Little Fighter

I'm so glad that the weather has finally turned to more springy/summery here. The down side to that is that I don't have as much crafty time. There is so much to do outside in the gardens. I'm hoping to be able to get one more page done during this long weekend, but we have lots of garden plans too.

For my layout for this week's challenge at Lasting Memories, I did another page for my garden book. This week's challenge is to use paper piecing on your page. The video that Karen linked shows how to paper piece using a stamped image. I had never done this before. It was very interesting.

I followed this week's sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches for this page. I used one of the photo spots for a large journaling spot. I am also submitting this to Sketches in Thyme for their Open Challenge this week.


This layout is about a little Japanese maple we got last year. Within days of planting it, it was smashed by a large limb that had fallen out of a large tree in the woods behind the garden. I was so upset that I didn't take any photos of it. We had to clip off the whole left side of this tree. It looked lop-sided, but we left it there to see what it would do. Throughout the summer it started getting new growth. I tried to take some photos over the summer, but they didn't show up very well because of the red mulch in the garden. This is why there is a sheet around the plant in the photo below. This Little Fighter is doing very well this year and looks wonderful.


So for my paper piecing I did 2 pieces. The image at the bottom of the journaling block, I stamped the image onto 2 different papers. I cut the large leaves out of the darker paper and glued them onto the lighter green. And the little tree is cut from my Cricut. The tree is from the Cindy Loo cartridge. Thanks to my friend Beth for giving me advise for searching for images to use.

Check out the wonderful pages the design team created using paper piecing. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #11

Happy Memorial Day's!!! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. It feels like summer now here.

It's Sunday, so it's time for a new challenge at Birthday Sundaes. This week's challenge is to create a masculine birthday card. I know that making cards for a guy is hard for most, but I have mostly guys to make for. The card I made for this challenge is one of my son's birthdays in July.


Head on over to BS and check out the great cards the other design team members came up with. I can't wait to see you come up with.

The Gear

I have been retrieving photos from Facebook when David posts them while on deployment. I decided to do a page of a couple of the photos he posted for a couple of challenges this week. The Paper Variety's challenge is a Star Studded Challenge.



And at Frosted Designs the challenge is to make a page with an armed forces or patriotic theme.

Of course I needed a sketch to follow and found the perfect 2 photo sketch at Sassy Lil' Sketches.



And here is the page...


I have a few more pages of David to do for his ANG book. But I think I will hold off until he gets back. He has a story to go with one of the photos he sent me and wants me to wait and let me read the information he has before I do it.

Thanks for looking...

Mom at 13

I was super excited when I remembered that I had an old album of my mother's. And even more excited when I discovered that the photos were starting to come off the adhesive holding them in. After a little research, I found that dental floss would help to convince the photos to come the rest of the way out safely.

At the scrapbooking group Scrappin-n-Chattin, one of the challenges this month is to include the word Mom, Mother, etc. in the title of a page. A few of us have been struggling with working with older photos of our moms, doing them justice. When I started to think about my project for this week for Lasting Memories, I thought a photo of my mother would be perfect. The challenge is to use flowers on your layout. I also used this month's sketch at SnC for this layout. I think it was perfect for this photo.
And here is my layout...


I have a bunch more photos to take out of the album and then get them all scanned so I can share them with my sister. She will be very excited to have them.

Go check out the fabulous, flowery layouts created by the LM design team. I hope you will play along this week.

Pearls and Lace

Wow. I can't believe that we have finally had a sunny day here in the northeast. It rained I think 7 days in a row. The gloom was getting very old. We took advantage of the wonderful day and met Kristie, the owner of Birthday Sundaes, at Hobby Lobby and then took our doggies to a Pet Palooza event at our local fairgrounds. It was a great day and it was wonderful to meet Kristie, her husband and doggie in person.

This week's challenge at Birthday Sundaes is to use pearls and lace on a birthday card. I know this will be a breeze for a lot of our followers. It was a little challenging for me since I don't have a lot of females to make cards for. But someone I work with has a birthday in August, actually the same day as mine. And our names are both Sue S. What a coincidence. So I created this card for her....


I can't wait to see all of the wonderful creations this week. Check out the awesome cards the design created with pearls and lace.

It's All About The Circles

I really enjoyed seeing all of the layouts created last week inspired by our awesome Mother's Day photo inspiration. Everyone did such a wonderful job.

This week at Lasting Memories we have a circle and a sketch challenge. Another versatile sketch chosen by Karen. It took me a couple of days to get the photos and size of the circle right to be able to use the Cricut to cut the large photo. It's the first time I cut a photo with it and I was a little afraid it would gum up the blade as I print the photos at home. But it worked very well. Here is the sketch:



My page is another one of our boys, Willie and Harley. I wonder what the neighbors think when they see these two romping and running in the yard, or exploring down at the creek together. They are inseparable.



I hope you will play along with us this week. Make sure to check the rest of the design teams' fantastic layouts.

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #9

I hope that everyone has been enjoying their weekend. Our weather during the week was absolutely perfect, but it's changed for the weekend and the week to come. It's been a little cool, and dark and drizzly here this weekend. It's good for the plants though. And it allows me time to craft guilt-free.

This week at Birthday Sundaes we have a circle challenge. Your card must have at least 3 circles and a birthday sentiment on the front. And we have an awesome sponsor, My Pink Stamper.


She is offering her Sport-tastic Stamp set, seen here below. How cool!!!!


I wanted to go for real simple, on a white background. And as coincidence would have it, I realized that a friend of mine had a birthday this past week, but was not on my birthday list. We had to work together one day this week, so I was able to get this card made and to her before her birthday.




Head on over the Birthday Sundaes and check out the wonderful inspiration the rest of the team has provided. I look forward to seeing your take on our circle challenge.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Good morning and Happy Mother's Day. I hope everyone is having a beautiful weekend. The weather has been pretty good here so far this weekend.

I enjoyed learning a little more about a lot of you last week with your awesome layouts. Way to go scrapping about you. This week at Lasting Memories we have a Mother's Day photo inspiration photo to follow.Beautiful colors, right? I did my page for my garden album for this challenge. For some reason, the flowering trees we have in our yard don't flower much in the spring. It's probably due to the very tall pine trees along the property line in the neighbor's yard. We seem to get a lot of sun, but maybe not quite enough. Our Bradford Pear did flower on the lower half of the tree, so of course I had to take some pictures. I followed this week's sketch at Sketchy Thursdays.


I thought these photos would work well with the sketch. The top photo is the picture of the whole tree, with the flowers on the bottom half. It's kind of hard to see the flowers in that photo.


Be sure to check out the rest of the wonderful inspiration at Lasting Memories. I hope to see your pages based on the color inspiration. Have a wonderful week.

A Birthday Recipe Challenge

This week at Birthday Sundaes we have a recipe for you to follow. These are always so much fun for me. Our challenge is to use 3 different embelishments and 2 different patterned papers. Make sure to check out BS to see the awesome cards the design team created. They always amaze me with their work. Here is my card, another one for one of the guys at work. I'm done with the June birthdays now. That feels so great.

My 3 embellishments are the buttons, a piece of ribbon and the balloon piece on the circle. I love the colors in this card.

I have been working for months to clean and organize my scrap room. This week I have spent a lot of time pulling things apart and getting like things together. I hope to get it done soon so I can share some pictures. I should probably stop buying new things until I get done, but that wouldn't be fun.

I can't wait to see what everyone cooks up with our recipe challenge this week. Don't forget to include a birthday sentiment on the front of the card. I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day.
r

It's All About You!!

Man, Karen can really pick some great challenges - ones that are really challenging. This week's challenge at Lasting Memories is It's All About You. I have avoided the camera for as long as I can remember. I have even gone so far as to tear up any photos that were taken of me. In the last couple of years though, I have discovered that it may not be such a bad thing to preserve my memories, or memories of myself for my children.

Now, allowing photos and creating a page about myself are 2 different things. The first page I created was with photos of me when I was almost 3. But I decided that's not what Karen intended, so I had to rethink. Stew had taken a few photos of me last year, that I am not over fond of, but I saved them. So I picked one of them and created a page.

For this page I needed some inspiration. I chose the current sketch from the Scrappiest.


I usually try to keep very close to the sketch, but this time I only used 1 photo. I used the extra space for more journaling.


I hope you will follow along this week and CHALLENGE yourself to create a page about you.

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #7

Good Sunday morning. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. It's been a busy one here so far. With the weather being nice, we have taken the opportunity to work in the gardens. It's so heart warming to see everything coming up and starting to bloom after such a long, cold winter.

This week at Birthday Sundaes our challenge is Anything Goes Birthday. We have Pattie's Creations is sponsoring us this week. Take a look at the awesome digis she has in her shop. You will find that some of the design team used an image from her shop in their inspiration this week.



My card this week is a pretty simple one. It's another one I will be using for one of the guys at work. This time his birthday is in June, so I am starting to get ahead on the work birthdays. I finally remembered to use an embossing folder. I always forget that I have them. This one is a birthday one.

Take a look at Pattie's digis and at what our amazing design team has created. I hope you will play along with us this week.

Catch

At Scrappin-n-Chattin we had our 24 Hour Challenge this weekend. To play we choose 3 collections we have. Then another player chooses which one we will use along with which of 3 sketches we will use to create a page within 24 hours. It's so much fun. I think it's my favorite contest.

This month Barbara chose sketch #1 for me and Echo Park's Playground collection. Here is the sketch:
I used a couple of photo of Harley from 2009 playing frisbee. Boy, that dog can jump.


I will be entering this into the current challenge at The Paper Variety. The challenge is to use polka dots on your layout...


I will also be adding it into the current Frosted Designs challenge - Stripes and Polka Dots.