HQCB - Love Theme #6 - Shane's Angel - And An Announcement!

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope you are having a good day!

I am so happy to be sharing some exciting news with you today! Becca from Heart's Quest Challenge Blog has asked me to be on her first design team! Of course, I said yes! So, I will be sharing projects with colored hearts for the Color Heart theme on the 14th of every month and the word 'love' for the Love theme on the 28th of every month. 

Today's challenge is Love Theme #6 and you are to use the word "Love" AND a cupid or angel on your project.

When I first saw this challenge I knew I wanted to tell the story of our angel Christmas tree topper, and so I have started yet another traveler's notebook! This one is going to be all about my favorite/special Christmas ornaments and decorations. Every year when we pull out our Christmas decorations, I always think that I would like to tell the stories of where some of them came from or why they are so special to me and this challenge gave me the push I needed to get it started.

Here is my layout:

Here's the story of our angel - Shane made this little toilet paper roll angel way back in 2005 when he was 5 years old and in his last year of preschool. He drew the face on a circle piece of paper - which was huge for him at the time. Those were the early years of autism and all of us trying to navigate it - and getting him to stay on task to complete this little angel craft was a very big deal!

Her wings are his hands that they traced and she did have the cutest star halo but that has fallen off over the years and is lost. I don't know how many more years this little angel will top our tree but I will enjoy every year that she does! 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

For the angel part of the challenge, I found this cute little angel puffy sticker in my December Daily supplies. She was the perfect embellishment for my layout. 

To satisfy the word "love" part of the challenge, I found a puffy sticker that says, "love this tradition." Shane doesn't always put the angel on top of the tree - sometimes he has no interest in decorating it all, so you better believe that I snap a photo of him placing her on the top every chance I get! I think this photo is of him from 2017.

I have added a hidden journaling block behind the photo on the left page. I still need to add my journaling to it but once it is done it will be tucked behind the photo.

Be sure to go check out Heart's Quest Challenge Blog. We would love it if you played along with us! Any type of paper craft project is accepted - a card, scrapbook layout, traveler's notebook layout, tag, bookmark, or ATC card is accepted. The deadline to enter Love Theme #6 is August 27th at 12:30 AM Central Time.

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

Birthday Cupcakes - Heart's Quest Challenge Blog - Color Heart Challenge #3

 Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! We are getting oh-so-close to the weekend - are you ready for it? We have so many outdoor projects that need to be done and I am hoping that the weather is nice enough to get out and work!

I have some exciting news to share today. My friend, Becca, has started up a new challenge blog called Heart's Quest Challenge Blog and I am the guest designer for their Color Heart Challenge #3! Heart's Quest Challenge Blog - or HQCB - offers two main types of bi-weekly challenges for paper-crafting artist bloggers to participate for bragging rights as a Top 3 Pursuit Achiever.

Color Heart Challenge #3 is to use the required color of orange and you must have at least one orange heart on your project. Neutrals and small spots of other colors are okay, but your project must be mostly orange.

This is what I came up with for the challenge:

I am back to working on my 2018 Favorite Photos of Ada Traveler's Notebook. I would love to have this TN done by the end of the summer. I am right at the halfway point and if I just concentrate on it, I am sure I could have it done by June. But, we are so busy with outdoor projects right now - at least when we have dry days - that it doesn't leave much time for me to get into my scrap room. So, I am setting my goal to finish this TN by Labor Day!

For my layout, I used all Elle's Studio goodies - except for the alpha stickers for my title - which are from Bella Blvd, and the puffy hearts - from Pink Fresh. I tried to stick with all orange on my layout, but I really wanted to use the heart patterned paper and it does have a few red and yellow hearts on it. I think I did a pretty good job at using mostly all orange on my layout, and I have not one orange heart, but seven orange hearts on my layout. Eight if you count the mixing bowl with a heart on it!

The photo is of Abby and Ada when they came over on my birthday and made me my favorite orange kool-aid cupcakes. I love seeing their smiling faces behind the mixing bowl! I don't know why I didn't think to take a photo of the finished product - probably too busy eating them!

I based my layout on this sketch from Journals For Life. This is the April 24th sketch:

Be sure to check out the Journals For Life shop. They offer a monthly traveler's notebook subscription kit along with a lot of other great products.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I used several stamp sets from Elle's Studio on this layout. Too many to really remember which sets they came from. I do know that the mixing bowl, whisk, and spoon came from the Holiday Baking Set - and it is on sale right now! I used first and second generation stamping to get the dark and light orange look on my layout.  Along with stamp sets from Elle's Studio, I used a few die-cuts, as well:

I love how this turned out! I have said it before - I have got to start using my stamps more on my projects! They are so fun to use!

Be sure to stop by Becca's - Heart's Quest Challenge Blog - and play along! This challenge runs unti  May 13th at 12:30 AM Central Time. Any type of paper crafting project can be used - cards, scrapbook layouts, traveler's notebooks, ATCs, bookmarks, tags, or journals.

Becca also has started another challenge blog - FarmQuest Challenge Blog. It has a new challenge going live today, as well. Being raised on a farm and still living the country life - I need to make time to play along with these challenges, too!

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

I Love Llamas - LM #595 - Shape challenge - Hearts

Hello, everyone! Happy Easter to you! Do you have any fun plans for today? All the kids are coming over and I'm sure there will be an Easter egg hunt - if the rain holds off!

It's time for a new challenge at Lasting Memories today. The theme for April is - shapes - and this week's challenge is to use hearts on your layout. Here is my layout for the challenge:

 

This layout of Miss Ada is going in my 2022 Life Crafted album. All of a sudden, Ada has decided that llamas are now her favorite animal and she is obsessed with getting all of the llama things. She couldn't believe that her mom had a paif of llama sleep shorts and she did not, so we went online and found a pair of llama pjs that she was happy with and ordered. She was happy to try them on and pose for a couple of photos for me. This set even came with a pair of sleep shorts, so she is good to go!

I used papers from my April - Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash kit. For the Lasting Memories challenge to use hearts - I stamped hearts down the side of my layout in all of the colors in the striped paper. I love how it turned out, and, once again, wonder why I don't use my stamps more on my layouts. I punched out different sizes of hearts from the patterned paper and scattered them about the layout. It kind of looks like sticker sneeze but there was just too much white space for my liking! 

Here are a couple of close-ups: 

Even though I had the rainbow row of hearts, I wanted to bring in a bit of the striped paper that is on the right page to the left page of the layout so I added a strip under the title to give a bit of separation between the title and journaling.

Here is a close-up of the right page:

This cute little llama and the title are from a stamp set from Dollar Tree. I just happened to go in there this last week and saw this cute little stamp set, and since Ada is all about the llamas right now, I figure I will get lots of use out of it! I'm pretty sure I've already got my $1.25 out of with this layout. I really did not expect them to stamp so good! The only thing is the stamp that I used for my title actually says  - I love llama - so I had to find a stamp with an "S" that was the same size and close to the same style font to make it plural. All in all, I am very pleased with my purchase.

Here is a close-up of the llama:

Pretty stinkin' cute!

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 a chance to play along with us this month!

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

TN Time With Lisa & Lori December Challenge

 Hello, everyone! Happy Monday to you! I hope that you had a good weekend and that you are ready for this week heading into Christmas. We had a pretty quiet weekend but I'm pretty sure that will change as the week goes on seeing as how Ada wants to have a sleepover before Christmas. We introduced her to Yahtzee last Thursday and she loved it! I am sure we will be doing a lot of game playing - Uno, Sorry, and now Yahtzee - while she is here. Oh, yeah, and she wants to watch the movie Ron's Gone Wrong with us, too. Abby and Shawn took her to the theater to see it when it came out and loved it. She may have to spend a couple of nights with us to get it all done!

Anyway, it is time for December's TN Time With Lisa & Lori challenge! We're a little late this month - the holidays and life have kept us busy - but we are here with the challenge now and hopefully, we will get back on track in the new year!

Here is how it works - this is a just-for-fun monthly challenge that starts on the 10th of each month and ends on the 9th of the following month at midnight CST. If you complete my random challenge for the month - link your TN, bullet journal, or planner spread below. If you complete just Lisa's sketch challenge, link up over on her blog - My Creative Endeavors. If you combine both challenges - be sure to link up on both Lisa's blog and here on my blog.

Here is my challenge for December:

It's Anything Goes this month! Use whatever colors and embellishments you would like!

Here is the fun sketch that Lisa has created:

This is what I came up with for the challenge:

I am back to working on my 2018 Favorite Photos of Ada TN this month. This spread is one of two for November. I already had all of the papers and photos together in my November kit for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash and this layout came together so quickly and I love how it turned out! I used Simple Stories' Freezin' Season for this snowy spread of Ada building her first snowman with Pops.

We just happened to get a good snowman building snow while she was here at our house. It was one of those super wet, super heavy snows and by the time she and Pops were done building her Ada-sized snowman - the hair that was sticking out of the bottom of her stocking cap was soaking wet! She was ready to head back inside and get warmed up!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I added a label from my stash for this cluster base and I love how it turned out. Since the snowman sticker that I used had some yellow in it, I added a yellow snowflake to this cluster to bring that color around my spread.

This phrase sticker could not have been more perfect!

I was afraid this snowglobe sticker might've been too big for my spread, but I really like it.

Now, even though this is a just-for-fun challenge we do have a few rules:

1. Create a TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK, PLANNER, OR BULLET JOURNAL spread based on the CHALLENGE THEME and/or our sketch. 
2. Create a new, not previously posted project.
3. You are welcome to combine with other challenges.
4. If you have a blog please include the challenge graphic & a link to our challenge in your post.
5. You can link to social media if you don't have a blog. If you show your project on Instagram, please make sure to use #TNtimewithLisaandLori 
6. You can submit multiple projects but they must be posted to InLinkz or social media separately.
7. Most importantly have FUN!

Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog and check out her beautiful spread for this month's challenge. I hope you have some time to play along with us!

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

LM #575 - Stash Bash - Enamel Dots, Brads, and/or Stamps

 Hello, everyone!  Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend. It has been pretty quiet around here - which has been nice. Scott's work shut down until after Thanksgiving due to a rise in Covid cases and we are enjoying the unexpected...vacation.

It's time for a new challenge at Lasting Memories today - and I am playing along! We've been working on using up our stash and this week's challenge is to use enamel dots, brads, and/or stamps on your layout. I am still working on my 2018 Favorite Photos of  Ada TN and this is what I came up with:

For this layout, I have used another one of the page kits that I put together for my November Stash Bash Kit. I pulled together eight page kits for November and so far I have touched seven of them - which makes me happy!  The page kit that I used for this layout had three full sheets of Bella Blvd's Panda's and Popsicles collection and I cut into two of them for this layout. The black and white paper is a bit busy so I covered up the majority of it with the photo block. I made good use of the border strip paper - cutting a strip for the edge of the right page and using the solid stripes on the "b" side to punch out the hearts and banner strip.

For the stash bash challenge at Lasting Memories, I used enamel dots, a label stamp, and a date stamp. 

This photo of Ada is from a shopping trip we took to Springfield. While we were at Hobby Lobby she found this backpack and "needed" it. The journaling says - Ada found this panda backpack at Hobby Lobby while we were out shopping & she just had to have it. When she asked her Mom she was told "no" so she went to the higher up and asked Nana. Of course, the backpack came home with us!

Here is a close-up of the photo block:

I must say that this layout didn't turn out quite like I had planned - if I were to do it all over again, I would move the journaling up under the title and put a little cluster at the bottom of the right page - but I'm not bothered enough by it to redo it! I'm just happy to have another layout in the books!

Be sure to stop by Lasting Memories to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge. 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!

Lasting Memories #574 - Stash Bash - Wood Veneer, Flair, and/or Buttons

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you!  I hope you are having a good weekend. It's going to be a busy day around here so let's get started.

Lasting Memories has a new challenge today and I am playing along! This week our challenge is to use wood veneer, flair, and/or buttons on our layouts. This is what I came up with:

For my layout, I have used some old wood veneer pieces from Gossamer Blue. Oh, how I miss their kits and grab bags! This wood veneer is so incredibly thin and I am going to be so sad when it is all gone - but I am so happy that I got so many pieces used on this layout. 

I am still plugging away at my 2018 Favorite Photos of Ada TN - and I used another of the page kits that I put together for my stash bash kit this month:

I was able to use a lot of the scraps from this kit for this layout. 

These photos are of Ada with the handprint painting that she made for me. I am so happy that I will always have her little 4 - almost 5 - year old handprints on this canvas! I love pulling it out when it comes time to decorate for fall.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I used the 'fall' wood veneer piece as part of my title - Fall Masterpiece. I added in a few leaf stickers behind the wood piece for a bit of embellishment.

I was so happy that I had so many fall-themed wood pieces left - these little acorns are my favorite! I added in a few die-cut leaves to finish off this little cluster - and they help to cover up the busy bookshelf in the background!

I love how this spread turned out! I am so glad that I am making working on my traveler's notebooks a priority this month. I may just have to keep it up the next few months!

Be sure to stop by Lasting Memories to see the beautiful layouts from the design team. I would love it if you played along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I'll be back a little later with another project to share with you!

TN Time With Lisa & Lori - November Challenge

Hello, hello! Happy  Friday to you! Do you have plans for your weekend? I think we are planning on putting our tree up on Sunday. Not as early as last year but still earlier than all the years prior! Shane has started talking constantly about putting the tree up - and the lights up - and what he wants for Christmas, so I think it is time to deck the halls and bring on the jolly!

It is also time for the November edition of TN Time With Lisa & Lori. Before we get to that - I want to say a big thank you to Aimselee for playing along with us in October! It is always fun to see someone playing along! Now, let's get on with the challenge. 

Here is how it works - this is a just-for-fun monthly challenge that starts on the 10th of each month and ends on the 9th of the following month at midnight CST. If you complete my random challenge for the month - link your TN, bullet journal, or planner spread below. If you complete just Lisa's sketch challenge, link up over on her blog - My Creative Endeavors. If you combine both challenges - be sure to link up on both Lisa's blog and here on my blog.

Here is my challenge for November:

The color for November is kraft and I want to see a cut apart/project life card on your spread.

Here is the awesome sketch that Lisa has created for this month:

This is what I came up with:

I created a Halloween spread documenting our little family party this year. I used this page kit that I had put together for my November Stash Bash kit:

A few more scraps have been used, another sheet was cut into, and I was able to use a couple of stickers. I still have lots of Halloween photos to scrap - just if I have time to get to them before the end of the month!

Here's a look at the left page of the spread:

I have quite a bit of journaling that I would like to get down and I had one more photo that I wanted to use that goes along with the journaling, so I used my cut apart card as I flip out so I could get everything I wanted on this spread:

I am still trying to condense all that I want to say on that one 3x4 card. I attached it with a removable adhesive for the time being because I may end up having to type it all up. The gist of it is that since our big family Halloween party back in 2019 when almost my entire extended family dressed up - Shane has been in love with Halloween. He now loves it almost as much as he does Christmas! He dressed up as a witch - or wizard - that year and that is what he wants to be every year. He has so much fun when we all dress up!

He used to be so good about taking pictures but here lately, not so much. He did not want to be in any of the group photos so I had to be sneaky when I took any of him. In the photo above, he was trying to stop me from getting a picture of the other kids by blocking my view - but I really love how this turned out! It looks more like he photobombed them!

I added a couple of jack-o-lantern stickers and word phrase stickers below the cut apart card, I feel like it needs a little something added to the top of the card so I think I will add a tab and maybe add "open here" to it. 

Here is a look at the right side of the spread:

I die cut my title from black cardstock and added a few more stickers from the sticker sheet and a ghost that I stamped and fussy cut. I found a strip of these enamel stars on my desk and I picked the ones that matched and I added them to my spread. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I pulled out one of my life-crafted albums from Citrus Twist and I am working directly in it. I think that I will definitely be finishing out 2021 in these albums and working in them in 2022, as well. 

Now, even though this is a just-for-fun challenge we do have a few rules:

1. Create a TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK, PLANNER, OR BULLET JOURNAL spread based on the CHALLENGE THEME and/or our sketch. 
2. Create a new, not previously posted project.
3. You are welcome to combine with other challenges.
4. If you have a blog please include the challenge graphic & a link to our challenge in your post.
5. You can link to social media if you don't have a blog. If you show your project on Instagram, please make sure to use #TNtimewithLisaandLori 
6. You can submit multiple projects but they must be posted to InLinkz or social media separately.
7. Most importantly have FUN!

That's about it for today! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog - have a wonderful day!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

LM #573 - Stash Bash - Punches, Stickers, and/or Washi Tape

 Hello, hello! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend. We have had a great weekend and today our plan is to watch some football - and I may see if I can get some scrapping or stitching done while we watch.

It is time for a new challenge at Lasting Memories today - and I am playing along! Our theme for November is "Stash Bash." With the end of the year coming up quickly we are trying to use up some of our stash. Each week you are given a set of three items and you can choose to use just one of the items on your layout, or you can use two of the items on our layout, or you can use all three items on your layout. The choice is yours! This week's challenge is to use punches, stickers, and/or washi tape on your layout. This is what I came up with:

I decided to create a layout in my 2018 Favorite Photos of Ada traveler's notebook. I am trying to finish up this traveler's notebook this month so I am sure you will be seeing it pop up a lot over the next few weeks. 

For this layout, I used the Simple Stories 'Freezin' Season' that I included in my November Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash kit. It was so nice having everything together and all ready to go when I sat down to scrap. The only things that I used that were not in my kit were the "snowflake" stamps (I think they are meant to be stars but I thought they could pass as snowflakes, too!), a circle punch, a scalloped circle punch, and a heart punch.

To satisfy the Lasting Memories challenge - I used punches (circle punch, scalloped circle punch, and heart punch) and stickers (some of the snowflakes, the igloo, the penguin, word phrase stickers) on this layout. I tried to use some washi, but I just couldn't get it to look right anywhere that I put it!

I based my layout on this Sunday Sketch from September 12th from the Journals For Life Facebook page:

Here are a few close-ups - first the left page:

I added a photo corner with a torn edge to bring the pink paper and the torn edges over to the left side of the page. I stamped a few snowflakes in grey, pink, and mint green to go with my papers. 

This little sticker cluster just makes me happy! I punched out a few snowflakes in circles that were on one of the patterned papers to add to this cluster. 

Here is the right page:

I fussy cut this snowglobe out of one of the patterned papers and popped it up with some foam tape. 

I punched these little snow people out of one of the patterned papers and added them to a scalloped circle for an embellishment. They are so cute!

This photo of Ada is from January 18, 2018. I think this was the first "big" snow that we had gotten since she was big enough to really enjoy it. She had so much fun playing out in the snow - until she threw this handful up into the air and it all blew back into her face and went down her coat. Then she was ready to go back inside!

That is one more spread done in my 2018 Favorite Photos of Ada TN. Just about 20 more to go! I can't wait to see how many I can get done this month.

Be sure to check out Lasting Memories to see how the rest of the design team took on this challenge. We would love it if you played along with us this month!

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

TN Time With Lisa & Lori - October Challenge

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

It is time for the October edition of TN Time With Lisa & Lori. We're a little bit late this time around - but better late than never! Here is how it works - this is a just-for-fun monthly challenge that starts on the 10th of each month and ends on the 9th of the following month at midnight CST. If you complete my random challenge for the month - link your TN, bullet journal, or planner spread below. If you complete just Lisa's sketch challenge, link up over on her blog - My Creative Endeavors. If you combine both challenges - be sure to link up on both Lisa's blog and here on my blog.

Here is my challenge for October:

This month I am challenging you to use orange on your layout and a label or tab.

Here is the sketch that Lisa has created for us:

And this is what I came up with:

I pulled out my 2018 Favorite Photos of  Ada TN to work in this month. I have so many traveler's notebooks that are "in progress" and I would really like to get a few of them finished up by the end of the year. This particular one would not take me long at all to finish up if I would just work on it!

Anyway, the photo is of Ada on Halloween of 2018. She had on this cute little outfit when Abby dropped her off that morning and I had to get a couple of pictures of her in it. I took a cue from the phrase on her shirt and used that for my title and went with ghosts for my embellishments.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I used one ghost sticker and then several ghosts that I die cut for my embellishments. To help the ghosts stand out from the white background I inked all of the edges with black soot distress ink. I also stamped some stars in black and in orange and die cut them out to sprinkle around my layout. I punched out several tiny black and orange stars to finish it all off with. 

I love these little ghost die-cuts! They just make me smile every time that I cut them out! 

Here is the right side of the spread:

I used a couple of papers from Echo Park's Halloween Magic collection. That ghost paper is so cute and I can't wait to use more of it. 

Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog to see her beautiful layout for this challenge. I hope you have some time to play along with us. I would love to see what you create!

Even though this is a just-for-fun challenge we do have a few rules:

1. Create a TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK, PLANNER, OR BULLET JOURNAL spread based on the CHALLENGE THEME and/or our sketch. 
2. Create a new, not previously posted project.
3. You are welcome to combine with other challenges.
4. If you have a blog please include the challenge graphic & a link to our challenge in your post.
5. You can link to social media if you don't have a blog. If you show your project on Instagram, please make sure to use #TNtimewithLisaandLori 
6. You can submit multiple projects but they must be posted to InLinkz or social media separately.
7. Most importantly have FUN!

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter