Merry and Bright - Christmas Cards All Year Round

Hello, everyone! Happy (almost) August 1st to you! I can't believe it is August 1st. The new school year will be starting in just a couple of weeks and I'm not sure I am ready to be getting back into that routine just yet.

With it being the first of the month we have a new challenge posted at Christmas Cards All Year Round today. Our challenge for August is "Yellow" - use a little or a lot, just have some yellow on your project.

When I saw what this month's challenge was, I knew that it was time to break into my old Scenic Route - Garland - papers. It has yellow throughout the collection and it has been collecting dust on my paper rack for far too long! The sentiment is a stamp from Fancy Pants' - Merry and Bright - stamp set. 

Since I made this card in July - it counts toward my July goal to make 15 Christmas cards. Sadly, I only made it to 10, but hey, I made more than I normally would have! I will just continue to make a Christmas card every chance I get!

Be sure to stop by Christmas Cards All Year Round to see how much yellow the rest of the design team has used on their projects. 

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

Christmas Card Challenges #18

Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Lasting Memories reveal, please scroll down or go here.

We have a new challenge up at Christmas Card Challenges today. Our only rule is to make a Christmas/Holiday card, but we do offer an optional challenge if you need a little inspiration. This week's challenge is a photo inspiration challenge:

Since I love snowmen - this challenge was an easy one! I used a pre-colored image from Imagine That! by Kris called Snowman Trio. Pre-colored images are a great way to make a super cute, super quick card! The papers that I used are from Crate Paper's - Bundled Up - 6x6 paper pad. The colors in the papers were a perfect match to the colors in the digi stamp.

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

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

Lasting Memories #355 - On The Farm

Hello, scrappy friends! Good Sunday morning to you! I hope you are having a good weekend. We finally got a break from the heat and are enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend!

We have a new theme and a new challenge up at Lasting Memories today. Our theme for August is "All About Animals" and our first challenge is - On The Farm! Include a farm animal (cow, horse, pig, chicken, sheep, etc.) on your layout. This can be in your photos, in your patterned paper, or in the embellishments.

You would have thought that with my in-laws living on a farm for most of the time that my kids were little that I would have a ton of farm animal photos - but no, I had to find one from a trip to the pumpkin patch!

Shane's preschool class took a trip to the pumpkin patch at a local farm. While they were there they got the chance to see some of the farm animals and Shane loved this little calf!

For this layout, I have used Bella Blvd's "Barnyard" 6x8 paper pad and embellishment pack. It was perfect for this photo. I just love all the little animals in the embellishment pack.They are just too darn cute!

Head on over to Lasting Memories to see the fun - on the farm - layouts from the rest of the design team. We hope to see you playing along with us this month!

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

Christmas Card #8 With Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #222

Hello, everyone! Happy Tuesday to you! I hope that your week is off to a good start. We are still having some really hot and dry weather around here. We haven't had to mow in almost two weeks and the grass is turning brown quickly. Even one of our maple trees is starting to lose its leaves...I do hope we get some rain before too much longer. 

I am back today with another Christmas card to share with you using this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

Once again I have used Doodlebug Designs' - Here Comes Santa Claus - 6x6 paper pad for my card. The little Santa on this paper just makes me happy! The sentiment is one of my favorites and is from an old Studio G $1 bin stamp set. 

I have made it to card #8 in my goal to make 15 cards in July. I'll be cutting it close, but I do believe that I will make my goal and have a good stash of Christmas cards ready for this holiday season.

We will have the full design team reveals tomorrow on the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog, along with last week's Top 3, so be sure to stop by and check it out!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great day and keep cool!

Lasting Memories #354 - Fun On The Fourth...

Hello, hello! Good Sunday morning to you! I hope you are having a good weekend. We have been spending lots of time in the pool on these hot days and I am happy to say that Miss Ada has learned to swim! It is an amazing thing to see someone so little just take off swimming! She spent quite a bit of time on Friday jumping off the deck into the pool and swimming around a bit before she climbed up the ladder and did it all again! She is a natural at it, that is for sure!

We have a new challenge posted today at Lasting Memories. This is our last challenge of the month - can you believe that July is almost over?! Our theme for July has been - Summer Adventures - and this week our challenge is to go on a scrappy adventure - document a layout in a size you don't normally use. Show us that mini album, traveler's notebook, custom pocket page, etc.

I have scrapped a layout of Miss Ada in 6x8. I am working on her 6x8 album, but have only done pocket style pages, so this is my first actual 6x8 layout. I gotta say - it's a little hard to get used to this size and I'm used to a nice square, so the rectangular shape is a little tricky, but I know I'll get the hang of it before long!

I've been working on pages for Ada's 6x8 album from the Fourth of July 2016. I've made several cards for it already and I have a couple more to make, but I'm hoping to share them all by the end of the month.

I've used Little Yellow Bicycle's - Just Because - 6x6 paper pad for all of her cards/pages. The colors are perfect and the patterns are cute!

Head on over to Lasting Memories to see the beautiful layouts from the rest of the design team. If you get the chance, why don't you play along? Try out that size that you've always wanted to try and see how you like it!

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

Sketch N Scrap's Sizzlin' Summer Crop Challenge #3

Hello, scrappy friends! Good Saturday morning to you!

I am back with a layout that I made for today's challenge at Sketch N Scrap's - Sizzlin' Summer Crop. I got to pick the sketch for this challenge - which is always fun! Here is the sketch that I picked:

I have used Echo Park's - Summer Dreams - collection for my layout. The pretty, summery colors were perfect for these photos of Ada and the neighbor's dog. There are so many funny stories that I have to tell about this little dog...I know she will be getting a layout all about her - and she isn't even our dog!

Long story short - she lived across the road from us for many years. We didn't even know her name, but Scott thought he had heard her owner call her Trixie, or Dixie, or Pixie, so we just called her "Ixie" - and she would come to us whenever we called her that! We always said that she was Willie's girlfriend because she would come over and they would play all the time. She could run circles around Willie and they truly were the best of friends. Early this year, one of her owners passed away and "Ixie" pretty much lived at our house. She was here from the time we got up and didn't go home until it was dark. Early summer her owner sold her house and moved. When her daughter came to get "Ixie" to take her home we found out her name was really Daisy! I don't know where Scott heard anything close to "Ixie", but to us that is all she will ever be!

Okay, so that wasn't really a short story, but now you know why I think she needs a layout in our album! She was always so good with Ada and loved any kind of "loves" that she could get!

Be sure to check out the Sizzlin Summer Crop. You have until August 2nd to play along with us, and remember, you have to join the crop in order to be eligible for the prize.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!

Sketch N Scrap's Sizzlin' Summer Crop Challenge #2

Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you! I hope that you have had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. It's going to be another hot one around here, but we do have rain and a little cool down (if you can call 88 cool!) by the end of the weekend. I do hope we get some rain - our poor yard is turning brown quickly!

Sketch N Scrap's Sizzlin' Summer Crop is in full swing over on our Facebook events page. We've posted two challenges so far and the third will be posted tomorrow. The second challenge was a card sketch challenge:

Here is the card that I created for this challenge:

This is one of my favorite card sketches and I always enjoy when a get another chance to use a favorite.

For this card, I have used Fancy Pants' - Wish Season -  6x6 paper pad. I just love the non-traditional colors in this collection and the papers are just too cute! The sentiment is the Merry & Bright (M1155) stamp from Close To My Heart. I stamped it using Close To My Heart's Juniper ink - it was a perfect match to the greens in this collection. The cute little tree is from the ephemera pack.

I have made it to Christmas card #7. Just 8 more to go to meet my goal of 15 Christmas cards this month! Surely I can make 8 more cards in 11 days!

Why don't you come join the fun with us at our Sizzlin' Summer Crop? We would love to see what you create. You have until August 2nd to add your projects to the challenges, so there's still lots of time to play along!

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

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #102

Hello, everyone! Good Thursday morning to you!

Sketch N Scrap has posted the second card challenge of the month today! Lisa has created another great sketch for us to work with and I can't wait to see what you create with it!

I have created another Christmas card using this fun sketch.This is card #6 for my 15 Christmas cards in July goal. Slowly but surely I will get there!

I have used some old Doodlebug stickers on this card. I think the year on the sticker sheet was 2004...yeah, they've been hanging out in my stash, collecting dust, for long enough! I added each of the sticker circles to a scalloped circle and added foam tape under each one. The sentiment is from an old Studio G $1 bin stamp set. I even remembered to pull out one of my border punches to use on this card! It feels good to show some of my older stuff some love!

Head on over to Sketch N Scrap to see the beautiful creations from the rest of the design team. You have until July 31st to enter any of our challenges for this month for a chance at a fun prize!

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

Sketches In Thyme PL Style Sketch #79

Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Paper Play Sketches reveal, please scroll down or go here.

Today I am up on the Sketches In Thyme PL Style blog with my take on sketch #79. Sketch #79 is courtesy of my good friend, Lisa, and I couldn't wait to play along with it!

I am still working on some patriotic cards for Ada's 6x8 album. I am hopeful that after next week's sketch I will have all of the pages done so you can see how all of the cards go together!

This sketch makes a great filler card, but I do think it would make a great photo card, too. Just scale down the banners and the circle embellishment...maybe you will see what I mean with next week's reveal...

I am still using Little Yellow Bicycle's - Just Because - 6x6 paper pad for these cards. The word stickers on this card are from Bella Blvd's - All American - sticker sheet. It's a little hard to tell in the photo, but both of the bigger stars have foam tape underneath them to give them a little dimension.

Be sure to stop by Sketches In Thyme PL Style for inspiration throughout the month!

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

Paper Play Sketches #47

Hello and Happy Wednesday to you! It's the middle of the week and it'll be the weekend before we know it!

The middle of the week means we have a new challenge up at Paper Play Sketches and this week we have a sketch challenge for you:

I am continuing to try to get a total of 15 Christmas cards made in July. This makes #5...I think I'd better get with it or I may just wind up being lucky to get 10 made! I will keep at it!

I love this basic sketch. Sometimes that is all that you need to get started creating! I used Doodlebug's - Here Comes Santa Claus - 6x6 paper pad for this card. The papers in this pad are so cute that you don't have to add a lot of extra things to it!

Head on over to Paper Play Sketches to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the design team. I hope you find some time to play along with us this week, I would love to see what you create!

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