Germany, Busch Gardens

I LOVE how this page turned out! I wasn't so sure it was going to work because I really don't have anything "German" looking for embellishments. I got the inspiration from this week's sketch at Sketch Inspirations but I admit, it doesn't look all that much like the sketch unless you count the orientation and number of photos! But it was my inspiration nonetheless! I used Bazzil cardstock and a piece of Jenni Bowlin patterned paper that I found in an old box of my stash...so its probably quite old! The clocks are leftovers from a package from K&Co. but they worked with the reds and the giant Cuckoo Clock in the bottom left photo. The key is also a leftover and also K & Co. and maybe doesn't "fit" the theme, but its old which is the feel I was going for, and it fit perfectly in that blank space! The journaling ticket is Tim Holtz and the small letters spelling out Busch Gardens are also Jenni Bowlin. I made the German flag out of cardstock (the colors aren't exactly right but they had to match my layout!!), the flower is Bazzil and I cut the GERMANY title on the Cricut using a free font I found online. I'm really happy with this layout and even happier that I got most of the Germany pictures on one layout! I have a few more so there will definitely be one more, but like I said with the Ireland one, if I can keep each "country" to two pages, I will be happy!! Italy is up next!!

Wishing you all a GREAT week!

This is my last layout of the weekend. Overall I am happy with the scrapping I got done this weekend. Tomorrow starts another work week so I doubt I will get any scrapping in until Friday. This week brings a lot of worry for me. My mom is still in the hospital, doing her best to bounce back but she's not coming along as I have become accustomed to her doing. So that weighs on my mind. But mostly right now is my best friend's sister, Cynthia, who is commencing on the fight of her life. Cynthia is in her mid-50's but is mentally challenged and realistically is about 12. She has a heart of gold and is the sweetest person you would ever meet. About two months ago she began coughing and thought she had a cold but could not shake it. After a few more tests and x-rays, the diagnosis through us all for a loop. Lung Cancer. She never smoked, didn't work so was not exposed to anything other than her home. Tomorrow she is having surgery to remove part of her lung. Please keep her in your prayers. See why I'm cranky sometimes?? If its not one thing, its another here! One good thing is I don't have too much running to do this week. School shopping is mostly complete, Susie has no activities until school starts and Matt just has football every day but that's here in town so its not a big deal. Other than visiting with Cyn hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday, and at least one trek up 3 hours round trip to visit my mom, the only other thing I would like to do but not sure if it will happen this week or not, is visit my friend Lisa. Lisa and Jason are the proud parents of baby Ryan (you might remember me whining about making a baby album for her shower!!) who was born 8-9-10. Isn't that just the COOLEST birth-date!

This layout was done for the weekly sketch challenge at Sketch Inspirations as well as the Monthly Bonus Challenge at Practical Scrappers -- use water...I have water in my pictures and I cut the paper to mimick a splash. It struck me as I was working on it that I have been using my circle cutter a TON lately! There was a time that I used it so infrequently that I could never find it when I needed it and for the past few months it hasn't left my desktop! There are lots of circles on this one....using BoBunny Pina Colada Popsicle and I can't find the name of the other paper (striped/dots) but its also BoBunny. I really put a dent in my BoBunny papers today! I think that was all I used other than some scraps from other manufacturers! The title letters are these new cool foil rimmed letters by Cloud Nine. I bought them a few weeks ago but haven't done anything that they would work for until now! The yellow fishies is a wood shape that I got at Michael's.

I'm off to watch the end of Fool's Gold with John and have some warm crab dip! Hope you all have a wonderful week! I plan to do some blog visiting this week to catch up on what everyone else has been doing!

All caught up!

With this blog posting, I will have caught you all up with what I've created since the last time I blogged. As I mentioned, this past weekend was the Summer Crop over at A Cherry On Top. I participated in the games on Friday and Sunday (we had other plans for Saturday) and have been slowly working on the challenges which are due Tuesday. Because I had off today I was able to work on a few this morning before heading up to the hospital to be with my mom. I don't see myself getting any more done this week though. I have a bunch of stuff to get done with the house before we leave early Friday morning for a min-vacay to Busch Gardens, VA. So don't be alarmed if you don't hear from me again until middle of NEXT week! Good news is I will have lots of new photos to scrap!

The first project I am showing is an altered "S". Dontcha just love my "S"? HAHAH!! These letters are on clearance at Michaels (along with a ton of Prima and K& Co. stuff so if you haven't been there lately, check out your local M's! I think I paid 99c for the MDF letter. I used Girls Paperie paper and added some ball trim, flowers, glitter pearls, half pearls and flowers. It matches the colors in my scraproom for now. When we move I intend for it to be bubblegum pink and black! LMAO....we'll have to see....John says no but I say YES!

This next layout is a combination of challenges!! For ACOT you had to use a photo that was more than 5 years old. This is of Matthew's first day of Kindergarten! Can you believe I have never scrapped them yet!! I used Sassafrass Lass papers and chipboard letters from an upcoming steal at Crafty Steals. Make sure to check them out daily to see what the Steal of the Day is! And check them out on Facebook too!! Stephanie, the owner of Crafty Steals, is amazing and she has been such a pleasure to work with! I look forward to creating lots more during my term as Guest Designer for August! And finally, I used the weekly sketch Trisha at Sketch Inspirations posted. If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that there are a few sites that I consistently participate in. Sketch Inspirations is definitely on that list. Trisha always does a fantastic job inspiring me each week with her sketches!

And last, but certainly not least is this layout of Susie on her 12th birthday. I had printed the photo out back in June to use on a Sketchy Thursday sketch but ended up using a smaller print as this is a 5x7. So you may have seen the photo before but instead of going with the pink pulled from the photo, I went completely off of a choice of papers first. I used the sketch by PageMaps for Stacy's Stash Challenge at Sketches for You. I used SEI Happy Da

y papers, Doodlebug Flowers and white buttons and ball trim. This layout also qualifies for a challenge for the crop at ACOT. The challenge was to use a large number as a focal point. I used the "12", with no other journaling.

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Phew, that's it....you are now caught up on all of my creations!! I hope to get a little scrappy time in this week but I'm really not sure if I will or not. If not, I will see you all NEXT week after we return!!

Sun, Sand & Surf

I always look forward to Sundays and the new sketch at Sketch Inspirations. I always love Trisha's sketches and this week was no exception. I whipped up this layout based on the sketch in no time flat. Only 2 inches of patterned paper used and 1/2 the embellies on the sheet, so I'll get more mileage out of this Little Yellow Bicycle Boardwalk line. I only bought the one piece of paper from this line for some reason....that's very unlike me! In fact so unlike me that I stopped what I was doing and started sorting through piles of paper that had not been put away yet from two recent orders, SURE there had to be at least one more piece from this line, but nope...just this one double sided sheet! :) The photos are just some random shots from around the resort while we were on vacation in Antigua. I'm getting closer and closer to getting that whole album done!!

All That I Am

Phew, what a scorcher of a day. My boss let us out of work 1/2 hour early and I was soooo happy. I knew that I was coming home to some new scrapping goodies from ACOT! When I opened it I remembered I ordered the new Echo Park summer papers!! I LOVE them!! And as luck would have it, just minutes before I was starting this layout, Fia over at Sketches for You posted a color challenge that went PERFECTLY with these papers and the photo I chose of my mom, sister, brother and I circa 1976! All papers and embellies are Echo Park except the red letters which are Basic Grey Junebug. I also used the weekly sketch at Sketch Inspirations because you know I'm not happy if I don't get some mileage out of my layouts! I just couldn't figure out a way to get Mickey Mouse on here for Practical Scrappers! LOL!!

I got some great news today too!! I won the $70 gift certificate to CSN stores from the Sassy Lil Sketches contest!!!! See my original post with the layout HERE. How exciting!!! I can't wait to get it and spend it!!!!!!

OK, its only 8:30!! I think I will go shower and then work on another layout!! Both kids are out and John is snoring on the couch!!

I'm Going To Disney!

OK not really!  I WISH I was though!  And I was right back there tonight as I was looking through pictures from our 2006 trip.  Even John was enjoying looking at the pictures.  The kids look SOOO young and it was not even a full 4 years ago!  Amazing, actually!  So in my mind I'm in Disney, having the time of my life!  Its my favorite place in the world and John is just not into it at all so my next hope to go is when I have grandchildren....at least that's what he says!!  Hey Wendy, maybe we should plan a trip together!  LOL!!  Me, you, Mickey and scrapping in Disney!  Anywhooo, this layout accomplished several things on my to-do list (which I left at work today so was sorta lost when I sat down to scrap...I NEED my notes!!).   I mentioned that I am taking the Camp Scrap class at Big Picture a few posts ago.  One of the challenges was to use a color you are not comfortable with.  For me, that color is yellow.  I don't know why, but I find myself avoiding it as much as possible in my layouts.  But these pictures demanded yellow!  The photos are of Susie and Matt sitting in the big chairs inside Minnie Mouse's house in Toontown.  You can't see it in this picture but Susie even has a yellow skirt on!!  I used yellow Minnie Mouse print paper and red/white polka dot paper by Sandylion, dot ribbon from $1 spot at Target, the yellow braided flower is a new favorite that I just got in a fun order from Creative Charms, the Mickey and Minnie stickers are by Disney, the title letters are from Michael's and the bubble ones I have no idea!  The layout is based on the sketch over at Sketch Inspirations this week so I got that combined with the Camp Scrap challenge! 

This layout is also from the same 2006 Disney trip.  It is ALSO today's "recipe" from Camp Scrap.  1 piece of cardstock, 2 sheets of patterned paper and embellishments.  And while I am not a huge fan of double layouts, this worked out perfect as it called for 7 landscape 4x6's and it just so happened I had exactly 7 shots of the kids (John's son is also in the picture....we don't see him often so you don't see him appear in too many of my layouts) getting their faces painted at MGM Studios.  Again, Sandylion patterned paper, Disney stickers, the chipboard bookplate is SEI, the Mickey Balloon brads are from The Eyelet Outlet and the the white letters are American Crafts Thickers.  The Mickey Head I cut from the Mickey and Friends Cricut Cartridge.  Took me abuot 20 minutes to do this layout and I got an entire event scrapped!!

That's it for me tonight!  I'm actually thrilled that I got these two done and I didn't even come into my scraproom until 9pm!  Tomorrow is Crew again with Susie so I probably won't be getting anymore scrappy time until Wednesday night and boy do I have a lot of layout ideas and challenges to complete in my notebook!

Life Couldn't Get Any Better...

OK, so that's the title of the layout I did tonight after work!  Life is actually pretty crazy right now with too much to do and not enough time to do it!  I haven't had hardly any scrap time but today while I was at work I saw a post by Bella Blvd. for a giveaway they are having.  You have to comment on their blog with the link to a layout or project using Bella Blvd. products.  I love Bella Blvd. so had a few already complete that I linked up but then I decided to do the weekly sketch at Sketch Inspirations so I combined the two and completed this layout, which because of the flowers, also qualifies for the weekly challenge at Practical Scrappers....I love when I get good mileage out of one layout:

All papers and embellishments used are Bella Blvd. with the exception of the glittery Thickers letters.  My layout is based on this Sketch Inspiration sketch:

 

Thanks for looking!!!

Glitter, Glitter Everywhere!

I started this layout last night but it got late and had to put it aside to finish today after work. As much as I LOVE glitter, I have to admit that with it being the challenge at TWO of the Challenge sites I visit often, I will be GLAD to see the end of the glitter for a little while! This one has it packed on! There is a light aqua border of glitter around the whole layout, the chipboard letters are silver glittered and I got them on the clearance rack at Michaels after Christmas, the felt snowflakes I picked up at the Dollar Store over the winter and while they say they are glittered, they weren't cutting it for me! I had to add glitter SNOW by Magic Scraps to them! The small flowers are glittered and by Petaloo Dazzlers. The large pink flowers that are folded in half are Heidi Swapp and the pearls are from my stash.   Enough glitter? Nope....there's also a Fancy Pants Glitter cut under the title and running onto the photos. The papers are SEI cardstock, Bo Bunny (pink paper) and My Minds Eye (aqua). I have made such a mess making this layout. There is glitter EVERYWHERE, including my eyes! This layout is submitted to the following challenges:

1. Frosted Designs - Use Glitter

2. Practical Scrappers - Use Loose Glitter or Flocking

3. Sketch Inspirations - Sketch
4. The Pink Elephant - Use a black and white photo.

I think I'm done with the glitter for a while. I know its only Tuesday and I could get a few more entries in for the drawings, but let's just say, GLITTER wins!