love from all of us

February I've really been working on my goal to make more cards for challenges.    I love following layout sketches and I make cards weekly so I don't know why I haven't followed card sketches for challenges.    Sketch #125 at Freshly Made Sketches today, grabbed me immediately so I went right to work on it and made this card.     Check out the challenge    HERE    and below is a copy of the sketch.    The challenge to use this sketch and keep the lines clean and fresh and I think that would be a good definition to my style of card making.

3 Men

I bought a new paper stack last week at Hobby Lobby,  it's from Paper Studio and called Deja Blue,   I was really drawn to all the blues and browns and patterns in the stack.  I decided to try it today using week 3 sketch at Let's Get Sketchy.       I tried to mirror the brown partial circle at the bottom right that was part of the patterned paper with a doily in the top left,  I just patted some brown ink all over it, so it wasn't such a stark white.   Then I just cut my 3 banners from the same patterned papers that I used a matting behind my picture.    To make everything stand out just a bit, I also did a very thin matting with a blue card stock around the 2 mats, the picture and the banners.    Some brown thickers for my title and a dusty blue cloth flower for an embellishment and viola I have a completed layout.    Here is the sketch.   I'll be using it again.     Plus the bonus of the sketch and because I love banners so much I get to also put this layout over at Southern Girls Challenge    Check it out    HERE
They have a great challenge just announced called Swinging in the Breeze to use banners and pennants on your project and you can use them on a layout or a card.    So I used them here on the layout.   I just love the look of these banners and how I don't have them glued all the way down, the ends are just that "swinging in the breeze"

Fairy Tale Ball

This will about finish all the pictures from the boys' themed Valentine parties at school this year.
Koda is in 1st grade and the first grade class theme is the Fairy Tale Ball.   I love these pictures of him dancing with his partner.   Looks like boys in 1st grade don't mind holding hands with girls.
I used the sketch for week #4 at Lets Get Sketchy.   Check out the months worth of challenges HERE

Happy Birthday Candle

This birthday candle I used on the left hand side of this card is probably one of the first stamps I ever bought.   I really like.   I love the font script and that it goes sideways along the candle.
I saw the sketch at Nacho Average Challenge #77 and thought it would work great with it.
Check out the challenge HERE and maybe you will want to enter also.  

Have a Wonderful Birthday

Another birthday card made today was this one that I used the sketch at Seize the Sketch.   It worked out well to use up some scraps of b'day papers that I had on hand.      Check it out  HERE  

Birthday Card making day

I always need Birthday cards for a monthly birthday club that I'm in in a yahoo scrapping group.
So today I spent the afternoon working on some birthday cards to have on hand.
I used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches to do this one.    HERE  is the sketch.

Sweet Song Bird card

I don't know how long I have had this stamp "sweet song bird" but its been a couple of years and I have never used it.    The glittery chipboard birds I got in a prize package probably a year ago and have been in my "i like this, i will use this sometime" basket since then.      Today when I was checking out new card challenges I saw the one at Crazy4Challenges blog I knew it was time to use all my saved goodies,  the idea came to me immediately, just had to go looking for the right paper to use too.    Check out the challenge    HERE
The challenge is a music inspiration and whatever it means to you.    Since I'm ready for winter to be over and hear the sounds of birds chirping out my window in spring, that is my inspiration.

2013 Magic Tree

If you know me at all you know I love making Christmas layouts.   For probably every year that I have been scrapping I've done at least one layout from pictures of the Magic Tree in Columbia, MO (well not last year, we totally forgot to go see it).   I've already made one layout this year to go in my Christmas album, but when I saw this sketch #81 at Feeling Sketchy   I just said Christmas to me so I decided to do another magic tree layout that had pictures of Leslie in it for her album.
Here is the sketch and I hope you try it too.

Project Life to date

I tried a few weeks of Project Life pages last year but just could not get the hang of it and just didn't really enjoy it.    But with the a new year starting with 2014 I decided I was going to try it out and make an effort to do a complete year.   So the last week of January I made my title page.  Highlighting my home and family and my plans and goals for the upcoming year.

I didn't think there was anyway my everyday stay at home life would work for doing 2 pages a week so just so I would do the pages, I set my sights on making only 1 page per week and thought that I could manage and would be perfect for me to complete.   The first week covered antics of our new kitten Rose, Mizzou playing in a bowl game and our Prime Rib delayed New Years Eve dinner.

So week one went fine and onto week 2.     The big news this week was the cold and the snow.  Grandson Gibson had his 3rd b'day, we didn't see him on his birthday but wanted to mark it for the week as I plan to do that for all the grands and other members to during the year.   I also  had a lot of Home Owners board work to do, so included the post card I sent out this week.

My mind is changing on PL and guess what, I LOVE it.  So now I'm going to be doing 2 pages per week and really have more anymore fun with this type of scrapping.   I won't ever give up traditional scrapping but this sure is fun keeping a visual diary of the year.    Week 3, i covered work, relaxing at home, the fact that we traded our cars and have now leased 2 cars, both Buick LaCrosse but different colors,  also had to buy 2 new appliances for the kitchen, thank heavens for sales and 10% off if we use our Lowe's card.   Plus since I've fallen for PL scrapping I found a great deal on the close out sales at Archivers and got lots of misc. cards and page protectors.   A lot of different things going on this week so was fun to show the week in pictures and journaling.

Week 4 -  January 20th to 26th starts off at home and work and one awesome lunch (with lots of leftovers for the next couple of days) at our favorite BBQ place, Oklahoma Joes.   Then the highlight is the beginning of a road trip to Orlando to visit Barbara, Frank and Avery and see the new home they moved into last summer.      Arthur would prefer to drive cross country than fly, just because he can control the timing and start and stop whenever he wants.   Back in our traveling days for work a few years back when we would drive to NC or MS monthly we started listening to books on tape so I checked out 3 different ones to listen to on this road trip too.   Plus I took Avery's full scrapbook to them to keep and was fun looking through it all again with them page by page.

Week 5 was mostly of pictures of all the things we did in Florida and about some of our meals out etc etc.    Then ended up back home in time for Super Bowl and Ground Hog Day,    Plus had to include pictures for back to reality of a big grocery store run to restock and also remnants of the snow on there ground we came back to.    Also since this week started in January and ended in February I did a summary of the month of January on the highlights and this is also how I will recap monthly how many scrapbook layouts and cards that I made during the month.   Will be fun at year end how many I will make?    Any guesses???     The clue is.....  LOTS,   I'm a prolific scrapper.   :)

The news this week was back to bitter cold and 11" of snow.    It was my brothers 60th birthday so had to document that and include a throwback picture of him 40 years earlier.   I also got a good savings on gas from my fuel saver points at HyVee so saved that receipt to look back at in the future.

This week is also the beginning of 2 weeks of the Olympics.   I love watching The Olympics and see the opening ceremonies and all the pride on the faces of the athletes as they walk in.

Have I mentioned lately that I'm LOVING doing PL pages.    This week #7   February 10 thru Feb. 16 wasn't a busy week so the first page I just concentrated on my office/craft room because I spend the majority of every day in here, so just wanted to document some of the views I have while sitting at my desk.    This was also Valentine day during the week and of course made a card for Arthur and he actually got me a gift that totally surprised me,  I can usually figure out everything early but he surprised me this time.  I documented about our dinner out,  I totally forgot to take any pictures so just documented all we had.

I also received in the mail on Saturday the very biggest scrapbooking challenge prize that I have ever won.    I'll be using all of these supplies for a long time to come.    I've already shared some in RAKs so that was fun to do too.

So these are my pages to date.    I'm so excited I decided to try PL this year.   I LOVE IT !!!!

Mojo Monday card

Woo Hoo, Yeah me.    A scrapping resolution I made for 2014 was to make and enter more card challenges.    I made and entered one yesterday and my first scrapping today was to make this card
as soon as I see it this morning at Mojo Monday Card blog.    Check it out   HERE   there are a lot of great cards already posted to give you inspiration.
You can see the sketch below too.    Give it a try it makes a great card.

Big Hug - Boys Rule Challenge

This was a fun sketch to work with once I decided on what papers to use.   The background paper is a single piece of Fancy Pants - Hopscotch collection that I had, then the rest were 3 various scraps I had and some card stock scrap too, so went together well considering most came out of my scrap drawer.     The sketch is the latest sketch out at Boys Rule   You can check it out  HERE
It's a different look than what I usually have but I'm real happy with it and I'm sure I'll use it again in different configurations.   It sure is great to use scraps and the single sheet of paper left from a collection.   Who doesn't like to be able to do this.
The picture was taken last Thanksgiving and Papa Don put the big hug on Kai while we were trying to get a picture of the two of them.      You can see the sketch below also.

Sock Hop

Yes this is a 2nd grade sock hop and if all the pictures I have of Kai and all his 2nd grade friends it sure looks like they were having a blast and all dressed for the part.    My DIL didn't get a lot of "clear" dancing pictures as I'm sure the movement by all was fast and furious.   But I love these 2 pictures and used the 2-15-14 sketch at Stuck ?! Sketches.   You can check it all out  HERE
there is a great prize for this challenge so check it out and have fun.
Here is the sketch.....

SMILES

I am loving today.  I was up way early for me and got right to scrapping.  I rearranged my desk yesterday and I think it has really given me more space to work on and it seems to be successful.
Because i've been a busy scrapper so far.    This is the first layout I made.   I had printed this picture of Susan and Kai the other day knowing I would scrap it soon.    It was a selfie taken at Kai's sock hop themed Valentine party last week.   Glad I have this pic because the majority of the pics of him dancing he was to active a ended up a bit blurry, but some will still be scrapped.
For this layout I used Sketch #51 at Sketch-N-Scrap.    The pic of the sketch is below but you can also check out all the details   HERE        This has been a great month for me at Sketch-N-Scrap. I've made layouts with all 3 sketches and also did the card sketch too.

Hello card

My goal in 2014 was to make more cards for challenges.   In my yahoo scrapping group I'm in a 52 week card challenge where we have a prompt every week for that weeks card entry.   But I rarely enter any other card challenges even though every week I look at so many of them and tell myself to make that card.    Well finally this sketch I printed out and kept it here in front of me and tonight I got my act together and made the card.   I used an embossing folder for the red background paper and also used a mini embossing folder for the butterfly and fancy cut around it.   I then used some light blue rick-rack and found some scrap patterned paper that matched that and the butterfly and also had some red in it, so that is what I used for my banner.    Check it out   HERE  for more details on the challenge and here is a pic of the sketch I used.

Special Time

I am so proud of Jason and Susan for taking Koda (Susan's nephew) into their home and raising him.
It's been about 2 years now and I smile every time he calls me Grandma.    This was a selfie
Susan took yesterday at his 1st grand Valentine party.  I guess each grade has a theme for a party as this theme Fairy Tale Ball was the same theme Kai had last year when he was in 1st grade.   Prince Koda had a wonderful time and I have more pics to scrap of the party plus pics of Kai and his 2nd grade Sock Hop themed party.   But I chose this pic for the first one to scrap.   I love their smiles.
I used this awesome sketch at  "Stucksketches.blogspot.com" to use as it was has some nice touches but really let the photo be spotlighted.      Here is the sketch.

I love you card

Valentines Day is over but when I saw the challenge today at S.W.A.T (scrap warriors advanced training )    Drill #26 is call "All you need is love" and the challenge was to have a theme of love on your project and keep the love going after Valentines Day.    Well I decided this would be the time to go ahead and make an anniversary card for my husband.   Our 7th anniversary is April 6th.
You can check out this "lovely" challenge   HERE>

5K Partner

I'm still working on pictures from our trip to Texas for Thanksgiving this last year plus more pictures from the 5K walk/run the kids all participated in that morning.   I knew i had these 2 pictures of Uncle Hank and Mylan and when I saw the sketch at Shop Scrap Much  I knew it  would work great for these pictures.    But then pics got buried on my desk for a week so just found them to make the layout.     Here is the sketch and the link to it.  

Shop Scrap Much Guest Designer layout

Valentines Day is the day this layout I made will be featured on the Shop Scrap Much blog as the Guest Designer.     The sent me the sketch to use a couple weeks back, so I went right to work on it and made this layout using a couple of pictures taken last month on our trip to Orlando to visit Arthurs' daughter and her family.   They live on a lake and the weather was perfect so one afternoon we went out in their boat for a ride.    Fun time for sure since we left the cold weather back in Missouri,  although we did semi get caught driving home because that was the time of the storm
that hit Atlanta and basically closed them down for a couple of days.   We were suppose to drive right through Atlanta but had to change our route and ended going thru Montgomery and Birmingham, AL which wasn't good either, but because of all the route changes we made,  we were able to get there ok, just took extra time.

But back to the challenge at Shop Scrap Much,  you can check it out    HERE  or see the sketch below.   I hope a lot of you will enter.    And thanks so much for asking me to be the Guest Designer, it is an honor and a joy.

My Garden

I made this challenge at Stuck on U Sketches with just a few hours to spare.     I knew I wanted to make a layout of all the pictures my son had posted on FB of the process over a couple of weekends on the organic garden he was building in his backyard.    I was looking thru sketches at various blogs I follow and found this one and it was perfect because I would get to use all 6 of the pictures he posted.      The challenge is over this evening, so I started right away just after lunch trying to decide what papers and embellies and such to use.   It ended up being rather ample as I just matted my pictures and my background paper is actually 4 6x6 squares I just taped together on the back.
Then I used my silhouette for only the 2nd time to cut these two different plant/leave cuts to use as the embellishments.   You can see the sketch and challenge     HERE

Valentines card

Valentines day was sneaking up on me.   I got the Valentine cards made for the Grandkids real early and their treats sent out to them.   But then I still had to make my card for my hubby.   He would be surprised not to get a handmade card from me on every occasion.       I used card sketch #19 at the Sketch n Scrap blog.    You can check it out   HERE
I thought the sketch would work perfectly for a Valentines card.   My goal the first of the year was to enter more card challenges and I think this is the first one I've entered.   I just usually make my cards without a sketch but now after doing this one.  I'll be using more card sketches now.

Mylan Texas Cowgirl

After I finished this layout I thought the true title of it should be Pink Overload.
My granddaughter Mylan is certainly not the all pink girlie girl, but with the top she had on and the hot pink cowgirl hat I decided to go with dusty rose and pinks for the paper colors that I chose.
I used an old collection.   My Minds Eye - Indie Chic for this layout and then two different types of flowers from my stash and pink Thickers.    I don't know how much of the Indie Chic paper I started out with, but I know I've used it often and I still have a lot left.
I used the Inspired By Sketch #2 at the Sketch n Scrap blog.   You can check it out   HERE
There is still time to enter the February challenges and a chance to win a great prize from
Crate Paper.
My bonus for this layout since I have a total Pink Overload going on is that I can also enter my layout  at S.W.A.T.  their Drill #25 posted on 2-4-14 is al about ONE,  use one color on your creation and can also use black and white.   So I have all pink here and a touch of white.   Check out this fun
challenge  HERE.    There is a great prize of a kit from 3 Scrappy Boys.

Crazy Cat

We adopted a 12 wk old kitten from the Humane Society the day after Christmas.   Here name there was Rosette, and we have shortened it to just Rose.   We really love her and laugh everyday at her antics.   Just this last week found her trying to clean out the pasta pan from the Spaghetti we had made for dinner and then another day climbing and looking thru the branches of the artificial ficus tree in the dining room.   She is spoiled rotten but we love our "Crazy Cat"   I used the sketch at
Creative Scrappers,  it is sketch #261.    You still have till the end of the month to join the challenge so check it out   HERE.      There are so many different takes on the sketch and fun to see them all.

So Pretty

 I haven't scrapped in a couple of days when is unusual for me.   But I'm back and now looking at my blog it seems the last layout I did was the Let's Get Sketchy Wk 1 sketch and now I'm back using the Week 2 sketch there.      I had to rotate the sketch because the picture I wanted to use was a vertical picture.     This is my granddaughter Avery and I just think she looks so pretty in this photo, so made my title rather obvious.   When looking for what papers to use I found that I have a few sheets left of the Basic Grey - Oliver collection and it really tied into all the pictures in the photo.   I even found one lone butterfly in my stash that colors worked too.    For the doilies I just cut one small one in half and then rubbed my Tim Holtz distress ink Shabby Shutters color over them and had the soft green color I was looking for (not sure why they look more yellow in the picture) but it is a soft shade of green.      This was a fun sketch to work with.   The sketch also had some banners on it, but I skipped that part.   You can check it out    HERE