A Summer Addition

Yesterday we added to our family. We got a new puppy. We have named her Tessa. She is so tiny. I don't remember Willie being that small. She only 5 weeks old. We got her at the same place that Willie came from. We're hoping she will look like him when she grows up.

So we have taken about 40 photos of her with the other dogs already. And I completed a page of the day. I followed the sketch for the monthly sketch challenge at Scrappin'-n-Chattin', which is from BeggaHuna 2007.



Here is my page. I used 3 of the papers that were in the April Artful Delight kit from October Afternoon. I title the page A Summer Addition. This will let it qualify as my 2nd entry into the Season challenge at SnC. I made the lollipop flowers with some of the leftover cardstock and paper that I used on the page. I am entering this into the current challenge at The Beary Scrap. The challenge is to include any type of hand made embellishment. My friend, and fellow Lasting Memories teammate, Brenda is also a design team member at Getting Cricky. I have been wanting to join in on their challenges, but have never been able to squeeze it in. Well, this time I did. The challenge is to include pen work on your layout. I outlined the red cardstock with my white gel pen.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our new addition.

So Relaxed

It's time again for the Lasting Memories weekly challenge. This week's challenge is a great one. I'm sure all of you have a lot of scraps. I know I do. Way too many. The challenge this week is to recycle some ribbon, scrap pieces of paper or something else you have in your stash.

I took the challenge a little bit further. I used some fabric, actually a piece of a sheet on my page. After toiling over how I wanted to redecorate the bedroom, I finally decided on a comforter set and bought a couple of new sheets sets to coordinate. Our old sheets were very, very worn, so they are now in the rag pile. The photo I used is a picture of Willie on the first morning we had him. The sheet in the photo is the same sheet I used as an embellishment on the page.

I used this week's sketch from Design Dollies. It's such a simple, versatile sketch. So fun to work with.


My page is very simple too. The color in the photo isn't as vibrant as it is in real life. The background paper, which is dark blue, is the only new item. All of the flowers are some I had left over and the strips of paper are all scraps. The title is made with fabric covered Thickers. This pack is my favorite and I don't have a lot of letters left. I had to use 3's for the e's and cut a number 1 to make an l.


I am also going to enter this layout into this week's challenge at Sketches in Thyme. They are having an open challenge where you can use any sketch to create a layout.

Hop on over to Lasting Memories and see how the rest of the design team recycled on their layouts. I hope you will join us and recycle some of your stash this week.

A Stars and Stripes Birthday

Good Sunday morning. Summer is well underway and the one of the celebrations of summer is the 4th of July. This week at Birthday Sundaes we would like to see cards with stars and stripes (and a birthday sentiment of course). The colors don't have to be patriotic, but we would like to see your stars and stripes.

I followed this week's sketch at Mojo Monday to create my card.
And here it is. This card one of my sons will be using to give his grandfather for his birthday on July 2nd. .


Make sure you check out what the design team created this week. Their cards are awesome. I hope you will join us this week.

Willie's First Trial

Last weekend, Willie and I participated in our first agility trial. It was so much fun and I am incredibly happy with how well he did. I was so excited to get the photos from the photographer and had to scrap them right away.

I did a 2 page layout with the photos from the trial. For page 1, I used the June 14th sketch at Sassy Lil' Sketches.


And here is the page.


What inspired me to create both of these pages is the 24 Hour Challenge at Scrappin'-n-Chattin'. Kristin chose for me to use our Sketch #2, which the Got Sketch #95 sketch.

The collection that Kristin chose for me to use was Echo Park's Country Drive. I used this collection on both pages.

Here are both pages together.


I also am entering both pages into the Grid challenge at SnC. I am just so proud of my boy!! Thanks for looking.

Sesame Summer

I have been so spacey this week. I am have been having a very hard time concentrating for the past several weeks. I would have thought that once my son came back from Iraq, I would have gotten better, but I have gotten worse. So I took today off of work to try to catch up on some sleep and actually spend some time with Stew.

I took some time to plan a few layouts. That felt great!! I want to show you the first one I was able to get done. I followed this month's sketch at Artful Delight.


And I wanted to follow the challenge at The Paper Variety for this page. The challenge is perfect for my new Echo Park collection - Splash.


I decided to use the cutest photo of David from when he turned 5. We took him to Sesame Place for his birthday. We loved Sesame Place. We had been there numerous times before that, but this time it was a special trip for David. I LOVE the wonderful colors in this EP collection. So perfect for summer layouts.


I am also entering this page into the Season challenge at Scrappin'-n-Chattin'. The challenge is to use a season in the title.

Blood Brothers

Happy Father's Day!!! I hope everyone is enjoying some time with their families this weekend. In honor of Father's Day, Lasting Memories' challenge is an inspiration challenge.


To create my page, I followed the current sketch challenge at the Bo Bunny Blog. I used items from Bo Bunny's Sophie collection.


I wanted to do a fatherly type layout, but I don't have any photos of me with my father and I don't have any photos of my boys with their fathers. So I chose photos of Harley at Puppy School because there's one picture with his daddy in it. These are photos I took at his graduation from puppy school. The other dog in the photos is Harley's littermate. It was so strange to meet someone right in Kingston that got a puppy from the same breeder, that was so far away.


I am also using this layout for the grid challenge at the Yahoo Group Scrappin'-n-Chattin'.

Stop on by Lasting Memories and check out the awesome layouts created by the other members of the design team. I can't wait to see what everyone else does with this inspiration.

Have A Birthday Blast

It's Sunday, so that means it's time for a new challenge at Birthday Sundaes. This week we want to see shaped Birthday cards. No squares or rectangles allowed.... And we have a sponsor this week. Our own Michelle is offering a "Just Because" Cards Cricut cartridge for one lucky crafter.


How cool is that? So many great images for our cards on that cartridge.

The card I created is a little bit of a child's card. It is for my oldest child. But he is most definitely an adult. He's going to be 28 in July. Uggghhh. How did that happen?

Ben has always been fascinated with the space program. In May, he was lucky enough to have a friend that won the lottery Cape Kennedy has for the opportunity to purchase tickets to view the shuttle launch on site. He flew down with another friend and was only in Florida for a couple of day to see the shuttle that Mark Kelly commanded. He had a great time. He convinced me that I should go see that next launch and we both entered the lottery to try for on site tickets. We both found out Wednesday that we didn't win the lottery, so as it stands we are not going. But I hope he changes his mind and the two of us can just fly down to see the launch on July 8th. That happens to be his actual birthday. That would just be so exciting.

So I created a card for him, in the shape of a rocket. I used the rocket that's on the Boys Will Be Boys Cricut cartridge. I used 2 of them, 1 flipped and welded them together at the top in Design Studio. I sized up the different accessories to fit and cut them with Design Studio too. I wrote the name of the shuttle being launched and the launch number at the top of the card for effect.


I am really hoping that I can give this to him in Florida. If not, I know he will enjoy it. Be sure to check out the wonderfully shaped cards created by our talented designers. I can't wait to see all of the different shaped cards that are created this week.

A Cricut Father's Day Card

I was inspired by Suzanne to make another Father's Day Card. She posted her card that made for this week's challenge at Cricut Cardz Challenge. She did a fabulous job creating her card. Make sure you check it out. The challenge is to make a card for Father's Day using any colors or Cricut cartridges. This is what I came up with....


It's a very simple, black card base with a piece of black and white polka dot paper as the background. I used my George cartridge to cut the circle to mimic the moon. The sail boat is the shadow cut on the Boys Will Be Boys cartridge. And I used Ashlyn's Alphabet and Design Studio to create the sentiment. I am trying to use Design Studio more. I need to learn a lot more.

Happy Father's Day

It's kind of strange around Mother's Day and Father's Day for me. I really don't have anyone to get something for. Stew gives his father a card, and I was going to make one for him, but he bought one before I got around to it.

So I decided to go with the idea I was working on and make a card for Stew instead. I won't even see him this weekend because he's working 2nd shift and I will be away at an agility trial with Willie, so I thought I would leave him this card when I leave on Sunday morning.


This isn't the best photo, but I had to take it quickly and quietly. When the alarm went off for work this morning, Stew decided he was going to stay home. I already had the day off, so I was going to do some cleaning, some scrapping and work on this photo outside. But I took it while he was still in bed, in the house because it was raining. I think he will like and will be quite surprised.

I am going to enter this into this week's challenge at The Paper Variety. The challenge is For The Guys.


Stew is very special to all of us here, so the doggies will give him this card for Father's Day.

Make Your Own Background

I hope that you are enjoying a crafty weekend where you. Only minimal crafting here. There has been so much to get done, and I have been shopping a lot.

This week's challenge at Lasting Memories is to create your own background, using a punch. Karen linked an example of a layout that had a polka dot background created with punched circles. For my page, I used my butterfly punch, placed several random butterflies on a white piece of cardstock and sprayed over them with 3 colors of accent spray - the yellow and green are Smooch Spritz and the red is Tim Holtz alcohol ink. I punched smaller butterflies in each of these colors and included them within one of these colors on the page. I kind of like how it turned out. I haven't used spray very much, but I think I might use them more.



I used my Cindy Loo cartridge to create the flower embellishments and the journaling spot. This is a photo I had taken through the sliding glass door of birds on our feeder one spring day. The colors of the birds is so vibrant. It's so exciting to see the birds getting more colorful in the spring.

I hope you will join us and create your own background this week. Check out the wonderful work the other members of the design team created.

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #13

Good Sunday morning. I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. It's time to reveal a new Birthday Sundaes challenge. The challenge this week is to create a birthday card that has some wet or dry embossing on it, along with a birthday sentiment. There are so many options for this.

I used a couple of small embossing folders to create 2 embossed elements for my card. This will be a card that I give someone I worked with several years ago. His birthday is 5 days before mine and he's always impressed that I remember his.



Be sure to go to the Birthday Sundaes blog and check out the wonderful cards that rest of the design team created. Their work is always so inspirational. I can't wait to see what everyone creates. Have a wonderful week.

Strawberry Picking

I am so happy to have scrapped both days this weekend. And I am very happy with all of the pages I created. Today I completed a layout of my nephews with photos that were taken while they were on a Kindergarten class trip strawberry picking.

I followed this week's sketch at Let's Scrap. They have such awesome 2-page sketches and I really loved this one.


The inspiration to do this layout came from The Paper Variety. Their challenge this week is Fruity Fun.

So here is the entire layout. Since I didn't have any photos of Josh with strawberries that you could see his face, I used a small photo of his face as one of the embellishment elements.


Here's a closer view of Page #1.


And page 2. The background paper is the same color on both pages. There seems to be a glare on this photo of page 2.


I am also entering this layout into this week's challenge at Wee Memories - Free For All. I will also include it into this month's Button challenge at Scrappin'-n-Chattin'. The challenge is to include at least 4 buttons on your page. Thanks for looking.

Lasting Memories - A Sketch and Bling Challenge

I always love a sketch challenge. This week at Lasting Memories we have a sketch and a bling challenge.

The sketch is a very interesting one. It was a little bit of a challenge for me, but once I decided how to format my photos, it worked quite well.


For the bling portion of the challenge I figured I would put flowers on my page and put some gems in the centers or put a row or two of gems somewhere on the layout. But when I checked out the Bo Bunny blog on June 1st, a layout really struck me. The layout was created by Luzma Bruna. You can check out her blog post here. I love this page and the flower or plant she created along the side of the photo really hit me.


And here is my page. Another one for the garden book. I really love this one. My bling creates leaves and flowers along the line I drew along the left side of the photo.


Go check out what the talented design team came up with using this sketch. I can't wait to see your blingy interpretation.

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #12

I am so enjoying being creative this weekend. It feels great to get some projects done. I hope that you all have been creative this weekend too.

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge at Birthday Sundaes. Our challenge this week is Anything Goes Birthday. And we have a sponsor this week. Jodie from Bugaboo Stamps is offering 7 digital images to our winner. The design team got to choose an image to use on our cards. Check out all of the images Jodie has available. So many neat ones.

I chose the Birthday Monkey topper here. And here is my card:


When Kristie (owner of Birthday Sundaes) and I went shopping a couple of weeks, she kind of introduced me to Copic markers. Of course I had heard of them and was pretty curious about them, but I didn't have any. I was kind of afraid to get any. She explained a little about them and suggested that I check out some videos. I have checked out a few videos, but I need to really learn a whole lot more about them. Since our challenge this week was to use a digital image, I took the plunge and bought my first Copics. I got 5, and used them to color the cute little monkey. The colors I used are BG45, E02, E15, R24 and YG63. I can see this is going to be a new obsession.

Go check out what images the rest of the team chose and the wonderful cards they created with them.

A Fun Day

I sure am enjoying the weekend so far. I have already created 2 pages and I'm working on a 3rd. I wanted to do a blog post about the first layout I did today.

This weekend was the 24 Hour Challenge at Scrappin'-n-Chattin'. We provide the names of 3 paper collections we have and then someone chooses which one we will use along with one of three sketches. My friend Barbara made the choices of Sketch #1 which is from Creative Scrappers #146 and Echo Park's Springtime collection. Here is the sketch:


The pictures I chose for this layout are from a couple of weeks ago. I got to meet, in person, a friend that I met first at Scrappin'-n-Chattin'. Kristie Wilson and I met at Hobby Lobby and went shopping, while her husband, my boyfriend and our dogs waited outside. It was so much fun shopping with a fellow scrapper. Then we stopped to eat, then went up to the fairgrounds to Pet Palooza. This was an event that people could bring their "pets" (I only saw dogs) to. It was really cool being able to bring the dogs to an event like this. It was a beautifully, sunny day, which was totally awesome because it had rained for at least the whole week before that. We had a really great day and I am so happy we were able to spend some time together in person. I hope to go visit Kristie in Connecticut real soon.


I used this layout for 3 different challenges at SnC - 24 Hour Challenge, 52 Week Challenge and the 4 Legs challenge. I am also entering it into this week's challenge at Frosted Designs. The challenge is to create a project that celebrates friends. And into the challenge at Flutter By Wednesday, which is an open challenge that must include a butterfly, fairy or angel on your project. And one last challenge. The current challenge at Sweet Peach Crop Shop, which is to hand stitch on your page.