Vacation

Good morning. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. It's Wednesday, and that means it's time to announce a new challenge at The Paper Variety. The challenge this week is to create a paper project with an ocean theme.We have a wonderful sponsor this week for a random winner. Our sponsor is We Scrap Kits. This is a wonderful Etsy store with some wonderful kits available with some very cool papers and embellishments. Check them out....
When I think of the ocean, or anything nautical, I think of vacation. I decided to use a photo of my nephews playing in the sand in Sarasota on vacation. I used the Sassy Lil' Sketches Send Off Sketch #1 to create a layout. I used Echo Park's Splash collection to create this summery page.

Be sure to check out the awesome, nautical inspired project the design team came up with. I can't wait to see your project.

Good Sunday morning. We are having gorgeous weather here in the northeast. We had Willie's first AKC Trial this weekend. I was very nervous about the whole thing. We had a couple of problems, but Willie is a trooper.

It's time for the new challenge at Birthday Sundaes. In honor of the season, the challenge is to create a birthday card, with the sentiment on the front, with fall colors. Make sure you check out the AWESOME cards the guest designer and the design team came up with.

For my card, I used the Sassy Send Off Sketch #4 from Sassy Lil' Sketches. Another very versatile sketch. I'm really going to miss these sketches.


The card I created is for another of my mechanic's. We have a bunch of birthdays at the beginning of the year, then a bunch at the end. Not so much in the middle. I used some more of my September Artful Delight kit to create the card.

I hope we have inspired you to create a fall theme card. Please be sure to share your creation with us.

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #29

Good Sunday morning. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. After an extremely stressful several weeks at work, we have now worked our last day with the company that we have worked for for 16 years. On Monday we start with a brand new company. At least we both have jobs. We spent a great day in NYC on Saturday, seeing Zarkana and eating at Chipotle. We also stopped at Cold Stone Creamery once we made it back to Poughkeepsie. It was a wonderful day.

It's time for the new challenge at Birthday Sundaes. The challenge this week is to create a birthday card that has ribbon on it. Pretty easy. I wanted to create a card for one of my guys that recently left to move to Georgia. It's sometime challenging to create a masculine card with ribbon.

I used the Week 4 Card sketch at Sassy Lil' Sketches. Another very versatile sketch. I'm going to miss Sassy Lil' Sketches. See their Friday post here.


And here is my take....

I hope you will share your card with us again this week. Be sure to include a sentiment on the front of your card. Take a look at the wonderful inspiration the design team came up with at BS.

Good Sunday morning. It's been a beautiful weather weekend here. My boyfriend rented a backhoe for the weekend to start some of the repair to our storm damaged driveway. He got done with it early, so he was playing and removed some wild roses around our nursery area in the backyard. He's going to do a little more today. So this will expand our gardens a little bit more.

And since it's Sunday, it's time for the new challenge at Birthday Sundaes. The challenge this week is to create a belated birthday card. Check out the cards the design team created. They are all so cute and creative.

For mine, I went simple. That is really my style. I followed the September Card Sketch #1 at Sassy Lil' Sketches for my card. I am really loving using these sketches.

I used one of the new Nestabilities that my son gave me for my birthday for the large, scalloped circles. All of the papers were scraps from my stash. I added a little bit of bling to the center of my stamped flower and the sentiment spot.


I hope you will create a belated birthday card to share with Birthday Sundaes this week.

TPV Party - Day 4

If you are here for the TPV blog hop, click here.

Good Saturday morning. It's time for Day 4 of our "favorite things" celebration at The Paper Variety. I hope everyone is enjoying our birthday celebration and all of the wonderful inspiration that the dt has been providing.

Today our challenge to use your favorite color in a paper project. The project should be monochromatic, and contain at least 2 shades of your favorite color. You can use some neutral color in your project, but it must be mostly your favorite color.


We have another awesome prize for one lucky winner of this challenge too. A random participant will win Cosmo Cricket's "Upcycle" collection. Such wonderful designs.

I created a layout with a photo of our 3 oldest dogs. At the time the photo was taken, that was all of our dogs. I took this photo to create a Father's Day card for my boyfriend. It was actually a TPV project, which you can see here. He really loved it and really, really loves the photo. I used the 2nd sketch from the Sketch Rerun post from Sassy Lil' Sketches.


Right now I am really loving the color brown. Weird, I know. I really, really love brown and red together. I used my Crate Paper Prudence collection to create this page. There are a lot of shades of brown in the collection, so it was pretty easy to put it together.

Sorry the photo is not the greatest. Since my room has been out of service, the spot I usually take the pictures is not available. I hope to be back to normal, maybe even better, by the end of the weekend.

So I hope you have participated in our blog hop. If not, go here to start. Be sure to check out all of the challenges we have revealed during this celebration. There will be one more tomorrow.

TPV Party - Day 2

If you are here for the TPV blog hop, click here.

Wow, what a fun blog hop we have going. What do you think of the awesome projects the design team created? They always amaze me. Such awesome work. If you haven't checked out the hop, be sure to head over to The Paper Variety to start. In addition to the hop, we have 5 challenges this week, with a prize for a random winner of each.

Today is Day 2 of our celebration. And here is the awesome prize for this challenge - Nikki Sivils "Blueberry Hill" collection.


The theme of our celebration is our "favorite things". I was so excited about the challenge for today. The challenge is to create a paper project using your favorite paper crafts company products. Of course, my favorite papers/products come from Echo Park. I used the Little Boy collection to create a layout.

As I tried to find a sketch to use for my layout, I checked out Sassy Little Sketches. I used one of the August 30th sketches, though I didn't enter the page into the challenge. I thought this sketch would work well with the photo and the papers.

The layout contains a photo of my nephews when they were babies. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but they are now 12. Where does the time go? I also included an image from My Favorite Things stamps, Cuddle Up Carter. I love that you can color the images to match your project.


I hope you will show us a project created with products from your favorite paper crafts company. Be sure to check out the rest of TPV's Design Team A's favorite paper company's too. And if you haven't hopped yet, please do. There are several dt members offering blog candy along the way. And be sure to check The Paper Variety tomorrow for another new favorites challenge.

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #23

Good Sunday morning. I hope everyone is having a wonderful, crafty weekend. It's time to show you the new challenge at Birthday Sundaes. And we have a sponsor this week - ME!! I am offering a set of Large Scalloped Oval Nestabilities. Nestabilities is my newest obsession.

The challenge this week is to make a Birthday card of pink, green and white. You can use some neutral colors if you need to, but it must be made up mostly of pink, green and white. You have got to check out the cards the Design Team created. They are all so beautiful.

I created my card using the August Week #3 sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches. It's such a pretty sketch.


I used my Regular Scalloped Oval Nestabilities for this card. The base is a regular pink card base, but all of the papers used were from my stash.


I hope you will join us this week for our pink, green and white challenge. Be sure to include a birthday sentiment on the front of your card.

You Are My Sunshine

It's time again for the new reveal at Lasting Memories. And this week's challenge is a real challenge. Karen is asking us to try a new technique, something that we have never tried before. Make sure to check out all of the wonderful pages the design team created for your inspiration and maybe even your technique.

I used a couple of different, new to me techniques. First though, I used this week's Sassy Lil' Sketches sketch for my page. Such a bright and sunny sketch. It really made me search for the right photos.


I also wanted to use this page as my off-week entry at The Paper Variety. The challenge is a color challenge:
The papers I used were a mixture of Echo Park and My Mind's Eye Lime Twist. The photo doesn't show the true colors, but they are very citrusy.

The techniques that I used were:
1. Machine stitching - I stitched green paper to the orange paper with a zig zag stitch. I have always loved seeing the stitching on all kinds of cards and layouts, but I have never been brave enough to try myself. I was always afraid of tearing the paper. I practiced a little with some scrap paper and then jumped in. I LOVE it. I will definitely be doing it again.

2. Paperclay charms - Inspired by some of DT member, Brenda's, wonderful projects, I got some Paperclay and created some charms that I wanted to include on a banner on my page. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the Paperclay is to work with. I was afraid that the charms would break or crumble when I tried to remove them from the board they were drying on or when I hung them. But they were quite tough. I sponged them with some color from ink pads. Again, something else I will have to do again.

3. Colored chipboard - I have a ton of chipboard and I really am too intimidated to try to paint or cover them. On this page, the clouds are chipboard. I used white ink as an undercoat and then used some Stickles to cover them and make them sparkly. I really like them. Next step is cover some chipboard with paper.


Thank you Karen for really challenging me to step outside of my comfort zone. This page took quite a while to create, but it felt GREAT.

I am also entering this page into the following challenges:
ScrapFIT -Workout #49 - 'Put A Banner On It'
Flutter By Wednesday - #166 - Open, must include a butterfly, fairy or angel

And don't forget, Lasting Memories is having a design team call. To be considered, all you have to do is to create a layout in each of the challenges in August. When uploading your link, be sure to include DT after your name. We have a some really talented people submit entries so far.

I hope you will try a new technique this week. I can't wait to read all about what the design team did as well as our participants.

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #22

Good Sunday morning. We have had a couple of good weather days Friday and Saturday, and it looks like we will pay for it Sunday. It's supposed to be hot, humid and rainy all day. Oh well, we really do need the rain. Makes it a good excuse to craft right?
This week's challenge at Birthday Sundaes is all about the brads. We want to see at least 3 brads on your cards, along with a birthday sentiment. August is a busy birthday month for me. And this week my youngest son celebrate's his 23rd birthday. So I used this challenge to make his card. I used a bunch of scraps to make it. I love when I do that. I have WAY too many scraps.

I have decided I am going to try to use more card sketches. This week I chose the August Week #2 sketch at Sassy Lil' Sketches to create my card. I really liked this sketch and will likely use it again.


And here is my take....



Go check out the wonderful cards that the design team created. They are so talented. I love checking out the BS blog every Sunday to see what everyone made. I hope you will share your birthday card with brads this week.

I Love My Big Brother

I hope everyone is keeping cool during this heat wave. It seems most of the country is sweltering. I hope we all see some relieve soon.

It's time again to reveal a new challenge at Lasting Memories. The challenge is all about the title. Make the title stand out or use an unusual technique to create a memorable title. Check out the video that Karen has linked on the LM blog.

To create my page, I used the current sketch at Sassy Lil' Sketches. I loved this sketch as soon as I saw it. I took me a little bit to find the photos I wanted to use with it.


I love the banner, but I don't have any pre-made ones left, and I didn't think I had the time to cut out all of the triangles. But I was inspired by one of the design team members, Lisa Rounds. Her banner was made with circles folded over the string. That seems easier to me. So this is what I came up with.

I used a variety of alphas to create the title, and a punched heart and heart button for the word love. When we picked out Tessa, we got her from the same place we got Willie. The guy told us that they have the same parents. We hope so. Willie has been nice to her since we brought her home, but a little standoffish. This past week, he has been getting very friendly. He is constantly playing with her, letting her climb on him and pulling on him. He seems very concerned about her, always making sure that she comes back in from outside, or helping to look for her when we can't find her.

I am using this layout as my entry into Scrappin'-n-Chattin's 52 Week Challenge and this month's twine challenge. I used twine for the banner, but you can't see it. I also used twine on the heart button in the title and the buttons on the centers of the flowers.

Make sure to check out the stand out titles the design team came up with. I hope you will give it a try too.

I am also entering this layout into the following challenges:

Sketches In Thyme - Open Challenge
Crafts and Me Challenges - Add a flower
DYSU Challenge Blog - Wings
Flutters By Wednesday - Open Challenge
Paper Cutz Challenge - Anything Goes

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.

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...

Just in the nick of time...

I didn't get near as much done this weekend as I wanted. Isn't that always the way? I really wanted to participate in the blog hops that happened over the weekend and get a page done for The Paper Variety. Sadly, none of that happened. But as luck would have it, I am forced to take a day off from work because I have too much vacation time built up. The only day this week I could take off was Tuesday. Cool, if I planned it right, I could get a layout done and uploaded before the noon deadline today.

The challenge this week at TPV was "Let's See Your Green". Your layout is to be at least 50% green.


I love Kermit, and all muppets for that matter.... Anyway. I had no idea what photo I was going to use for this challenge, right up until 10:00 this morning. I had Morgan's and Courtney's school photos printed on the desk in the scrapbooking room, but neither of them were wearing anything with green in it. So I started looking through some of my collections and came across the Basic Grey Green at Heart collection. Yep, that was it.....

Well, I needed a sketch to follow of course. I had looked over several the night before and I chose the March 7th reveal at Sassy Lil' Sketches.


I flipped the sketch to fit Morgan's school photo. She is growing up so fast, and isn't she pretty? I think the colors in the collection were perfect to coordinate with her shirt, and I got my green in there.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to get a couple more projects done today. It's so nice to be able to relax some, and not worry about what I have to get done though.

The Gymnast

I've been working on pages of Ben this weekend. Three done. Pretty good.

This page is of Ben while at gymnastics. All of the boys were in gymnastics for a little while. I think Ben is the only one with photos though. The layout is based on this week's sketch at Sassy Lil' Sketches. I really liked this sketch. I think it worked out pretty well. Here is the sketch:



And here is the page.


This page will also be my 2nd entry for the child challenge for this month at Scrappin-n-Chattin.