Happy Birthday - The Studio Challenges Sketch Challenge

Hello, everyone! Good Sunday morning to you! I hope you are having a good weekend. Mine seems to be going way too fast, but they always seem to do that.

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges. This week we have one of my favorite challenges - a sketch challenge! This sketch is based on a layout created by Helen and you can see her layout here, Here is the sketch that Anna has created from it:

You know I am gonna love it when a sketch includes circles! Here is what I came up with:

I stuck closely to the sketch - I just changed up a couple of things. I used only a single photo, made my circles a bit bigger, and added in the embellishments to the top right corner. I did move my title and journaling more directly under my photo than to the right side of it. 

I used the Pebbles -  'Happy Cake Day' collection that came in my January kits from The ScrapRoom for this layout. I have used so many of those puffy dots on a couple of layouts now and I still have over half of the pack left! If you like enamel dots - or puffy dots - you need to find a pack of these. You definitely get your money's worth!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Head on over to The Studio Challenges to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team.

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

Sisters - Scrap Our Stash - What's My Challenge

Hello, everyone! Happy Saturday to you! I hope your weekend is off to a good start. We have had a busy one already with a sleepover with Miss Ada last night and today we are going to a family birthday party. Gotta love that family time!

Today I am sharing the layout that I created for the "What's My Challenge" challenge at Scrap Our Stash. This month's challenge is to "Celebrate a Spunky Old Broad" and create a layout about you or another woman you know that is 50 or over, who believes it's never too late to live a dream, be who she wants to be, or create and do whatever she wants to do. AND you must include the following slogan somewhere on your layout - "Like fine wine, women get better with age".

I am not quite 50 (but I'm getting closer all the time) so I decided to create a layout of my sisters - and I am in there, too. 

Both of my sisters fit the description of this challenge to a "T"! They are both fun-loving and always up for an adventure. When you get us all together you know that fun is going to be had! I am so lucky to have these two in my life.

Everything on this layout - except for the alphas, tiny alphas, enamel dots, and doily were in my February Great Stash Bash kit - which you can see here. I am making good progress so far this month with this kit! The flowers were fussy cut out of the floral paper that I had left over and I even got some ric rac used on this layout!

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. We can't wait to see what you create, too!

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

My Hero - Challenge YOUrself #74

Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you! I hope that you have had a good week and are all ready for the weekend. I know I am.

It's time for a new challenge at Challenge YOUrself today. February's challenge is to be inspired by the song "Hero" by Mariah Carey. Here is a link to the video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IA3ZvCkRkQ&fbclid=IwAR3eGXANFDKc4y6y4pet7s0z52404shTxOtV2mxJr4580krFNug475GzPAE

This is a beautiful song and I had so many ideas for different layouts, but I decided to make a layout of me and Shane. Having severe autism is hard and some days are a struggle not only for Shane but for his loved ones that are around him. He has overcome so much and I am sure there will be more obstacles for him in the future, but all of us together will get through them all. 

I snapped this photo of us before we went to town to do some shopping. He really looks forward to and enjoys our trips - as long as he can get his regular things!

Almost everything on this layout, except for the enamel dots, phrase stickers, and alpha stickers, was in my February Great Stash Bash kit, which you can read about here. I do plan to journal directly on my layout but I need to get my thoughts in order and figure out exactly what I want to say.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I did add some grey paint splatters around my layout, too.

Be sure to stop by Challenge YOUrself to see the wonderful layouts from the rest of the team. 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 wonderful day!

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #163

Hello, hello! Happy Wednesday! I hope you are having a good week. It's time for the first card sketch of the month at Sketch N Scrap today. Heather has created a super fun sketch for us to play with and I know it will be one that I go to again and again:

And this is the card that I created based on the sketch:

This card sketch has so many possibilities! I have ideas for just about every holiday and another idea using balloons in place of the party hats. It would also be super cute making it just like the sketch and using flowers. Yep, I will be using this sketch over and over!

I pulled these papers from my Close To My Heart scraps for this card. I thought the dotted paper looked like confetti and would be perfect for a birthday card. The party hat and sentiment stamp are from a stamp set from Lori Whitlock for Sizzix - Happy Birthday to You. This is one of my favorite birthday stamp sets. 

Now, head on over to Sketch N Scrap to see how the rest of the design team used this sketch. I would love to see your take on the sketch, too.

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

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #354

Hello, everyone! Good Tuesday evening to you all. I am so happy to share that I am back on the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge design team! I took the last term off because we had quite a bit going on around here but things have settled down now and when Michelle asked if any past members wanted to jump back in, I jumped at the chance. 

Here's a look at this week's sketch:

When I first saw this sketch, I thought it looked like a gift all wrapped up and ready to give to someone special, and since we have a few birthdays coming up, I decided to make a birthday card:

I found some paper scraps in my scrap box that coordinated and this card came together so quickly! I used the "Happy Birthday to You" stamp set by Lori Whitlock from Sizzix for my party hat and sentiment. I originally had planned to add the sentiment to a tag and have it hanging down from the party hat, but there just wasn't room for one the in the size that I needed. I'm happy with how this turned out anyway.

Be sure to stop by Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge tomorrow to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the design team and last week's Top 3. I hope to see you playing along with us this week, too!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog tonight! Have a great evening!

The Great Stash Bash Kit - February

Hello, hello! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Counterfeit Kit Challenge reveal, please scroll down. 

I can't believe that it is time for my February Great Stash Bash Kit! Yes, I will be working with two kits this month - my Counterfeit kit and my Great Stash Bash kit! I love working with kits and having everything ready to go all in one place. Having two different kits just means that I have more goodies to choose from and play with! I should not get bored with any of it this month!

Before we get to February's challenge, I wanted to let you know that I will be sharing what I created with my January kit and how much stash I was able to bash in a post later this coming week.

The Great Stash Bash 2020 is a challenge that my friend, Lisa, and I are doing to try and "bash" some of our stash. Feel free to join us and we can cheer each other on!

Here is February's challenge:

Along with the required items - this month we are concentrating on using lace/ribbon. I may even throw in some baker's twine if I need it!

Here's a look at my stash kit:

So, this month I could not contain myself to only 10 papers...I have a few extras in there! Here are my papers:

This month instead of pulling out a collection to work with, I pulled out some random papers that I would really like to use. 

The papers in the top row are my 7 older papers. I came across the floral paper when I worked on a layout last month and I really wanted to base my whole kit on it. However, when I started pulling papers I really didn't want my whole kit to be too girly, I wanted to scrap some photos of my guys, so I went half and half and pulled papers that would be good for girl layouts and papers that would be good for boy layouts. Some of the papers could be used for both!

The 7 papers in the bottom row are my "new" papers. They are actually old Becky Higgins Project Life papers - the copyright on them is 2012 - and are probably older than the papers in the top row, but they are new to me - I just bought them right before Christmas. I cannot wait to jump in and put them to use this month! Not only are the patterns on the front right up my alley, but the "B" sides are awesome, too, and will probably be used, too. 

Here are the embellishments that I pulled:

I do not have any of the embellishments that came with the above papers, so I had to get creative. I pulled puffy stars and hearts, a pack of wood embellishments, and some epoxy pieces for my older embellishments. For my new embellishment, I pulled these acrylic pieces, or maybe mirrored is a better way of describing them. I picked these up last summer and I am ready to try them out.

I broke the rules on pulling scraps this month, too, and pulled a "few" more than the required 5-7, but I found in January that I actually reached for and used my scraps more than the full sheets of paper. I am really wanting to get my scraps bashed this year and some of them are pretty small, and some are for the girly papers and some for the guy paper...well, you get the gist of my excuses! 

Here are my scraps and I can't wait to see how many I can use up this month!

Here is the ribbon/lace/trim that I have pulled to see if I can use this month. I don't have much confidence that I will get a lot used, but maybe since I have it out and ready,  I will surprise myself

And, I pulled this cut apart paper in hopes of using it. Not only will it be good for layouts, but I have ideas for a couple of cards, too.

That's my stash bash kit for February! I am so excited to get started using it!

Now, be sure to stop by Lisa's blog - My Creative Endeavors - to see her February Great Stash Bash kit.

Feel free to play along with us! You can find a list of our rules here. You can link up below here on my blog or on Lisa's blog. If you share on social media please remember to use #lisaandlorisgreatstashbash2020 so we can see what you are making.

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Counterfeit Kit Challenge February Reveal & Blog Hop

Hello, everyone! Happy Saturday to you! I can't believe that it is the first day of a new month and that means that it is time for a new Counterfeit Kit Challenge!

You should have arrived here from Leslie's blog. Don't worry if you get off track, I have the complete blog list at the end of this post.

I feel a little out of practice - no kits for December and then last month I was on mini kit duty - it seems like forever since I've made a "big" kit!

Master Forger Julene is the hostess for February and this is the kit she has picked for us to counterfeit:

Isn't that a gorgeous kit? Here is what Julene had to say about her choice - 

"I’ve chosen TRES JOLIE kit because it was different from anything we have had for a while." 

"Fall under the dark, romantic spell of Darcelle by Frank Garcia for Prima. This mesmerizing and delicately elegant collection is filled with indigo blues, boysenberry purples, and medallion golds for creating projects that will leave you speechless. Design a mixed media panel, love-filled card, or gorgeous notebook pages filled with vintage charm and beautiful accents. Discover wild and free sentiments, curious butterflies, whispers of foil, and glittering jewels in the secrets that Darcelle holds"

Julene has also created a Pinterest board that is filled with photos of the kit and some ideas for inspiration and you can see it here.

Now, I love the kit that she has chosen - the colors and the vintage/romantic patterns are just beautiful, but it is not really my scrappy style. I'm too much of a "cutesy" girl, I guess, so my kit was taken in a bit of a different direction and I think you can see how the inspiration kit inspired me.

Here is my kit:

I was inspired by the colors, the floral pattern, the wood pieces, doilies, and the flowers. I also added a bit of light pink and light blue to my kit. 

Here's a closer look at my papers:

I used the floral paper in the bottom right corner of the photo as my inspiration piece. It had the same colors as the ones in the inspiration kit and since it introduced a bit of light pink, that allowed me to add in a bit of lighter colors to my kit.  

I also found these papers in my scraps - a light woodgrain, a pink ombre, and a couple more of the pinky/purple papers. They don't show it as well in the photo (we have had nothing but cloudy days lately which means the colors aren't showing as well as I would like) but they match the color in my inspiration paper perfectly.

I also added these cut apart papers to my kit. I thought the paper on the left would be a good alternative for titles and I can always use journaling cards!

Here's a look at some of the embellishments that I have included:

I went way overboard with the wood pieces! I have collected quite a few wood words and I would like to try and get some of them used. I also have a ton of this really thin wood veneer that is in the box. I would like to use at least some of it this month. I have added some doilies, sequins, flowers, twine, trim and some ephemera pieces that will be good for layering. I have one fabric-covered brad (it's hard to pick it out in the photo but it's by the doilies) that I hope to use so I don't lose it!

I also added in a flower die and bee die (for something in particular later this month) we'll see if I can put them to use or not! Since the inspiration kit has some butterflies and bees in it, I also added in the Maggie Holmes sticker books. There are also quite a few stickers in the right color families for this collection, too. The brad pack from My Mind's Eye's 'Splendor' collection is a good match to the colors, too. 

I didn't add a lot of alphas this time - just a navy set that has a lot used on the sheet, so it will be interesting to see what I come up with, a couple of white alphas and a gold alpha. I did add a few gold word Thickers for titles, too. 

That's it! My kit might not have the vintage/romantic feel to it like the inspiration kit, but it is something that I am eager to get started using this month!

I am trying this year to keep my kits from getting too enormous. I mean, I still have 14 papers in my kit but seeing how last year I would have between 20 and 30 papers, well, this is a downsize for me!

Shannon is up next on the blog hop list, so head on over to her Youtube channel to see what she has put together this month.

Here is the blog list for you to check out the rest of the design team's kits. Be sure to stop by and leave them some love:

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

Guest Designer Kate: https://kateblue.blogspot.com/

Cindy:- http://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/
Julene:- http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com//
Leslie:- http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/

Lori:-https://loriannie670.blogspot.com >>>>>You are here<<<<<

Shannon:- https://www.youtube.com/user/ShannonAllor 

Tara:- https://kryptonite72-rambles.blogspot.com/ 

Tracey:- https://3obsessions.blogspot.com/
Tina:- http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/

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

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I will be back soon!

Spring Beauty - The Studio Challenges

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope you are having a good weekend. We have been celebrating both of our sons' birthdays this weekend. Matt's birthday was on Friday and Shane's is today and we have been enjoying some good family time this weekend.

It's time for a new challenge at The Studio Challenges today. This week's challenge is "half" - make a layout that starts with a half a piece of patterned paper on the background, the rest is up to you.

Here is what I came up with:

I started with half a piece of floral patterned paper on my background and I added a punched border strip to it. Everything on this layout was in this month's Great Stash Bash kit that you can read all about here. I was able to use up a few more of my scraps in this kit and I remembered to use a couple of the punches that I had put in my kit. I also added in a couple of stickers and a few more brads on this layout.

A couple of things to note - the blue paper behind the photo has since been straightened - I didn't even notice it was a bit off until I got the photo on here, and in the close-up photo below you will see a blue heart on top of the pink heart. I had to take multiple photos and somehow lost the heart! It has since been found and reattached!

I love the Martha Stewart doily punch that I added to my kit - it makes such a cute little embellishment - not only does it look like a doily, but it also looks like a flower, too.

Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges blog to see the layouts from the rest of the team.

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

Birthday Princess -The ScrapRoom - Mixing up the Kits

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

Today I am on The ScrapRoom's blog sharing the layout that I created for the Mixing up the Kits segment. The ScrapRoom offers so many great add-on kits each month that coordinate with their main kits. The layout that I am sharing with you today features products from the Jan/Feb Shots of Life Kit, the patterned paper add-on kit, and the embellishment kit which you can see below:

Jan/Feb Shots of Life Kit

Jan. Embellishment Add-on Kit

Jan. Patterned Paper Add-on Kit

For my project, I have created a traditional 12x12 mixed with a pocket page layout of Ada's 5th birthday. This is a great way to include more photos of an event. Here's a look at both pages together:

I used the Pebbles Cake Day cut apart sheet and sticker sheet from the Shots of Life kit, the Pebbles Balloon Bouquet and Birth-Yay papers and the Simple Stories DIY Queen and 2x2 elements paper from the patterned paper add-on kit, and the Pebbles puffy dots and Simple Stories sticker sheet from the embellishment add-on kit on my layout.

The colors in the Pebbles collection and the Simple Stories collection were so similar that I paired them together for this spread. I did pull a couple of things from my stash - gold metallic paper, a star die, string, and gold spray.

Here's a look at the left-hand side of the spread:

The tags are just for show on this layout. All of my journaling will be hidden under one of the photos on the pocket page - more out of necessity than wanting to keep things hidden! I needed a way to add a couple more photos and have my journaling on there, so I created a flip-up for the bottom right-hand pocket. Here's a better look at the pocket page:

And a couple of close-ups:

I still haven't added my journaling to this spread yet. I have been going back and forth on what I want to include. This is a bittersweet memory for me, for sure. It was a day that I had looked forward to - celebrating Ada's 5th birthday with her and the rest of the family - but Shane was not in the celebrating mood. We ended up having to leave about 10 minutes after we got to the party because Shane had a major meltdown. It's hard sometimes being the mo

m of a special needs child and having to make the hard decision to leave an event for the safety of your child and everyone around you, and knowing that you will be missing out on a special occasion for another loved one. Thankfully, Abby and my sister took lots of photos for me and I was there in spirit! I think I will just keep the journaling on this layout all about Ada and her party and maybe just include the story of why weren't able to stay in my weekly Project Life album. What would you do?

Be sure to check out The ScrapRoom blog for more inspiration using the January kits.

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

What An Artist - Scrap Our Stash Sketch Challenge

Hello, hello! Happy Tuesday to you! I hope that your week is off to a good start! We got a tiny bit of snow yesterday and have more wintery weather in the forecast for the end of the week. It looks like winter is really here.

Today I am sharing my take on the Scrap Our Stash sketch challenge for this month. Along with the awesome sketch, we are also challenged to use chevron patterned paper and something gold. Here is a look at the sketch:

And here is my layout:

The chevron pattern has always been a favorite of mine but I have noticed that it hasn't been in a lot of the newer collections. I guess I'd better enjoy what I've got stashed away until it comes back in style! I found this chevron piece in an old collection (2013) from Pebbles - From Me To You - and thought it paired well with these photos of Ada. I loved the bright, cheerful colors in the chevron paper and the greens went pretty well with Ada's Oogie Boogie creation.

I'm not generally a fan of adding my title straight on top of a busy patterned paper like this - I feel it kind of gets lost on there - and when I see this photo it makes me think I need to go do something different with it, but when looking at it in person, it really shows up better than it appears in the photos so I am letting go and leaving it alone!

About the photos - Ada loves to draw. She is constantly asking for paper and getting her markers and crayons and drawing a picture or two every time she is at our house. Over the summer she started watching "how to draw" videos on Youtube and would follow along with them. On this day she decided to draw Oogie Boogie from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" - maybe because he is in the Kingdom Hearts video games and she likes to watch Uncle Matt play those when he comes down. Maybe they had watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas"...who knows, but he was the chosen one on this day. I could not believe how well she had done! I think he's pretty much the cutest villain I have ever seen!

I did add my journaling to the tag that is tucked in behind the photos on the upper left side. It says - Ada had been watching "how to draw" videos & drawing along with them. She is becoming quite the artist & has drawn some really cute pictures. I think this drawing of Oogie Boogie is pretty much perfect! I hope she continues to draw because the girl's got talent! Oct. 14, 2019.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I picked the "From Me To You" paper pad up at Tuesday Morning a few years ago and I did not have any embellishments that go with it. I'm not much of a themed scrapper - at least when it comes to things like art supplies or being crafty - I generally just tend to embellish with generic - go-with-everything embellishments, so my options were pretty limited for this page. I did find this watercolor set and the colored pencils in my Amy Tangerine sticker book, and #1 - I needed to add some gold to my layout, and #2 - I really don't know when I would really use these stickers again, so I went with them. I also added in a few puffy gold hearts. 

Head on over to Scrap Our Stash for more inspiration from the design team.

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