Pumpkin Patch fun

This 8x8 inch layout was created for The Rubber Cafe challenge.  I recently discovered some old photos, so I was absolutely tickled to find a perfect shot of my best friend, Sogol, from years ago.  I'm pretty sure I didn't take this picture AND that I wasn't present that day.  So I'm not exactly sure how I got in my stash, but I'm glad I did.  She looks so happy.

I have to thank my Lily Pad Cards Card Chain Challenge swapper for the beautiful stamped images she sent me.  I played around with my Copic Markers and my friend's Prisma Colors to color in the scarecrow and absolutely love how he came out. 

I'm also submitting this layout Our Craft Lounge for their fall foilage challenge.  I had some cute metallic leaves that helped complete the metallic journal tag.

A Bromance

To all my friends - I warned you....

The pics are coming out in grand force, and I can't quite stop chuckling.  Just look at these two boys....oh boy!  If only I could tell you that this was an unusual photo for this pair.  It's not. I'm sure between their wives' photo stash and mine, we could find hundreds of similar shots.  So why not commemorate it, right?

The Lasting Memories Layout Challenge this week was Frames and Flowers.  It was a bit tough to figure out how to keep this layout as masculine as possible with the addition of flowers, but I managed to make some more modern/less frilly flowers to embellish the layout.

I had Colorbok transparency frame to bring just enough attention to the boys.

My flowers looked like berries when I kept them flat (as mod circle flowers), so I snipped the outer petal and folded it forward.

I love these boys and am praying that they don't kill me for commemorating one of these silly moments.  Here's hoping their wives don't show them.  Ha ha ha!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month Card

This week's Card Cupids Design Team (DT) requests asked me to make a second card.  It was a last minute request, but I knew I could whip something together, especially when I realized the digital stamp I had was for breast cancer month.

I wanted to couple my DT creation with a couple of challenges - Scrapfit's Salt & Pepper challenge and More than Favors Breast Cancer Awareness challenge.

I have never gray scaled an image "myself", but I had a couple of grey copic markers in various shades and I decided to go for it.  I really need to develop my copic coloring skills (there are some insanely talented artists out there that make magic out of this markers).  I think Hope (the character's name) came out okay.

Clearly the only other color I added to this card was PINK.

I blessed that no one in my family is battling cancer (in general), let alone breast cancer.  I have an aunt who kicked its butt years ago...so in her honor, I'm glad to have had the chance to make a card to inspire others to stay positive and fight the fight.

The adorable digital stamp is from Bugaboo Stamps - it's called Hope Fights.

I also got a super sweet message to join the Link Up for Pink blog party - I'm totally in!  Such a great reason to create.  I hope to put up something else for that blog.

Some of my friends will kill me for this posting - college

Of all my college pictures, these are definitely not the worst - so I'm warning the friends now.  You can either send me some of your favorite memories from college that I should use, or be prepared for what I have in my archive.  And I'm just saying - I'm literally posting a picture of myself with that hair!  What was I thinking?!

This layout was made with the second Ella Publishing sketch #12. I honestly thought I was going to have a harder time with this sketch because I'm not an great at journalling on my pages.  Once I got started, though, I knew exactly what I wanted to say about this night.

I have to admit, this might be one of my favorite sketches to date....who knew I would have liked playing with a block of pictures.  I always liked it visually, but I didn't know how to add detail that would matter.  The arrows and the journalling were perfect.

Again - sorry for the grainy picture.  I'll need to take a better photo this weekend with some better lighting.

A Spanish Memory: Ella Publishing #11

I've previously mentioned that in all my years of scrapbooking, I have yet to make myself an album.  It surprises me that with all the challenges I participate in, I still somehow manage to make items to give away to my friends and family.  So I've made a conscious choice to start using the layout challenges to document my memories.

Ella Publishing had two very cute sketch challenges this week, so I used them both to kick start some memories from college and grad school.  This layout is sketch #11.

My first creation is from my trip to Spain with my best friends, Sogol and Dortiz.  I don't think either one of them has ever really loved this photos, but I have always adored them. They capture their personalities perfectly and they exude the sheer happiness we experienced that night. It truly was a memorable trip and I'm so lucky to have spent the time with them there.

Sorry about the blurriness.  I didn't have much natural light to work with today, so I'll have to take another picture later to replace the grainy texture of the image above.

I had these great papers in my "special" stash from Love, Elsie and Junkitz.  So happy I finally pulled them out to capture a memory.


The original sketch had the main block in the center of the page.  Two issues here:

1. I have a hard time with floating pieces on a layout - I need to get over it, but it causes me great visual distress
2. The junkitz paper in the back had some great sentiment blocks, and I knew I wanted to use "Traveling in Style" as a title.

When I laid out the images on the Love, Elsie paper...I honestly didn't even notice that right by my pictures was the name of the city we were in.  So, of course, I had to highlight that spot with a frame (literally a dollar find from Michaels).

I used a combination of two clear stamps to make the flying plane - they are listed below.

Once completed, all I could do was smile...I'm really liking this make myself an album business.  I now see why everyone loves to get them from me.  Ha!

My little shoebox - Summer Breeze

Imaginesce - Snag em stamps - plane

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A Pinwheel Birthday Celebration

In many of the manufacturer pages, I've seen a slew of pinwheels.  I guess pinwheels are the new owl (which I still love).  Pinwheels are pretty easy to make, so I decided to use them in my interpretation of this week's Card Patterns sketch.

Pinwheels look super cool when made with double sided paper, but I was also trying to use this sketch for the Clearsnap color challenge - eggplant, olive and aqua.  I wasn't sure about the color combo, but now that the card is done, I actually really like the combination.  I'll have to jot this one down for future use!

Because I didn't have double sided paper that fit this color scheme, I used some versamark to create a muted pattern on one side of the paper.  I used the Happy Birthday word block from My Sentiments Exactly and voila!  Next time I might try inking the stamp with color (or embossing it) - would have added some extra pop.

This card is a great way to use up scraps!  Each of my pinwheels is made from a 2x2 inch square.

MSE - Word Blocks

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Unscripted Sketches #125 - Hola!

I've been bad about incorporating my cultural background and language in my items lately.  A lot of it has to do with the minimal amount of embellishments that are available, but I own a cricut....I could make my own words (if anything, righ?).  Well, I also own a ton of stickers - so it was time to consciously make something that at least included the language.

I decided to use the Unscripted Sketches #125 challenge as a way to add some Spanish language sentiments.  Kept this one simple because there were already a bunch of words on the frame.  I guess this is more of a Spanglish card...chuckling to myself right now.   I also didn't exactly copy the layout as I've done in the past...this is my interpretation.

I also wanted to try out a particular "feel" for the card.  I've seen a lot of talented designs that layer and layer 3 dimensional items.  It's most often a vintage look, but I decided to try it out with brighter and bolder colors.  I'm not sure it's really my style, but it is an interesting design that I'm going to need to play with more and more.

The frame on this card is actually metal, so the card is pretty heavy.  I'll have to be ready for the extra postage on this one.  Ha!

Sketchy Thursdays: Andy gets his page too

The last layout I showed here was of my adorable god-daughter, Azul.  When I realized I would have another layout to complete, I knew that I would have to make one of her twin brother, Andy.  There is no favoritism here..I adore them both!  They have a little brother now...so I'll need to print up some photos soon so that I can make one of him too.

Sketchy Thursdays is a challenge blog I saw mentioned numerous times.  I finally visited their site and loved their sketches.

This week's sketch was very "clean" compared to my normal style of scrapbooking.  I tend to favor multiple layers of paper that help fill up the page.  This week's sketch had two small photo blocks on the whole page!  I was scared to even try to complete a layout from this sketch, but I'll never learn to be comfortable if I don't try, right?

I thought I was being slick by incorporating a doily on the page.  However, once I visited the Sketchy Thursday blog, I saw that one the design team members had already used that same embellishment.  Oh well...I liked how it looked on the page so I kept it.

Well, I have to admit that despite all the "white" space in this sketch, I was able to add texture to the vertical embellishments.  I braided ribbon and used eyelets in a non-supportive way (I tend to almost exclusively use them to anchor items).

I then took a piece of chipboard and covered it with patterned paper.  I had a couple of yellow and white embellishments catching my eye on the page, so I needed to balance their presence on the page.  I adhered the chipboard with foam adhesive to allow the vertical embellishments the space to exist.

The corner part of the sketch asked us to incorporate another circle shape.  I didn't see a defined place for a title or journaling, so I made this little corner my title block.

The fun part about finding some layout challenge blogs is that they are forcing me to create pages for ME!  I still do not own a single scrapbook made by me - I always give them away. So here is where I'm going to start.  It won't have a lot rhyme or reason (I'm choosing pictures at random), but it'll be a start, right?

One day I'll have to sit down and organize my photos and create a real plan to make a coherent album.  For now, I'll take these pieces of fun memories!

Scrapfit Weekend Warmup #14

I found a cute challenge blog named Scrapfit.  I enjoyed the overall "concept" of being Scrapfit...heck, if I'm not physically working out daily, I can at least get credit for my dedication to the daily crafting exercises, right?  Ha!  Heck - I even do some serious repetitions!

This weekend's warm-up was to use buttons.  I decided to make a card (shocker) so that I can start up my stash of card for  the Card Cupids Birthday Bundles next month.

Cricut Monthly Challenge - Window Dressing

This month's Cricut Circle Challenge asked us to incorporate a window element.  I knew I wanted to make a card, but I didn't know which design I wanted to focus on.

I decided to use a card element from the Pagoda cartridge. The card itself has a window element built in, but I wanted to play with dimension here.

So I blocked the window element with white paper so that I could add some Japanese blossoms to the plain branches.  I then recut the card and cut out the frame of the front.  Basically, I cut the card in half and snipped of the tree.  Using thicker foam adhesive, I added the yellow frame to the card to make it feel like a window.  I really like the nook it created for the tree inside.

The only struggle I had with this cartridge was the card settings (size-wise).  I would have really liked this card to fit into a standard size envelope, but I couldn't get it to cut to that size.  I'll need to do some more homework to see if there's an easy way to do that.

Cartridge Cuts
card, curtain - 5.5 inches (cut twice)
branch1-s - 1.5 inches (cut mutliple times per flower color)

Autumn Birthdays

I wanted to be able to send at least 10 birthday cards for Card Cupids.  I sent them a similar batch, so I don't think I could ever do less.  If not used this month, at least I know that my cards will eventually go to help brighten some kid's day.

A couple of the challenges this week asked me to use autumn colors and ribbon.  Couple with a cute sketch, I decided to marry all three requirements to make a quick and simple card.  The sentiments were actually won as blog candy, so it's nice to pay it forward.

Challenges
More than Favors
Really Reasonable Ribbon's Ramblings
Fetch a Sketch

Interactive Birthday Card

The Tattered Time challenge blog has a fun Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge (CCCC).  The CCCC focuses on projects made with a specific cartridge.  I don't have all of the ones on their list, but I had this week's cartridge - Pop-Up Neighborhood.  I actually haven't used this cartridge a lot, so I was happy to be forced to try it out.

As I've mentioned, I'm trying to make some birthday cards to send out to Card Cupids, so I decided to use one of the cute images to hopefully put a smile on some kid's face this month.

The Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge asked us to add an interactive element to our creations this week so I made a flip birthday greeting on the cover.

I basically used only the girl (with the kite) from the cartridge, but I added a cloud from the bakery.

Adorable Birdies

I clearly got quite a bit accomplished at my crop today.  Moxie Fab World has a fun weekly challenge called the Tuesday Trigger.  From what I can tell, someone puts together an image of items with a color scheme to inspire you.  Your task is to create something with those elements in mind.

As I had already been thinking of birdies for another challenge, I was totally happy to have some more options to experiment with.  I'm pretty sure I found this Partridge Family-ish bird stamp in the dollar bin at my local Michaels.  I have to say that I think that that dollar might be one of the best investments ever.  This card was so simple to make and the look is so cute.

I think more adorable people in my life might just get this adorable card!

The Sisterhood of Crafters lets you enter up to three cards per challenge, so I'm also be submitting this birdie card to this week's challenge.

It's funny the way things work out sometimes.  I rarely do clean and simple designs because I find them so challenging.  Well, it looks like the Allsorts Challenge blog currently is requesting clean and simple designs for this week's challenge.

Mojo Monday 207

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you know that my personal style of scrapbooking and card-making leans toward a layered look.  My friend Elisa likes to call it dimensional...but my creations don't always have a lot of dimension (most do, but not all).  What appeals to me in layering paper is the fun ways to highlight different patterned paper or add visual intrigue to the chosen photos or sentiment.

So I knew that I would love the final product of whatever I made with sketch 207 from Mojo Monday.  I pulled together some cute papers, and I pulled out my stitching tool (which you also know I love) and voila!  A fun layered card showcasing a cute bird.  The happy birthday touch also means that I can send this card to a Card Cupid.  Yay for all the fun cross-possibilities!

I'm also submitting this fun card to The Sisterhood of Crafters whose challenge was "for the birds"

It's also qualifying for Our Craft Lounge's supply challenge (#84): patterned paper.

A cutie pie card for Cutie Pie

I recently discovered the very new challenge blog called Cutie Pie.  They launched their first challenge this week with an adorable sketch.

Because we're so close to Halloween, I decided to make a cute card with a stamp set I had never used yet (shocker, right?).  Some fun paper and embellishments later...

L is for Lanterns

The My Time to Craft Challenge blog is doing a "letter" challenge.  The letter of the day, like in Sesame Street, is L.

When thinking through L options available to me in scrapbooking...I immediately thought of love and laugh.  However, I told myself that I needed to push beyond my initial thoughts.  I searched through my stamps (which I have plenty of) and found a cute little lantern.  I also had a cute little Kimono dressed girl...so I knew immediately that that was the direction I wanted to pursue for this challenge.

I made this card at a crop, so I apologize for the sloppy stamp resist.  I needed some daubers to smooth out the glow of the lanterns but had to work with what I had.

I remember seeing a glowing lantern on Lily Pad Cars, so I wanted to try it out on this card.  I really do like the look.  I added a little dimensional foam to some of the lanterns to give the card a little more dimension.

I embossed the kimono girl and used copics to color in the white spaces to compliment the colors of the lanterns.

Lasting Memories Layout Challenge #56

One of the new challenge blogs I've found is a layout only blog....considering I've been doing a lot of cards lately, this was a welcome addition to my creative nights.

Lasting Memories Layout Challenge Blog this week asked us to use fall colors.

I went through some old photos and decided I would make a layout with my first god-daughter.  I only have two god-daughters...the rest of brood is cutie patootie boys...so it's always fun to get a little girly.  The ironic part is that my god-daughter's name is Azul - which means blue in Spanish.  So even though I would love to pink it up on her layouts, I often try to incorporate fun blue paper.

For this layout, I chose one that had a lot of brown and oranges - typical fall colors.  I really like how the blue cools off the tone of the browns and oranges.  I'm so used to all the fall creations having a warm feel.

I tweaked the layout a bit by putting some of the layers on an angle.  

I got Top 3 Honors for this layout - thanks to Azul for being such a cutie!

Black & Purple Thanks

I've had a set of large text stamps for years...and once again, they've gone untouched.  The Unscripted Sketches Challenge #124 was the perfect fit for me to pull them out.  I kept with a two color card so that I could couple this with the Cupcake Crafts Black & Purple Challenge #160.

Sorry for the bad lighting...I took one picture with the flash and one without so you can see the details better.

MSE - Word Blocks

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a Happy Home card

This week, The Paper Variety challenge asked us to make something with "home" in it. It could be the actual word, an embellishment, a house image, etc.  The options were left wide open.  I honestly wasn't planning on my making this card yet...I was actually working on Card Patterns Sketch 133 challenge.

Like most scrappers/card-makers, I have a tub of scraps of extra paper.  So I decided to take a peek in there and see what I could find.  I was shocked to find a set of rub-ons with a "home" theme.  So I knew that I had to combine both challenges here.  It's ironic that this challenge would come up the week before my sister moves to her new apartment.  Hope she doesn't see this post before I mail it off to her!

In true fashion....having too much stuff means you forget what you have!  Lesson learned (for today).

Sorry about how dark the picture is!  I've been doing better about taking my pictures in natural light.  I'll have to replace this image later.

All Sorts Challenge Blog - Week 121 Alter/Recycle

I was so excited to this week's challenge on All Sorts....I was finally forced to try out a technique I've been dying to attempt.  Several years ago (yes, I said YEARS), I saw a tutorial where someone used a old children's book to create a chipboard album.  I think they had found an old damaged one at the second store - crayon and stickers all over the pages.

While I didn't have time to hit the second hand store, I did do a quick drive by the dollar store and purchased a book with a fun edge.  Thank you SpongeBob and Patrick!

I sanded down the edges and added a fresh coat of white acrylic.  I didn't bother to paint the whole book because I knew I would be covering most of it with paper.

I chose a fun vintage Christmas paper pack (I'll add the link later) to decorate the book.  The paper pack had a lot of fun tags/embellishments to use, so it helped me keep things nice and flat (allowing the book to stay closed).

Front cover

a little bling is always good

one of the inside layouts

back cover

Though I normally really like the dimension I can give with layers and layers of embellishments, I have to admit I really liked the finished product.  It was also super easy to make, so my friends better get ready....they might just start seeing versions of these for the holidays.

Lily Pad Sketch Challenge

One of my favorite challenge blogs is Lily Pad Cards and this week they had a sketch challenge.  I always enjoy trying out sketches because I love seeing how everyone interprets it.  Since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought it would be fitting to create a little spooky fun.

I'm also submitting this fun card to Paper Creations Ink for their Challenge #9 - Buttons or Bows.

I'm also going to submit this card to the Really Reasonable Ribbon's Rambling's Halloween Challenge.  I didn't see anything about not being able to back post, so I hope this card will count (as I really do like the way it turned it!).

Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Old Paper	Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Antique Linen	Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Black Soot	Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Dusty Concord
Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Spiced Marmalade	Bugs & Hisses	K&Company - Tim Coffey Halloween	Black Cat stamp - Paper Source

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