Just Add Matt!

OK, this has to be some sort of record for me! I was cleaning my paper racks yesterday and found this paper by Little Yellow Bicycle from at least 2 years ago. The photos have been sitting on my desk as extras from a baseball layout I did. Fast forward to this morning and I see this challenge over at Pages In Time....use the provided sketch...use Red, White and Blue and it must be a boy layout! SCORE!!! The paper could not be more perfect as it already had the circle coming from the corner! All I did was trim it!! LOL! The papers are all red, white and blue!! And the photos are my son. I opened my embellishment holder to look for something to use for the three dots on the right and what jumped out but matching brads from the same line of paper that I didn't even know I had!!! I mean seriously, this layout was meant to be!! I went from first looking at this post to having the layout complete and photographed in about 45 minutes! I know I am a fast scrapper, but that's even fast for ME!  I'm trying to complete all the challenges there for July.  So far I have 4 done and its only July 3!!  Yay me!

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!

Shabby Chic

One of the challenges at Pages in Time is to create a layout that is "shabby chic". You had to use pink/brown/white and had to include flowers and butterflies. I did all that, and lots more!!! There's so much on this layout that I'm not going to go into listing all the different manufacturers, except to say that all the papers are My Minds Eye So Sophie line. It was a fun layout to make but it took 4 hours!! I'm a fast scrapper too! Just when I thought I was done I'd find something else that looked good on the page!!   I incorporated this page with the ScrapFit Challenge to have 1-3 handmade embellishments.  I made two tags out of old bread ties (the date tag at the bottom right and the title tag at the top left).  I also hand crocheted the white flower at the top left but it was my first try and not that great so its good that I was able to layer stuff on top of it!!  Overall, I am in love with this layout!  Its definately getting a frame and hanging up in our room!

I never did get my nap in so I am going to do just that now!! Susie has a friend sleeping over and I just ordered pizza to I'm going to lay on the couch for a bit! I will be back later!!

Always Dream Big

After being so disappointed this morning about how one of my layouts turned out, I have to say I am IN LOVE with this one. These BoBunny papers are just gorgeous and full of purples and greens.The photo is my daughter sound asleep on the couch with her baby doll. I used the following on this layout:

Papers: Bo Bunny Peacock Lane Feathers; Peacock Lane Dot; Peacock Lane Ivy

White Feathers - Ben Franklin

Letters - American Crafts Thickers

Ticket - House of Three

Flower - Prima with pearls, button and bling from my stash

Siver Bling - Jolees

White puffy accents - Me And My Big Ideas

Dymo Stickers - Sticko

Border Punch - EK Success

Doilies - Wilton

Here is a close up of the flower. The feathers looks SOOOOOO much better in real life. I couldn't get a good closeup of them!!

And this is the sketch that the inspiration for this layout came from.

Dreams and Sweet Treats!!

I woke up early this morning after only a few hours sleep. I was anxious to get some chores done and relax my Friday away in my scrap room. I haven't gotten very far an either front. I think I would be better off to take a nap and try again this afternoon!! The first layout I have to share uses a sketch from 2009 by Helen Croft at Scrap-A-Little. I guess being a little tired and cranky, I was feeling a little melancholy as well and decided to do a layout about the dreams I have right now. They include seeing my children graduate from college, having grandchildren, vacationing in Venice, owning a home again, owning a scrapbook store and always having a loving heart. These dreams haven't changed much from 10, even 20 years ago (except that I did once own a home but we had to sell after Michael passed away as I could not afford to keep it on my own) and I hope that 10 years from NOW, several of these dreams will have become a reality. I have no challenges to submit this layout to if you can believe that! Totally just done from my heart! Uses Lily Bee Vintage Poppy papers. I made the flowers by layering die cuts from my new Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Sizzix die. The swirls are die cuts from another Sizzix die.

And that brings me to the above layout, which was actually the first layout I did this morning. I'm so disappointed in how it turned out. I've had this sketch on my desk for a while. It is Sketch #71 by Liz Chidester at The Scrappiest. I really liked the sketch and totally loved her version of it so decided to go with it. I also grabbed some Cosmo Cricket papers that I just got and went from there. Perhaps that was my mistake. I usually do ok starting with specific papers, then finding a photo to match. The photos I chose are two of my favorites from when Susie was little. Unfortunately they are not digital photos so there was nothing I could do about how washed out they are. And combine that with my paper choice and the whole layout just seems BLAH to me. If you've been around my blog enough you know how I am.....once its done, its done. I may not LOVE the page, but if I re-did every page that I didn't LOVE, I would not have enough days in my lifetime to scrap all my photos! Susie came in to look at it and she loves it, so I guess that's all that really matters in the end, right? These are our memories, our family.....and if every page is not worthy of accolades, so be it. Funny thing is it does qualify for a challenge although again, I wasn't thinking about it at the time. Practical Scrappers challenge this week is border punches and I used one on the green strip. At least its another entry into the challenge!! :) Well, time to switch the laundry and relax a bit and hope I get a second wind of creativity!

Happy 4th of July Weekend!!!!

My long weekend started when I left the office at 5:15pm today!! I don't have to be back at work until TUESDAY! Yippeee!!! While I was physcially at work today (mentally I was already on the beach) I was on the ACOT Message Board and was checking out the July challenges. One of them was to create a Red, White and Blue layout that was NOT a Fourth of July layout. I immediately thought of these photos from 2008 when we went to Historic Smithville to see the Virginia Company K Encampment and Civil War Reenactment. They were PERFECT for the theme! I decided to use the Sketches In Thyme weekly sketch and because of the distressing on the papers, it also qualifies for Denise's challenge over at Pages In Time. Now I KNOW there was one more challenge I was entering this into but for the life of me I can't remember what it is. I know it was to use red, blue and another neutral other than white which is why I went with the Kraft background. So if you know what challenge I am missing, let me know!!  And to top it off, Frosted Designs posted their new challenge today....Red, White, And Blue, Stars and Stripes!  WooHoo!!  Love when I can combine so many challenges!

I used a mix of papers for this one. Most of it is Pink Paislee Starlight and some We R Memory Keepers Old Glory. Letters are Pink Paislee. Tickets are by House of 3. Bling by Jolees. Chipboard stars by Melody Ross sprayed with Moonlight Glimmer Mist.

Unfortunately my plans to scrap all night are fading. I'm tired!! When I got home from work John suggested going to the movies. We had wanted to see Iron Man 2 but waited to long and its not in the theatres here anymore so we saw Grown Ups instead. GREAT movie! Adam Sandler is a comical genius. We LAUGHED, and LAUGHED!! Really a good, funny movie with a great cast!

I am off tomorrow and John is working so you know what that means!! Scrappy day ahead!!

Sketchy Thursdays Reveal!

Today is the first reveal for me as a Guest Design Team Member at Sketchy Thursdays!!!  I used a border punch which also qualifies it for the weekly challenge at Practical Scrappers. Here's the sketch and my take on it!  Head over to Sketchy Thursdays to play along for a chance to win a prize!! 

I am soooo looking forward to the end of the day today!!  Its my Friday and the start of a long weekend!!  I don't have to be back to work until Tuesday of next week!!  My plans, and of course this is subject to change being the summer, is to scrap all night tonight. all day tomorrow and hopefully a little scrapping time during the weekend too!  I have so many layouts racing around in my head and I want to get them onto paper!!  And then, of course, with the Fourth of July, there are lots more photos to come with more ideas, and so it goes!