July 4 ... 5 challenges!!!!

I have a couple hours tonight with NOBODY home....its glorious! I have the radio blasting and I'm singing my heart out (wouldn't dare do that in the presence of anyone else....I'm tone deaf I'm told!!). I decided to work on a couple challenges.....two for Sketches For You -- the first one is to use Red, White and Blue, add ribbon and a couple stars. Check, Check. Check. The second one there was to try a new technique. They gave a link to a tutorial for paper barn stars. Sooooo easy and they look great!!! The third challenge with this layout is the sketch which is a PageMaps sketch for Stuck on You Sketches. And there is a bonus if you use Red, White & Blue!! And of course Frosted Designs has Red, White & Blue as their weekly challenge!! Yay! I have to admit, I've only done ONE 4th of July layout (this one) and have a ton of fireworks pictures still and I've done 3 other Red, White and Blue layouts this month. I'm about tired of the colors and I'm running out of different papers to use!! All paper is by Scenic Route from last year! OK, so I didn't scrap LAST YEAR'S 4th of July yet either! I still have the WRMK Old Glory papers to use so there will still be more Red, White & Blue in my future!  This layout also works for the Summer challenge at Partners In Crafting Crime.  I know July 4 means summer to me!

I really should be working on a baby album that I have half done but I just don't want to! Is it bad that the shower is THIS Saturday and I don't intend to finish the gift until Friday night!!! I did pick up a bouncy seat as a gift in addition to the album so even if I don't finish it I still have a gift. And it would give me an excuse to go get my baby fix after he's born! Hmmm....no, I will try to finish it! But now....something more fun...not sure what yet but I have 3 Design Team projects to get done so maybe one of them will be next.

BFF's - Color Room, PIT

This layout uses color pallette #13 at The Color Room. There is a challenge here at Pages In Time. Your project must use a punch and flowers. I used my large circle punch for the two black circles rather than the Cricut (and it sure was a lot easier....I have to start giving my basic shapes punches more love...and of course you can see the flowers!  Oh, and I used a July sketch at PageMaps.

The girly words paper is by TCP Studios that was on clearance at Michaels last week and I got it for 19c!!! Gotta love that! Of course I also bought the black glitterd cardstock at the same time which was $1.99 which is way more than I usually pay for a piece of cardstock!!! The black ribbon says "Good Friends Never Go Out of Style" and it came in a 6 packs of ribbons, along with the hot pink one on this layout, from the $1 spot at Target!!! Gotta love that Dollar Spot! The white puffy swirls are again from Michaels and I have to go back and get more because I just LOVE them...they work for so many different layouts and you get a whole bunch for like $2.50! Silver doilies from Wilton and flowers are Petaloo Dazzlers. Got the white felt letters at Dollar Tree!! Hmmm, had it not been for that over priced glittered cardstock, I could call this a pretty Frugal page. Speaking of the glittered cardstock....not only was it Uber expenisive, but when I started the layout and was looking at the sketch, I confused that piece with the word letters and cut it wrong by about 3 inches. I was so upset because there was no way I could...nor did I want to, crop the photos any smaller. I was about to pitch it and try something else when I decided to tr something. I used a black sharpie around the cut edges of the black glitter paper so you couldn't see the white core and then just butted the two pieces up to each other. The only place the seam is even visible is a 1/2 inch on the left side and honestly, if you didn't know it was there, you would never see it! Quite clever on my part I thought!!  I also tried putting some hot pink Smooch under the white swirls to make them pop but my plan didn't pan out too well!!  Oh well....I tried!

Slide With Me Mom

This morning I decided to just scrap what I wanted. No challenges in mind, no contests, etc. Just chose a picture from the album I had out last night....so glad to be getting some of the older photos scrapped....picked out some papers and off I went. I admit, I did use a PageMaps sketch for inspiration. Its been a long time since I have been to the PageMaps site and I used to use Becky's sketches all the time before I was introduced to the world of blogging and found all the sketch and challenge blogs out there! I love this photo of Susie and even though she just turned 12, she still has that same sweet little voice and I can close my eyes and be right back there hearing her say "Slide with me Mommy!". She loved her Little Tykes slide and everytime she got on it she INSISTED that I slide too. If you have seen Little Tykes stuff, its NOT adaptable to grown ups! LOL! But slide I did!!

Hmm....I didn't intend this as I thought the new challenge started this morning, but it appears that I DO have a challenge to submit for. Practical Scrappers - use flowers! Apparently the new challenge comes out tomorrow!  AND I also didn't do this intentionally, but the Color Challenge over at Frosted Designs is Yellow, Orange, Turquoise and Green.  Check, Check, Check and Check!  (And about 5 other colors but the rules didn't say we could ONLY use those colors!

Supply List: Co'ordinations Vintage Collection cardstock, Fancy Pants About A Girl papers, yellow dot ribbon from the $1 Spot at Target (I know its crooked at the bottom...I fixed it after I took the photo!), flowers are all Recollections $1 packs from Michael's with bling centers by unknown, GROW Bingo Card by Jenni Bowlin, swirl from flowers is a Sizzix diecut, green title letters are Doodlebug, tiny type letters are My Little Shoebox, the butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch that I got for $4 at Walmart on clearance (WOO HOO!), yellow flower brad is Making Memories and I used an EK Success border punch on the blue polka dot paper.

Unfortunately, I must now go grocery shopping!! So probably not a big scrapping day for me today! There's always tonight though!