scrap a photo of yourself!

Here's my layout:

I took this selfie a few weeks ago just for this challenge. I titled it - Right Here, Right Now - mostly because Shane has been listening to Jesus Jones' song by the same name over and over and singing the chorus as he roams around the house! I guess it has sunk deep into my subconscious mind because when I was trying to come up with a title, that is all I could think of  - right here, right now - and I decided to do a "currently" list that is hidden behind the paper layers.

I used papers that I had put into my 100 patterned papers pile. I still need to do up a blog post about that... Anyway, these papers are mostly from Echo Park. The pink stripe paper is from Crate Paper and the wood grain paper from We R Memory Keepers. I managed to use up three papers and a couple of scraps on this layout.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

The "right now" card is from Elle's Studio and reads - 

Loving - cross-stitching

Eating - country fried steak sandwiches (these have been my go-to lunch lately)

Reading - no time for reading!

Watching - WandaVision and Hallmark

Listening - The Maine and Luke Bryan

Creating- Lists and TN's

Date - February 19, 2021

I really need to do these types of layouts more often! I think it will be fun to look back on down the road.

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful work 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! I will be back a little later with another project to share.

The Studio Challenges - Handwritten Journaling

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend. 

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges and for this challenge we want to see handwritten journaling on your layout. January 23rd is National Handwriting Day and in honor of that, we want to see your handwritten journaling.

This photo of Ada popped up in my Google photos memories and when I saw it I knew it needed to be scrapped. It brought back memories of this day like it was just yesterday! Ada was going through a phase of being pretty dramatic over the smallest things and then when I would try to take a photo she would strike a pose. We were getting ready to go to town and I'm not sure if she thought that Shane and I were taking too long to get ready or if she just wasn't wanting to go, but she had a slight pout on her face and was just too cute for me to resist taking a photo. Looking at it gives me a glimpse of the beautiful young girl she is becoming.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I am in love with my new date stamp! The way this one is made I am not limited to just a few years. 

I am somewhat playing along with Shannon's (She's Crafty on Youtube) Mini Paper Pad class. I say somewhat because it started the first of January and I am just now getting my kits made and a layout done with the first kit. The general idea is to get some use out of those 6x6 or 6x8 paper pads - which I have more than a few of! We are to pick 5 paper pads and 2 - 12x12 papers for the background and make 2 layouts per paper pad, resulting in 10 layouts. It's not intended for us to use up all of the paper pad but to get them out and get some use out of them instead of letting them sit on a shelf.

Here is my first kit using Illustrated Faith's You are Loved 6x8 paper pad:

I used the white tone on tone dot paper for the background and a few different papers and scraps from the paper pad. I didn't use any of the embellishments on this layout, I just die cut my own hearts. I am excited to see how much more of this paper pad I can use on another layout.

Be sure to check out The Studio Challenges blog to see the layouts from the rest of the design team. 

I hope you have a chance to play along with us, too!

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

Dear Sweet Girl - The Studio Challenges - Old and New

Hello, everyone! Good Sunday morning to you! I hope you are having a good weekend. It's going by way too fast for my liking!

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges today. Before I get to the challenge, I did want to let you know that we have a design team call going on now. You can find out all of the details in this post here. It is a great team to be on and we would love to have you join us!

Now on to this week's challenge - we are starting the year off with an easy one for you - Old and New - just use something old on your layout and something new and tell us what it is!

For my layout, for something old I have used a splatter stamp, doilies, a glassine bag, old alphas, and acrylic hearts. For something new I have used the Simple Stories Hip Hop Hooray papers and enamel dots and the heart die cuts are from a new metal die:

I am so glad that I remembered to pull out that splatter stamp - it's actually Close To My Heart's Ink Flair (D1660) stamp set. I can't remember when it came out exactly, but I have had it since it came out and this is the first time I inked it up. It is such a great way to make the splatters without making a mess - or smearing the splatters before they are dry! I only had white doilies and I knew they would not show up on the white background, so I went old school and inked up a piece of a sponge and covered the white doilies with Juniper ink. I think they turned out perfectly!

I added a glassine bag behind my photo for my journaling. I wrote a letter to Miss Ada about this day and had quite a bit to say, so I folded it up and added it to the bag. Here is a close-up:

This photo was taken back in 2017. It was one of the hardest times that we have had with Shane. School was hard for him - new teachers that didn't understand him, and didn't want to take the time to understand him or to listen to our ideas of what would help. He was only going to school for 2 hours in the mornings and more often than not I was turning around and picking him up before I had even had a chance to get home because they couldn't handle him. This was one of those mornings. Ada and I had dropped him off at school after I picked her up from Abby and we had just got home and they called, telling me to pick him up. He was very frustrated - as anyone who cannot express what was happening would be. Even after we'd gotten home it took him a while to calm down. I always tried to keep him and Ada separated until he calmed down, but on this day he reached out and hit her on the back as she walked by him. And dear sweet Ada - at her tender age of not quite 4 - knew that if she full out cried that it would only cause him more frustration, so there she sat, tears in her eyes, and it broke my heart. She should not have had to hold in those tears, but she did for her Uncle Shane, and to this day when I see this picture, it still breaks my heart. I just wanted her to know that I saw what she did, how brave she was - and still is. She has had to deal with a lot more than most kids should with having a special needs uncle and she always handles it like a trooper.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Layouts like this one are always hard for me to make but I think it is important to document the hard days, too. And 30 minutes after all of this took place Shane calmed down, he was in his safe place again, and all was well in the world. Oh, the roller coaster ride of the autism life! Ultimately, 2 months later in November of 2017 we and the school agreed that Shane was done with school and he graduated out early. Here we are, 3 years later, and if anyone mentions the word school he still gets upset.

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges blog to see the rest of the design team members take on the old and new challenge. I would love to see what you create, too! Don't forget about the design team call!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I will be back soon with another project to share with you!

The Studio Challenges - Looking Back

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas! Poor Ada was sick on Christmas eve but she woke up bright and early on Christmas morning feeling much better and ready to see what Santa had brought for her.

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges today and since we are at the end of 2020 we thought we want you to look back and review the year. What did you learn? Or what would you prefer to forget?

2020 has been quite a year, and thankfully, it has not been too terribly bad for us considering everything that has gone on. Don't get me wrong - living through a pandemic is something I hope I never have to live through again, but all in all, it has been a pretty decent year for us.

Here is my layout:

So, when I started this layout, my first thought was to do my journaling on the white paper circle. I did not realize I would have so much to say! I had to create a pocket on the back of my layout to stick my journaling down into.

Here is a close-up of my embellishment cluster - and what I based all of my journaling on for this layout. Yes, the flair piece is purple and there isn't another purple thing on this layout, but I don't care, it needed to be used!

I based my layout on Sketch #214 from Sketch N Scrap:

I tend to not want to dwell on the bad and focus more on the good of things, so I picked one of my favorite photos from this year for my layout. As I said above, the stamped piece and the flair piece are the focus of my journaling. I feel like we have been in training for the past 10 or 15 years, not for a pandemic, of course, but for the staying at home part. 

We are homebodies at heart and living with Shane where you have to plan, and prepare, and try to anticipate anything that might come up while you are out, and plan some more...well, being a homebody is not that bad. I mean let's be real here -when we go shopping with Shane we have a very limited amount of time that we can be out because when Shane is done shopping, everyone is done shopping! It doesn't matter if you are only half done with grocery shopping, when he is done you better hurry or things can get to be a hot mess in a second! So we learned long ago to get in, get what we need, and get out as fast as we can! Not a bad thing to know how to do this year! I can't even remember what a leisurely shopping trip - to just go and look - is! Staying home and only going out for the essentials is nothing new to us.

I can't believe that I am saying this, but it has also done wonders for Shane. When the shutdowns started it was only the three of us - Scott, Shane, and myself - for so long. We kept Shane mostly at home those first few weeks - only going for a drive, or to go pick up some food to get him out of the house - because with him being nonverbal the thought of him getting sick is not something I like to even think about. 

Visits from Abby, Shawn, and Ada, and Matthew coming home for a day or two were very few and far between early on. When they finally started coming back over for a visit now and then, he was genuinely happy to see them and interacted more with them than ever before. 

He now happily puts on a mask to go shopping and enjoys our weekly trips to the store and to his favorite flea market to look for movies.

I picked my favorite photo of the three of us - on our way to pick something up to eat.  Scott and I were being goofy and Shane was giving a look like - sheesh, my parents are such nerds!  So 2020 for most has been a pretty crappy year, but for us, we've actually had a few positives come from it. 

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. I hope you can find some time to play along with us. 

The Studio Challenges - Scraplift the Design Team

 Hello everyone! Good Sunday morning to you! I hope that you all are having a good weekend. It's been a busy few days but busy in a good way - lots of family time and some Christmas shopping.

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges today and this time we are challenging you to scraplift a layout from one of the design team members. I chose to scraplift this layout from Rainny from this challenge here:

And this is my layout:

I kept the overall design and the random stamping - although I added a lot more! I used all Elle's Studio papers - except the background - for this layout of Ada sporting her new smile. She lost both of her front teeth within 2 days of each other and she will truly be singing - all I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth this year! She absolutely adorable with her new look and we will enjoy it while it lasts. Soon that gap will be filled with 2 big teeth! 

The journaling for this layout is on the pink tag behind the photo.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I gave my roller stamps a workout on this layout. I think I used 6 or 8 different roller stamps on this layout. 

So, which layout will you decide to scraplift? I can't wait to see what you create!

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

The Studio Challenges - Hexagons

 Hello, hello! Happy Sunday and Happy November 1st! How can it possibly be November already?! The holidays are going to be here before we know it!

The Studio Challenges has a new challenge posted today. This week we are challenging you to add hexagons to your layout. You can use one big one or lots of small ones - it is up to you!

Here is what I came up with:

Since yesterday was Halloween, I decided to create a Halloween layout. These photos are of Abby, Shawn, and Ada last year when they took Ada trick or treating. They decided last year that they would all dress up together as a family, so when Ada wanted to be a witch, Abby dressed up as a witch, too, and Shawn as a wizard, and they had a lot of fun while trick or treating around town. Shawn even had someone ask if they could take a picture of him in his wizard getup.

This year Ada wanted to be a unicorn so they went as a family of unicorns. At the time I am writing this I don't know if they are actually going trick or treating, but they at least got to wear their costumes to our little family party last weekend. 

For my layout, I used Echo Park's - I Love Halloween - collection. I die cut my hexagons from the 6x6 paper scraps that I had leftover from previous projects. Since the patterned paper hexagons made my background a little busy, I kept my embellishing minimal, just adding in a few stickers and enamel shapes/dots.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Those star enamel shapes are from Jillibean Soup and I picked them up from Tuesday Morning and the price tag says 2016! And they had never even been opened! I guess I have been saving them for something special! It's about time I put a few of them to use.

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges blog to see how the rest of the team took on the challenge. I hope you have a chance to play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I will be back soon with another project to share with you!

Hey Dude - The Studio Challenges - Old Stash

 Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Sketch N Scrap reveal, please scroll on down.

I am so happy to be back creating for The Studio Challenges this week! I had needed a little time to get caught up on some other things and Anna graciously let me take the time I needed. So, let's get on with this week's challenge. 

This week is all about using that old stash on your layout - the older the better! This is what I came up with:

For my layout, I have used Pink Paislee's - Hey Kid - collection. It is not my oldest stash but it is from 2013, and 7 years is quite a while to hang on to scrappy stash! Of course, I'm pretty sure I bought the collection kit when it first came out and then the paper pad, too, so I have quite a few papers from this collection.

The photo is of Shane from 2005. He was maxin' and relaxin' - playing the PSP - after a long day in the pool. This is one of my all-time favorite photos of him!

Here are a few close-ups:

I used a circle die to cut out a few of my embellishments from the patterned papers. This "Hey Dude" embellishment is doing double duty and also serving as my title. 

After I had taken the photos I did write Shane's name and the date on the layout. As I said before, there is no big story to go along with the photo - it is just one of my favorites.

I love the way this layout turned out. It is definitely one of my favorite layouts that I have created lately.

Be sure to check out The Studio Challenges blog to see the beautiful layouts 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! I hope you have a great day!

What It's All About - The Studio Challenges - Slant or Angle

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend. It has been a busy one around here. My daughter, granddaughter, son, and I all ventured out to do a little shopping (other than just grocery shopping) on Friday - the first time since the pandemic started. We were sure to wear our face masks and I was happy to see the majority of people had them on and the stores still were not overly crowded.

The Studio Challenges has a new challenge up today. This week we want to see your layouts on a slant or angle.

I like to do these types of layouts once in a while. It's kind of fun to have a reason to not have everything lined up perfectly! For my layout, I scraplifted one of my own layouts from a few years ago. You can see my original layout and the sketch from Stuck Sketches that I used here. 

Here is my layout for this week's challenge:

This is one of my favorite photos from this year so far and I already know I will be scrapping it again - I have another story to tell about - along with more photos - and I know it will be in my Traveler's Notebook for this year, too. 

At this point, we were a little over a month into the pandemic. Scott had been laid off, Abby and Ada were doing school from home, Matthew's college courses had gone to all online and his internship was having him work from home. The only time any of us were getting out was just to pick up groceries and Abby had to go into work a few times to get more homework packets made up for her students - which I believe was the reason they were even at our house on this day. 

It was so good to get together for a visit. Ada told Pops that she wanted to play Mario Kart on the Wii and they had so much fun! We all laughed and joked and it just made things feel a little like normal again. It was such a fun day.

For my layout, I added some paint around the edges for a change. I also wanted the vellum hearts to stand out a bit more so I outlined them with the paint, as well.  I also used the paint for the splatters around my page. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I used staples as much as possible to fasten down my vellum hearts and when that wasn't an option I had to get a little creative!

I love this layout just as much as the original!

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge. I hope you find some time to play along with us - I would love to see your take on the challenge, too!

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

Easter Fun - The Studio Challenges Sketch Challenge

Hello, everyone! Good Sunday morning to you all! I hope you are having a good weekend. We have had a great weekend filled with lots of family time celebrating my birthday!

Today I am sharing my take on this week's challenge at The Studio Challenges. This week we have a fun sketch challenge for you. Here's a look at the sketch:

This sketch was based on DT Member Michelle's layout here.

This is what I came up with:

These photos are of Ada from Easter this year. It was supposed to be pretty rainy Easter weekend so they decided to put on her Easter dress and take a few photos and do their egg hunt a little early.

Ada's dress was yellow with pretty pink flowers all over it and this yellow paper from the Brushed paper pack from Close To My Heart was just perfect for these photos. This is an older paper pack that they have brought back for June and July. I already know that I will be purchasing another pack of this paper before it is gone!

I stuck pretty closely to the sketch and mixed in a few details from Michelle's original layout like the rounded corners and embellishments under the photos. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

The flowers are from one of my favorite older Close To My Heart sets - Gimme Some Sugar Scrapbooking - D1758. They are so easy to stamp and fussy cut. I sprinkled a few enamel dots around my layout to finish it off.

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see how the rest of the design team took on the sketch. I would love to see your take on it, too!

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

Gotta Scrap - The Studio Challenges - Scrapbooking

Hello everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope you are having a good weekend. 

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges today and this week's challenge is all about our favorite hobby - Scrapbooking! As it was NSD a couple of weeks back it got us thinking all about scrapbooking how and when did you get into it? What do you love about it? etc. Create a layout about your scrapbooking.

Here is my layout:

The photos of are of my scrappy space, me in my scrappy space, and one of my favorite parts of scrapping - all the pretty papers and fun embellishments! I pulled the papers and embellishments that I wanted to use for this layout and snapped a quick photo of it all laid out and ready to be put together for a layout. 

I used Simple Stories - Hey Crafty Girl - collection for this layout. All I had were scraps left of this collection so the background paper is from Simple Stories' - Reset Girl - collection and it matches perfectly.

This layout is a pretty busy one for me but I am really happy with how it turned out. Here are a couple of close-ups:

I had quite a bit to say for my journaling, so I typed it up and added a tab so it can be hidden under the photos. This is what the journaling says - " I started this hobby 22 years ago when Jenny bought me a Creating Keepsakes magazine and I fell in love with all of the pretty papers. I loved the idea of documenting our story - the happenings of our daily lives whether they be big or small. Over the years scrapping has come to mean so much more to me. Yes, our stories are still the main reason I scrap - and the most important reason - but being a Mom of a child with autism I need something where I can escape for a few minutes - or a few hours if I am lucky enough - and have a chance to just be me, and that thing for me is scrapping. Over the years scrapping has become my therapy - it keeps me sane when it feels like my world is spinning out of control. It is possibly the only area that I feel I am just me. So bring on the pretty paper and fun embellishments because one thing is certain - this girl's gotta scrap!"

There you have it - the story of when and how I got into scrapping and why I still love it today!

Be sure to check out The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. I would love it if you had a chance to play along with us!

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

The Studio Challenges - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope you all got a lot of scrapping done yesterday in honor of National Scrapbook Day! I know I did my fair share of it.

The Studio Challenges has a new challenge posted today and it's a Tic Tac Toe challenge! Here is a look at the Tic Tac Toe board:

I chose to use enamel dots, washi tape - the thin gold washi that is at the top and bottom of the pink dotted paper and on the journaling block, and a tag - which also serves as my title. I also managed to add some wood veneer hearts and some ephemera.

I couldn't wait to put some of the papers that I included in my May Great Stash Bash kit to use. I also used quite a few of the die cut pieces and the wood veneer hearts that were in my kit, too. I had to change my photo to black and white to get it to go with my papers.

This photo is of Abby and Ada on Abby's first day of school in 2018. Those first few days back to Nana's house after being with Mommy all summer long are hard! Ada always wants a little more time and just one more hug before her Mommy heads out to work. I think the title - You Are So Very Wonderful - fits just the way they feel about each other!

Here is a close-up:

I cannot believe how well these flower die cuts go with this collection from Carta Bella. I know the paper is from 2013 and the die cuts from Kaiser Craft - I think are from late 2018 or early 2019. Whatever the case, they work perfectly together!

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. I would love to see your take on the Tic Tac Toe challenge, too!

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

Hello Sunshine - The Studio Challenges

Hello, everyone! Good Sunday morning to you! After a few really cool days, and a few nights with freeze warnings, the weather is finally starting to warm back up. Hopefully, the warm weather is here to stay now. 

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges today. This week's challenge is - Florals - to celebrate spring, we want you to use floral papers and flowers on your layout.

I've been trying to go back through some of my older photos of Ada and get them scrapped. This photo is from May of 2016 and we were on a walk. We took a lot of walks when the weather warmed up - Ada enjoyed being outside and she always had a lot of energy (she still does!) - so we would go for walks in hopes of wearing off some of that energy! She always seemed to find a treasure - usually a stick, or a rock, or a flower - to bring home with her. On this particular day, she found the perfect stick and a daisy. The stick made it all the way home with us, sadly, the daisy did not! Good thing there are a lot more of those where that one came from! I just love her looking at - and probably trying to smell - the daisy in this picture.

I used papers from my April Great Stash Bash kit. I just love this floral paper from an old Imaginisce collection. The flowers that I used were actually in my...February - I think - Great Stash Bash kit and I never used them. After using some on this layout, I only have 2 flower stickers left!

Here is a close-up of the title area:

I have had these wood veneer words in my stash for a long time. I got them at Michaels and they were stuck to the backing sheet with double-sided tape. Neither word came off cleanly, but at least the breaks were clean and easy to put the words back together. I still have 3 words left and I hope I can get them on a project before the end of the month!

Head on over to The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. I hope you get a chance to play along with us!

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

The Studio Challenges - Sketch Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! 

The Studio Challenges had a new challenge posted today and it is a sketch challenge! Here's a look at the sketch that Anna created - based on Helen's layout for our "Year in Review" challenge that you can see here.

And here the layout I created based on the sketch:

This photo is of Miss Ada back in the spring of 2018. It was a pretty day and we had all walked down to the creek to let Shane - and Ada - throw rocks in the water. Once down there Ada was not happy with just throwing rocks - she wanted to get in and play in the water. It didn't matter that we told her over and over that the water was too cold, she just kept going on and on about wanting to play in the water. She can pout with the best of them and she found a rock to sit on and do just that - pout! Abby finally broke down and let her take her shoes and socks off so she could get in the water. Once her little toes hit the water and she felt how cold it really was - she was ready to get out of the water and fast!

I used mostly scraps on this layout and fussy cut my embellishments from a couple of different Bella Blvd paper scraps. Sadly, I do believe I fussy cut all of the flowers from one of the Bella Blvd papers. Well, I say sadly because I won't have any more fun flowers to fussy cut, but it also makes me happy to get another patterned paper completely used up!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Head on over to The Studio Challenges to see how the rest of the design team took on the sketch challenge. I would love it if you played along, too!

And before I let you go I wanted to let you know that The Studio Challenges has put out a design team call. You can read all about it in this post here, but don't delay - the deadline to enter is April 19th! It is a great team to be on!