My August Creative Scrappers Sketches

I love Creative Scrappers as much as the next scrapper and their sketches are one of my go-to jumping off points for inspiration. I am so sad I didn't get to all five August sketches before the deadline, but I did manage to complete two and love both resulting layouts. (The other three sketches are "pinned" so I can reference them later!)

So, here's sketch #219...

 

...And here is my take on it. I adapted the sketch to fit three photos. I also used up a ton of scraps and old stickers on this layout. And, I also used a new product - Washi tape! This is the first (gasp!) time I've used Washi Tape.

Supplies: Bazzill and EK Success cardstock; Little Yellow Bicycle, Basic Grey and Crate Paper  papers; Basic Grey/K and Co epoxy alpha stickers; American Crafts Thicker brackets; Me And My Big Ideas large epoxy circle stickers; Crate Paper epoxy dots; My Minds Eye washi tape; EK Success clear epoxy circles, unknown cardstock sentiment sticker and caption sticker; DMC floss; Creative Memories circle cutters and punches; StazOn ink; Sharpie marker; date stamp; Glue Arts, 3L and Thermoweb adhesives.

Then we have sketch #221...

...And here is my take on it. I used an old, old kit from Treasured Scrapbooking (now closed) for this one. I love this photo of me and my son, Liam, so I really love how this sketch centers the photo smack in the middle of the layout. I edited my photo by upping the contrast and changing it to sepia using PSE. Instead of one large rectangle background, I used strips of paper. I decided to create the circle with hand-stitched embroidery floss.

 

Supplies: Bazzill cardstock; My Mind's Eye, Prima and October Afternoon  papers; American Crafts alpha Thickers; May Arts trim, Love Elsie chipboard journaling spot; Kaiser Craft pearls; DMC floss; Zig Photo Signature pen; Glue Arts, Helmar and Thermoweb adhesives.

A Basic Grey sketch using vintage Boxer!

I love Basic Grey sketch challenges and this one was no exception! Here's the awesome sketch...

...And here is my take on it. I adapted this Valerie Salmon sketch for three ultrasound photos by using the upper right patterned paper rectangle for an additional photo and moving the subtitle to below the journaling strips. I used some vintage Boxer and a touch of Wisteria for my papers. I also used a Scarlett's Letter (my favorite BG collection of all time) tag, old Basic Grey chipboard alphas and flowers, a rub-on sentiment, a Basics journaling spot, Hang 10 & Scarlett's Letter alpha stickers and I know at least a couple of the buttons are Basic Grey. I am so happy with the way this turned out!

My first scrapfit workout!

So, I have been stalking the ScrapFit blog for some time and had yet to participate in a challenge. I just always seemed to run out of time before the deadline...I mean, it's not like I have a baby in the house or anything, right? But, then I saw that challenge #74 was an awesome sketch by Creative Trainer Diana Fisher and I knew I had to take the challenge! I also used Detta's challenge over at the Memorable Seasons Members Challenge Us crop for additional inspiration to create my layout. She had challenged us to use a possessive pronoun in our title and to include at least one photo of ourselves on the layout.

Here's the sketch...

Here's my layout...

Thanks for the awesome sketch Diana (and the fun challenge Detta)!

Members Challenge Us Crop At Memorable Seasons & Scraplifting Yourself!

Hello all! If you are looking for something to do tomorrow, the Memorable Seasons "Members Challenge Us" crop is happening! This is such a fun crop because the MS community members, not the Design Team, issued the crop challenges. And, even though the crop started on Thursday, there is still plenty of time to play along because the deadline to finish the challenges isn't until Wednesday, August 22nd! So if you are interested in playing along (and maybe winning a prize or two), head on over to the crop forum and get scrapping!

I issued a challenge to scraplift yourself! Here is the layout I chose to scrap...

And, I love this design so much that I've scraplifted it several times before...

But that didn't stop me from scraplifting it again to create this brand new layout...

Hope to see you over at Memorable Seasons! Have a great rest of your weekend everyone!

I am honored to be Member of the Month at Memorable Seasons!

I was in total shock when I opened the thread for the August Member of the Month on the Memorable Seasons message board and saw my name there. Shocked and happy! In honor of being MOTM, the Memorable Seasons Design Team all lifted one of my layouts. You can see them all here, but I thought I would highlight one of the lifts created by Tami because she chose to lift a layout that is very special to me - it is the first layout I ever created with a photo of Liam on it.

Here's my original layout...

And Tami's lift...

I would love for you all to check out Memorable Seasons, register and give the MOTM scraplift challenge a go! And, as added incentive, Memorable Seasons has a "Members Challenge Us" crop coming up this weekend. Lots of fun in store for sure! So come stop by for a visit!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!

First, let me say THANK YOU to all of you who took the time to stop by my blog these past few days to leave such kind comments and become followers. It meant so much to me and I promise to keep the content flowing. And, there will be more RAKs in the future too - I am going to keep that RAK box full. So be sure to tell your friends if you like what you see!

Well, without further ado, we need to announce the winner of this RAK, which will contain some items from the Pink Paislee Declaration collection as well as a few other goodies. I used random.org to select one comment from the 53 left over the past few days...

...and the 34th comment left was by Karen (AKA Soccerboyzmom). Congratulations Karen! Please email me at msmith912(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address and I will get your RAK out to you in the next few days!

Happy Day!

This was such a fun layout to create because this memory truly was a happy day. These photos were taken on Liam's discharge day, after spending 36 days in the NICU. It seriously felt at the time that this day would never come. 

The journaling reads...

"We never thought this day would come. Over 36 very long days, we watch many babies and their families come and go through the NICU. Then, finally, on 1/31/12, your day came. We were finally taking you home and it truly was a...HAPPY DAY."

In my quest to go to my "Use It or Lose It" drawer and use up scraps, on this layout I solely used some old Dream Street Papers scraps and used several items from my drawer - the red clips, the chipboard title and the large square snap. 

Thanks to Jenny Evans of Boys Rule for providing this awesome sketch for inspiration and this challenge to use both stripes and a banner from the My Sketch World Olympics Crop as additional motivation!

P.S. I will be drawing a winner of the RAK tonight so stay tuned!

Using up some scraps on a pretty card!

I have really been trying to use up the oodles and oodles of scraps I have. And I have found that cards are a great way to do this. The following card is no exception. I also decided to use this sketch by Susan Stringfellow for Basic Grey to complete this card. And, I also used four (I think!) old Basic Grey collections...there is definitely some Urban Couture, Sultry and Wisteria. I think the pink is Lily Kate. A Basic Grey Wholy Cow rub-on sentiment completes this card. Now, who can I send this to???

How about a RAK?

So my post yesterday explained that I now have a box of stuff to RAK now that I purged my scraproom. Well, I'd like to give some of that fun stuff away so I am offering up a RAK. And since I have a box FULL of stuff right now, it's gonna be a good one! (Did I mention I got a box from the Pink Paislee warehouse sale? The photo below may hint at some of the items in the RAK.)

But, I also am making a pledge to be a better blogger. I revamped my blog to help with that and I really would love people to stop by more, especially if I'm posting more! So, if you would like to be in the running for the RAK, please...

1. Either become a follower of my blog or subscribe via email, and...
2. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you did, and...
3. Earn a bonus entry if you comment on one of my other postings from this past week (there is a daily post beginning August 3rd)!

I will draw a winner on Monday, August 13th.

And I am also working on building my Google Reader feed. So if you'd like, in your comment letting me know you are now a follower/subscriber, let me know your blog address so I can follow you too!

Thanks so much for the support in becoming a better blogger!

You know those 4-tier round trays everyone's talking about?

Well, I picked one up. I jumped on the bandwagon. And I gotta say I'm glad I did. This thing holds so much! You can get yours online at Harbor Freight or pick one up in one of their stores. They are only $20. Luckily, we have a Harbor Freight less than two miles away so it was an easy errand for me and saved the $7 shipping. I also spray painted mine white since everything in my scraproom is white. It's definitely not a perfect paint job but its better than the original black.

So here's how I organized my tray...

• Top Bin: Stickles, Liquid Pearls, alchohol inks, mists, crackle medium & walnut ink.
• Second bin: wood veneers, decorative tapes of various mediums, microbeads, glitter.
• Third bin: twine, brads, eyelets, snaps.
• Fourth bin: An extension of my "use it or lose it" drawer. See explanation below.

"Use it or Lose it" drawer: I recently purged my scrapbook supplies and sorted things into a
"keep" pile, "RAK" pile and "save for Liam for crafts" pile. I didn't pitch anything. I figure Liam will love any sort of patterned paper and all those old Mrs. Grossman's stickers no matter what. But, there were a lot of things I still liked - either older supplies I just haven't used, random die-cuts just lying around or an embellishment pack with only one or two items left in it. So threw all this stuff that I just couldn't part with into a drawer and labeled it "Use It or Lose It". Then I made two rules for the drawer - (1) I have to use something from the drawer (or the tray) on every layout and (2) I clean it out every three months and what's left in there is RAKed or goes into Liam's box.

Scrapping Liam's Birth Announcement...

This was one of those layouts I was so nervous about scrapping because it was so important to me to do justice with this one. I mean, it's my first and currently only child's birth announcement. But, I must say I am very happy with how it turned out. I used this sketch from Boys Rule and it was perfect for this page. (If you are interested in attempting the sketch yourself for a chance at a RAK from Boys Rule, you have until August 14th to complete your layout!)

I decided to stick with a Winter/Christmas theme since that was the theme of his announcements. I used all scraps on this page - old Christmas lines from Basic Grey, Bo Bunny and Dream Street Papers. The die-cuts are from Pink Paislee's Snow Day collection (and one of the items in my warehouse sale box), the heart brads are Doodlebug, the pearls are K&Co, the twine is Trendy Twine (thanks Karen!) and the kraft cardstock is of course Bazzill. Thanks for looking!

I finally finished Alexis' album!!

Every year, our family has a charity auction at Christmastime. People donate items to be auctioned off and everyone bids on them. All money goes to a charity of the families' choosing. Well, for several years, I have offered up a 12x12 30-page custom-made scrapbook of any theme of the winner's choosing. My cousin-in-law and his wife won the scrapbook two different years and I created a first year album for each of their kids - Jack and Alexis. Well, they bid on Alexis' book Christmas of 2009 and I was finally able to give them the last six pages when we saw them this past July when we were back in Wisconsin. I was so happy with how the scrapbook turned out. Here it is in its entirety!

Altered Book Page

So, one evening this past June, my friend Maria asked me if I wanted to take a book page embellishing class from a local artist who currently had a showing going on at one of the local art galleries. Um, paper crafting? A class? Of course! It was such a fun time and although my altered page ended up looking more like a scrapbook layout, I was really happy with how it turned out. I did learn some new techniques that I can definitely apply to scrapbooking and cardmaking, walked away with lots of antiqued book pages to use and made this piece that I gave to my Nana as a belated Mother's Day gift. My Dad is going to mount it on wood and create an easel for it so she can display it on her piano.

Featured in Scrapbookupdate.com's 6/28/12 Gallery Highlights!

I was super excited to receive a message from Stephanie at scrapbookupdate.com asking if she could feature my "Back In The Day" layout I created from one of the sketches provided during Feeling Scrappy Sketchapalooza 7. Of course I said yes! 

Here's the layout and the link to Stephanie's article. I'd love it if you'd check it out!

Get ready to see double with Feeling Scrappy Sketchapalooza 8!

This past June, I also participated in Feeling Scrappy Sketchapalooza 7. I always have so much fun during these sketch classes and Jayne and her team produce some fabulous and versatile sketches. Their next sketch class begins Spetember 1st and focuses on double-page sketches! Yippee! If you are interested in checking it out, you can read all about it on the Feeling Scrappy blog and also sign up there too! Here are the layouts I created during the last sketch class and I still have several more sketches I need to use!

Olympics Crop Over at My Sketch World!

Okay, so I may have disappeared this summer. Can I just say it has been crazy busy? Like, CRAZY busy. But I have found time to scrap! I just haven't posted much here. I know, shame, shame on me. So, for the next few days, I will be putting up a daily post with what the heck I've been up to in my scrappy world these past couple of months. 

First up, I wanted to let you know about the Olympic-themed online crop happening at My Sketch World. They have three challenges up already and will posting a challenge daily through August 12th. You have until August 19th to get your entries in for an awesome grand prize. There are also fun games going on throughout the crop and lots of great chit-chat with some wonderful people! So check it out! This is the second MSW online crop I've participated in. The first was their annual ABC crop this past June. So that was one of my fun scrappy endeavors this summer. I had a blast and cranked out a whole bunch of layouts AND cards during this crop. Here are my creations from that crop!