Ireland, Busch Gardens

Its really been a while since I did a two-pager! You can click the picture to see it bigger.  I really don't want to do a HUGE album for our trip to Busch Gardens considering it was just a long weekend. I have done a few single or two photo layouts already and decided that for the "country" pictures, I will get as many photos on a two-pager as possible, the rest will just go in photo sleeves. This layout is based on a sketch by Cheri at Let's Scrap. She is my GO TO sketch person for two page layouts!!! I used a mix of papers from Best Creations, Reminisce and Daisy D's. I found that I don't have much in the way of GREEN papers!! The shamrocks were cut on my Cricut using a free SVG file from Amy's SVGs and using Sure Cuts A Lot 2. I broke a plate to my Cuttlebug making this layout too!! The 3rd layer of the bottom right shamrock circle is embossed. Well I accidentally used the wrong "sandwich" combination and half way through I thought it was awful tight and then SNAP! Broke plate B clear in half! I actually thought it was pretty funny. I guess you had to be there! Anyway, the other stuff on this layout are doilies that I picked up at the Dollar Tree, the black letters on the wavy paper I THINK are by Recollections but am not positive. Not sure where the white trim came from either!! The small green flowers on the doilies are Prima and the gold coins on the shamrocks are actually tokens from Busch Gardens that the kids didn't end up using!! I thought they worked great on this layout!

Phew, this layout took a long time! I've been working on this on and off since about 9pm and its almost midnight. Time for me to close the eyelids! Have a great night!

Yes I Like Pina Colada!

Its been a slow scrapping weekend for me. I don't know why...I've had plenty of time...just no desire to do much. Its SO FREAKING hot here that all I can think about is how bad my electric bill is going to be. I don't think my Central AC has turned off ONCE since Friday morning. Anyway, this layout is another for the Antigua album. The drinks were free (was an all-inclusive) so I took complete advantage of trying the drink of the day and every imaginable flavor of Pina Colada. As you can see in the top photo....sometimes one just wasn't enough....a sip of Melon, and sip of Mango, a sip of Melon.....lol!! Ahhhh....I want a Pina Colada so bad now!! (And not in a 6 oz plastic cup either!!).

This layout is loosely based on an upcoming sketch at Let's Scrap. Papers are Bo Bunny Flower Child. Lettering is Echo Park for the small letters and Basic Grey June Bug for the bigger ones. The Pineapple Drink was an SVG from Digital Designs by Stephanie that I cut on my Cricut and then pieced together and accented with Prismacolor pencils.

This one I did just because I came across the pictures and had to do something with them. I didn't even use Christmas papers but you would never know! The photos are my mom and youngest brother in 1973. Make sure to note the lovely flocked artificial tree and the small tree on my mom's head...oh wait, that's her hair! (We love to tease my mom about her 60's and 70's hairdos! There are some real DOOZIES!!) I used Prima Urban Cosmos and Cosmo Cricket Fleuriste papers. The letters are Pink Paislee...yup, still using those green glitter letters...I'm running out of vowels though! Chip buttons are Making Memories Mistletoe and the chip journal spot and flower thing are Basic Grey. I made the pointsettias myself and the large one has one of my favorite paper roses from the bridal section...I'll tell ya again....69c for a bunch of 10 blooms vs. $5 for a bunch of 8 made by a scrapping mfr....smooshed into the center of it. I detailed the flowers with gold Stickles. The organza ribbon that I bunched around the back of the half circle at the top is from Close To My Heart from a ribbon buy I got in with some friends about 12 years ago and I STILL have tons left!

Hopefully I will have more to come later tonight!

Dunes

I squeezed in one last layout for today. Its a two pager....not crazy about two pagers but I did this for an upcoming sketch at Let's Scrap and that's how the sketch is! I used papers by TPC Studios Mediterranean Summer and the blue crinkly paper is something new I just got called Banana Leaf Paper. Its got a really neat texture but its a pain in the butt to cut! I painted with two colors of blue at the top and bottom of the layout which also qualifies it for Cindy's July Challenge at Sketches For You. That's all I have.....I MUST sleep now! Good thing is I am off at 2 tomorrow and don't go back to work till Monday! Yipppppeee!! Gotta love short weeks!

Movie Star

All good things must come to an end, and so this is the end of a great LONG weekend! It's back to work tomorrow morning for 3 days of LONG hours. Because we have off on Fridays and this week had off on Monday as well, we have to make our 35 hours in just 3 days. So that means sitting at work until 5:45pm. Fortunately I only have to do that tomorrow as I put in for time off on Wednesday to leave at 4 and Thursday I will leave at 2. Every year when these long hour weeks creep up I say "Next year I am taking this week off". But I never do! Anyway, crew ran really late tonight and we didn't get home till after 9. John had made ribs on the BBQ so after eating dinner I decided to do ONE more layout before I have to be responsible and work to earn more money for scrapping supplies! LOL!! In keeping with the Disney theme, I decided to scrap these photos of John who was caught at the entrance to MGM Studios by a "director" who cast John as an EXTRA in his film! The photos show John being helped by the director! Fun!!! 

This layout is based on the June 10, 2009 sketch by Cheri O'Neill at Let's Scrap.  All the papers were purchased in Downtown Disney, the glitter letters are actually wooden letters and the stickers are EK Success except the ticket which is Little Yellow Bicycle. Because of the challenge this week at Practical Scrappers being Animation, Cartoons and Characters, I am hoping to get quite a few Disney layouts done this week....we'll see how it goes. Hope everyone has a great week!

Too much to do, no time to do it!

It happened....real life finally caught up with me and an entire three day weekend has passed with this one lonely layout completed, and its far from one of my better pages.  I seriously feel like I just have no more scrapping ideas.  I tried for a few hours on Friday morning and got nowhere except adding partially completed layouts to the pile of "I thought this was a good idea, but clearly NOT".  But I did finish this one.  Based on an upcoming sketch at Let's Scrap.  I'm completely exhausted after all the running around this weekend....I honestly feel like I've been moving non-stop since last Tuesday between baseball games, end of year school activities, Father's Day, etc.  I think I could sleep for a week straight!!!

New Sketch At Let's Scrap!

It's Wednesday! That means its time for a new sketch reveal from Cheri over at Let's Scrap.  And make sure you check out the great prize donated by Mark's Finest Paper.   Here is this week's sketch and below is my take on it.

I opted to just do the left side this time.  Check out Let's Scrap to see what the other Design Team ladies did with this one!!  There's lot more going on there too!!  We have the month-long PageMaps sketch challenge with a $20 Gift Card prize to A Cherry On Top.  There is a great challenge from Deb on the Design Team to use torn cardstock on a layout (see a few posts down for my entry - Orange Blossom Sunrise) and Rosalie has a very popular Question of the Week!!  And keep up with us over at Let's Scrap because Friday, there will be a NEW Design Team Challenge, Monday a NEW Question of the Week, and every Wednesday is a new sketch!!  We'd love to have you join us!

Here Fishy, Fishy!

I had this layout mostly finished this afternoon but had to leave for my son's baseball game (we won, 15-0) so I ran out of daylight to take the picture.  The papers are holographic and hard to photograph. I will try again tomorrow and replace the photos if its better.  Update:  I just re-photographed the layout and it looks MUCH better!  This page looks really awesome in real life.  John, who just appeases me by looking at my layouts...never with much to say...actually said "WOW" when he looked at this one.  That speaks VOLUMES to me! These photos are of some of the fish John was snorkeling with on our trip to Antigua. The papers are all by TPC. The blue/green ribbon is also TPC. The title and waves were cut on the Cricut and I added some Glossy Accents to give it a wet feeling. The fishy buttons I found tonight at Walmart when I wasn't even looking for them but they matched so perfectly I had to buy them!! The green ric-rac and blue and green buttons are from my stash.

This layout is based on an upcoming sketch for Let's Scrap but you will have to wait a little while to see the actual sketch! This layout also qualifies for the following challenges:

1. Practical Scrappers - Use eyelets. I used them for the fish "bubbles".

2. ScrapFit - Use a machine. I used the Cricut for the waves and the title letters.

3. Frosted Designs - Use Buttons. I used 4 round buttons and 4 FISHIE buttons.

Here it as as a double.

Hi! from the "Not A Card Maker"

Some of you who read this blog have probably heard me say this before: "I'm not a card maker". I just feel pressured when you take away my 12x12 real estate and the end result is usually something just "eh, ok". When presented with this sketch from Let's Scrap I sat on it for a couple of weeks. Today at work, while trying to avoid the piles on my desk, I drew out some ideas I had bouncing around in my head. I've never actually done that...drew out ideas...but I know lots of scrappers do this and thought I'd give it a try. Well it worked out great for me and I fully plan to do this more often (the drawing of my ideas, that is....the cards I will still buy from Hallmark!). Anyway, about mid-morning the school nurse called...and this is a direct quote: "Mrs. Zennario, this is the *** School Nurse. Your daughter is not feeling well and has left a trail of presents throughout the school. Would you be able to come pick her up?". I kid you not....that was her exact line. LOL! So I left work, picked up my daughter who was sitting in the main office by then with a bucket on her lap and came home. She feels much better, and is resting in bed since I wouldn't let her play XBox or go on her computer. I'm such a mean mommy! :) So anyway, with an unexpected block of home time,. I took my little drawing and went to work! For a "not-a-card-maker" I really like how this came out and I was able to get in on a couple of challenges to boot!! I used all scraps too which is even better since I am conciously trying to make a dent in the huge boxes of scraps I have accumulated over 12 years of scrapping! The flowers are Prima (blue) and Oriental Trading (pink), the butterfly is from Creative Charms (it was white but a little Vintage Pink Glimmer Mist fixed that problem), buttons from my stash. I used a Swiss Dot Cuttlebug embossing folder on the background and the sun. The sun and grass were cut from Doodlecharms and Plantin Schoolbook Cricut Cartridges and the letters are BeetleBlack Doodlebug. I had the following challenges in mind when working on this card:

1. ScrapFit Challenge 21 - Exercise Machines. Use a machine on your project - I used two...Cuttlebug and Cricut

2. Frosted Designs - Use Buttons

3. Alphabet Challenge Blog: F Is For Flowers. F is for Flowers

4. Bitten By The Bug 2 - Use the Sun cut on Doodlecharms Cartridge

I think that's it!! Not bad mileage out of one little card! I love all these challenges....makes me step up my ideas a bit!! So to all of you out there who run these blogs and give us challenges week after week, THANK YOU! Next up....something "FISHY".

Sketchy Thursday and Let's Scrap Challenge 53

I just had a long post all finished and hit submit and Blogger lost the whole thing on me (I do the posting through Picassa so it doesn't autosave), so you are now spared the details of how I got blue ink on my backside, and the things that I tried on the Orange Blossom Sunrise layout that didn't look good, which is why I left the space blank to fix later, and the fact that I know the journaling is messed up on that page but its fixed now.  Short and sweet after being tired of typing...the first layout is for Challenge 53 at Let's Scrap.  Had to TEAR cardstock and not use patterned paper.  Done and Done.  Second layout is for Sketchy Thursday and because I used a button in the center of the flower, I'm entering it for the challenge at Frosted Designs.  I am covered in ink from head to "butt" right now but again....Done.  Do I LOVE either of these layouts...NOPE.  But I do LIKE them both.  The Sunrise one just needs something else...not sure what yet and the inky one....well I'm freaked over the large amount of white space!  Can you tell by reading this that I am now cranky?  LOL!! I'm so aggravated that my entire post was lost!  Don't they know I am not feeling good and this just made my day even worse because I am stuck inside with Air Conditioning so I can breathe (tried to make it through Susie's softball game to no avail...its way too humid and I could not breathe!) and John is out having a great time on the motorcycle and "date night" is now postponed until next weekend?  Yep, I'm cranky!