Birthday Sundaes

My friend Kristie is starting a new challenge blog called Birthday Sundaes.

Beginning at the end of March she will be having weekly challenges to help spur everyone to create birthday cards to build up their stash. I sure need that. How about you? I am looking forward to seeing what she has in store. Right now she is having a design team call. Check it out here. She is also offering blog candy. And you can check that out here. I hope I will some of you joining in the fun with Kristie at Birthday Sundaes.

Lasting Memories Challenge #27

I really enjoy sketches. As everyone knows, I use a sketch for almost every layout I do. This week's challenge at Lasting Memories is a sketch challenge. YAY!!

I found this sketch a little bit more challenging than usual. Once I decided on the photos though, things really started to fall in place. Here is the sketch Karen chose for us to use:


The photos may be hard to really see, but they are photos of a family of ducks that were in the creek in our backyard. As the journaling details, the Aussies love the water and they spend a lot of time near the creek. They don't venture far, and come when they are called. This particular day, when Harley was 5 months old, we were out working in the gardens. When I didn't see Harley, I called him. He didn't come. So Stew and I went to the creek to see where he was. We found that he was almost to the Firehouse, 5 houses down the creek. We called him and he wanted to come, but there was a duck flying at him, keeping him down there. He finally just came and the duck came too. Her babies were near shore on the other side of the creek. Harley must have tried to check them out and Momma wouldn't have it. They stayed there for several more hours that day, but never returned.


I am using this layout for this week's challenge at The Paper Variety too.


I also love to stitch on layouts. I have a few stitching stencils and want to get some more. I used a swirl stencil along the strip of patterned paper under the photo mat. I like how it turned out.

The title of the page, I found, was also the name of a television show from the 70's - Family. The last challenge I had to complete this month for Scrappin-n-Chattin was TV Show. We were to create a layout about our favorite TV show or use a television show's name as your title.

This has been a pretty productive month for me. I have completed 12 layouts so far, even though it has been a really tough month. I'm not sure I will have the time to work on any more. But I'm going to try.

24 Hour Challenge

At Scrappin-N-Chattin, we have many different challenges each month. One of my favorites is the 24 Hour Challenge. We provide a list of 3 collections that we have. My friend April, who runs this challenge, provides 3 sketches for us and chooses which player will decide what collection and sketch another player will use. April announces what everyone is supposed to use at 6pm on Friday and we all have until 6pm on Saturday to complete the layout and upload it to the challenge folder.

Abby was to choose for me this time. The collection that I was to use was Making Memories Chloe's Closet. I have a ton of stuff from this collection. It's been on clearance at Michael's and I been picking up pieces here and there. The sketch chosen for me was our Sketch #3, which is Sketch #43 from Scrap A Little Sketches. Here is the sketch:


This was a really great sketch. I used a couple of old photos I had of my granddaughter, Morgan, from a day she was visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Born.

I like how this turned out... Thanks for looking.

Baby Me

My friend Abby, from the Yahoo Group Scrappin-n-Chattin had the greatest idea for a challenge. The challenge was to create a layout of yourself with photos of you as a baby, or a child under 5. That was hard enough for me in itself. The layouts were emailed to her and she uploaded them into a file for the group to see, unidentified. The players were to send her a list of who the subject of each layout was. The one who identified the most correctly won. There was also a vote, that the whole group could vote on, for the best layout. My friend Suzanne guessed the most - 10 out of 11. I only got 4 correct, and 1 of them was my own..... But I cannot say enough about this contest. I had a blast with it.

I don't have very many photos of myself and my sister from when we were growing up. When my mom and sister moved to NY, they had to store their stuff in a storage unit until they had a place of their own to live. The storage unit was broken into, and most everything was stolen, including all of our photos. The only photos I have are a few that were in my mom's wallet and I had a 11 x 13 framed photo that my mom must have hung up at home. The frame had no glass, so the photo was not in the greatest shape. I decided that I wanted to see if it could be restored and scanned. So I took it out of the frame and had the most awesome surprises... Right beneath it was another photo of me that was in pretty great shape for its age. As I was showing Stew what I had found, he said what about the 3rd one. I said there aren't 3, that's the backing. He said no, there's a 3rd. When I turned the back over, there was a photo of my mother, from her wedding day. WOW. You cannot believe how excited I was. I took all of the photos in to be scanned, so they are now on my computer. I had them print a couple of 8 x 10's of my mom for me. I'm going mat and frame one of them to surprise my sister. I haven't told her yet what I found.

So now onto the layout. I really, really like how this page turned out. I used Basic Grey's Olivia collection and Sketch #142 from Creative Scrappers. I think this sketch was perfect for the photo...


And here is my layout.....


I have a few more photos of me from when I was little. I think I will scan and scrap them too. Thanks for looking.

Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle and Blog Candy Winner

Challenge #26 at Lasting Memories is a Green one.... The challenge is to recycle your scraps, or other items. I know I have a ton of scraps - two large drawers full. I think this is a challenge I should do myself at least a couple of times a month. How many scraps do you have?

We have a sponsor for this week's challenge too!! Heart Song Designs makes hand drawn digital stamp images. They are adorable. Check them out.
For this layout, all of the paper and cardstock I used (except for the 12 x 12 background paper) were from my scrap drawers.



The image of the flowers and the bee is from Heart Song Designs. I love how versatile these images are, and they are just so darn cute. The 2 round embellishments came from Tessa at Precocious Paper.

And now for the blog candy winner. I really enjoyed looking at everyone's layouts this week. There was such a huge variety of pages. They were all wonderful. I used random.org to choose the winner that posted a comment on my blog post and played along with LM. The winner is Brenda!! Contact me at ssedlak815@gmail.com with your address and I will get your package out to you. Congratulations.

I hope you will reduce, re-use and recycle this week and join us at Lasting Memories.

Growing

I needed to create a layout for Scrappin-n-Chattin's 52 Week Layout Challenge. I hadn't even planned one. I tried to all week, and really wanted to get it done on Monday or Tuesday. But with work and working on taxes, it just didn't happen. I told everyone, though, Friday is it. I have to scrap and get one done.

I searched several of my favorite sketch blogs, to find some inspiration. When I saw this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch, I thought that will work. I loved the journaling spot and the shaped element.
With all this winter snow and cold, I have been looking at some garden photos for projects I have in mind for some future Lasting Memories challenges. I was quite fascinated with the remembering the flowers and now really would like to see spring getting here soon.

This sketch got me thinking about a before and after format. Before the dogs and I moved in with Stew, he had started gardening. He planted a Red Japanese Maple and little Weeping Cherry tree at the south side of the house near the solar room. They were quite small, and for years they remained pretty small. Well, in 2009, they exploded. They have gotten so big, they outgrew their own separate spaces. So we created a garden off the side of the house that encompasses the front and entire side of the house. We even have a little stone walkway with some lights along it there. It just amazed me to see the difference in the size of these plants.


I was pleasantly surprised that this layout came together so quickly. It only took about an hour and a half, which is quick for me. I got it uploaded in the appropriate folder with bout 3 hours to spare. I have to work more on my gardening album, and really start journaling about things that work, things that didn't and future ideas. Thanks for looking.

Lasting Memories Reminder and Blog Candy

Don't forget to check out the Lasting Memories Challenge Blog and get your entry in for a chance to win our first sponsored challenged. Check out the designers blogs too, for more chances to win. Here is what I am offering for blog candy:


The colors in the photo are not great, but this is what I am offering:

DCWC Birthday Stack
Package of blue and green gems
6 pack of ribbon
Clear butterfly stamp with Thanks for everything sentiment and pink gems
Small blue ink pad
3 packs of Thickers - Tiara, Lax and Umbrella

Remember, to be eligible for the blog candy you should leave a comment on my Sunday post here and create a layout for the current LM challenge. We will be announcing the winners tomorrow morning. Good luck everyone...

Happy Valentine's Day and Blog Candy

This week at Lasting Memories, we would like Valentine's Day to be your inspiration. Your layout should include the colors red, white and/or pink. Pretty versatile, and fun. And this week, we have a sponsor!! The winner of the challenge will get 4 digital images from Stef at Glitterbabe's Art. There are some really nice images there. Check out what she has to offer.

Glitterbabe's Art

It took me a couple of days to figure out what photo(s) I wanted to use for this challenge. I do have a couple of photos of my nephews that were taken on Valentine's Day when they were babies, but I was thinking more along the lines of a baby photo. So I looked through photos of the granddaughters. I chose a photo of Jessie. I had done several layouts of her from this day, but not with the particular photo. I followed the Creative Scrappers Sketch #141 for the jumping board for my page. Here is the sketch:

I found the placement of the embellishments on this sketch very interesting. I used my Cricut again this week. I used the Paper Lace cartridge for the 2 heart borders at the bottom of the photo. I'm really enjoying this cartridge. This layout also qualifies for the Heart challenge at Scrappin-n-Chattin. The challenge was to use at least 3 hearts on a layout.


Thanks for stopping by and checking out my layout. Ohhhh... Blog Candy. I am offering a little something as well this week, as are some other Design Team Members. Leave a comment on my blog and enter the LM challenge for a chance to win. I will share a post later in the week with a photo of what I am offering. Be sure to visit the other DT member's blogs and check out their awesome work. I look forward to seeing what you create this week.

Cricut and/or Die Cuts

This week's challenge at Lasting Memories is a real fun one. How many of us got a Cricut cartridge or two for Christmas? I am very excited to say that I did. As a matter of fact, I got 4!! My kids did real good. The challenge this week is to use your Cricut, or other die cuts if you don't have a Cricut.

To create my layout, I followed this week's sketch at Sketchy Thursdays. I really enjoyed this sketch and knew what I wanted to use for my die cuts. Here is the sketch....


Even though I got 4 new cartridges for Christmas, I didn't use any of them for this layout. My friends at Scrappin-n-Chattin are real good about informing the group of sales. Someone pointed us to a site last week that had cartridges on sale for around $16. I ordered 3. I used 2 of them on my page.


For the yellow and light green background, I used the Paper Lace cartridge. I can see I will get a lot of use out of that cartridge. For the title I used Alphalicious. That one has been on my wishlist for a while. I also used 2 Martha Stewart Monarch punches to create the butterlies on the page. The colors I used were chosen to coincide with the Super Bowl challenge at SnC. The challenge was to create a layout using the colors of one of the teams in the Superbowl. I chose Green Bay's colors.

I hope you will play along this week at Lasting Memories. I would love to see how you use your die cuts.

Hard Work

I really love sketches, so I am constantly searching for more places that feature sketches. I have checked out the sketches on the Sweet Peach Crop Shop blog before, but have never done a layout. I so loved this sketch, I made it a priority to complete a page using it.

I think this sketch really struck me because of the tags. My first scrapping love was tags. I have quite a few Sizzix tag dies. They are the reason I have not given up my Sizzix now that I have the Cricut.

My layout consist of 2 photos of Harley, when he was still quite little. Stew had taken him to work with him at a customer's house. He was there all day. He wore Harley out. Poor thing fell asleep under the wheelbarrow. He was so beat, he stayed sound asleep in the truck once they got home.


I also followed the Punch challenge at the Yahoo Group Scrappin-n-Chattin. The challenge is to use at least 2 different punches on a page. I used 2 different border punches and 2 different Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punches.

Thanks for stopping by.....