The Colors of Spring

I have been saving this title block 'Colors of Spring'  for awhile for the right pictures.
Earlier this week we spent the morning walking around the Kaufman Gardens here in KC.
It's only a small 2 acre garden but so full of flowers and fountains.   We had a great time and of course I took lots of pictures, so decided to use some of them to make this layout.

I was inspired but the challenge at "Frosted Designs" - Spring.     So I pulled out this title card and went to work on my layout.   Check out all the details    HERE.

Red Rock Canyon

I used the sketch at "My Scraps and More" to make this double page layout.   I'm getting so close to finishing up all I wanted to scrap on our vacation last month and once again did a double page for another sightseeing stop.   I thought the sketch #104 would work great for two pages and for both vertical and horizontal pictures.   I used the same background paper on both pages and then a couple of patterned papers on both pages are the same, then I just tried to stay in the same color scheme and make it all work together.   Plus the bonus was I used all scraps which always makes me happy.

I have the sketch below and then just go  HERE  to read all the details at "My Scraps and More"  you still have till midnight on April 30th to enter either of the April sketches.

Mom Card

I always try and send a Mothers Day card to my daughter-in-law to thank her for being such an awesome Mom to my grandkids and also a great husband to my son too.

For this card I used card sketch #48 at "Sketch-N-Scrap"    I loved the simplicity of it, yet so many ways to dress it up.   I inked the edges of my oval and added a great 3D flower to it also.
I don't have any Mother's Day stamps so I just used pink thickers to spell out Mom.

Give this sketch a try, I know you will love it.    See it below and check out the details   HERE.

A Mothers Day card

I made this Mothers Day card for my Mother In Law.   The tag had a die cut flower on it in pink, but it just didn't look right so I found this little folded 3D flower in my stash and put in on top of the stem and I like it so much better.

For this card I used the April 18th card sketch at "Let's Capture Our Memories"   I loved the look of the tag on the card and the simplicity.   I don't have any Mothers Day stamps so went with the love from all of us stamp and them used mini alphas to spell Mom.

Check out the sketch below and all the details here at "Let's Capture Our Memories"

A springtime PL page

I just finished this PL page.  I had the pictures I wanted to use for last week but hadn't done my title card or journaling.    I'm not doing the traditional PL this year.  I might have a page that covers a day or I might have one that covers a 2 wks.   Just depends what is going on.

I'm going to enter this PL page at "The Paper Girls Challenge"    there Challenge #78 is April Showers Bring May Flowers.   for this last week I show that April Showers also bring April flowers.
My hubby couldn't wait and we got our flowers in early this year.   It worked out perfect because we then had 4 days of rain.

Check out the challenge details    HERE.

Rain and Shine - Friends of Mine

I made this card today with "The Paper Girls" Challenge #78 - April Showers Bring May Flowers"

My interpretation with this the sentiment about rain and the umbrella and then my background paper is all little white flowers.   I had the image in my stash ready for whenever I wanted to make a card.   I just added some white stickles around the lines of the umbrella to give it a little sparkle and to look like it was covered in rain drops also.

Just go   HERE  to see all about this latest challenge at "The Paper Girls" and see how you interpret it.

I Got Swagger

I just loved these pictures of Kai.   They were out for the day and it looks like they stopped into a cowboy hat store and Kai was trying some on.

I used the Fancy Pants Swagger collection and it was perfect,  It had the felt letters for Swager, and a precut pennant that had the wording on it about hats, then I was able to cut another small banner from a scrap of the paper in the collection.

Of course with featuring the grandson on this layout I wanted to use the Laura Whitaker's April sketch at "Boys Rule"    I think it was a perfect match of sketch, papers and pictures.

See the sketch below and check out all the details and some of the Design Teams inspiration by clicking here at "Boys Rule"

Hoover Dam

Slowly but surely I'm going to get every sightseeing stop on our last road trip scrapped.   When we left Vegas our first stop was just a few minutes away at Hoover Dam.   Was very fascinating to see in person after seeing pictures for so many years.

I wanted use the panoramic picture but also pics we took of each other during our stop so I made a double page layout.   I used the sketch for the left hand page from "Let's Capture Our Memories"  I thought it would work fine with a panoramic picture.   Then for the right hand page I just  put it together with same papers so it would coordinate with the one for the sketch and also used potty people on it and more wood veneers.

Check out the details  HERE  for this sketch challenge and the rest of the ones for April at "Let's Capture Our Memories"

Roadkill Cafe

I loved the newest sketch at "Stuck on U Sketches" and wanted to work on it right away.    For these pictures we took on a lunch stop on our vacation I kept the layout just as is and no big embellishments, but I will use this again and make it all flowery probably.   It can go so many ways.
But pics of us and the menu at "The Roadkill Cafe" didn't need flowers.   LOL

So glad we found this little town off the highway and on Route 66 in Seligman, AZ.   I couldn't resist taking pictures of a couple of pages of the menu.   Such fun meal names like Dead Meat Treat, Splatter Platter,  Too-Slow Doe,  Fender Tenders.   It took me forever to decide what I wanted to order because I kept reading all the names and not what it represented.

So check out this great sketch at  "Stuck on U Sketches" and be inspired to make something special and fun with this sketch.   You have until May 7th to enter.

Just Me

I pulled this background paper out this morning thinking I would use it on another layout and it just didn't seem to go with the pictures I wanted to use.    So its been sitting off to the side of my desk all day.    I had Make it Monday sketch #38 for "The Memory Nest" sitting there too so this afternoon decided to look for pics to work with and picked two of me in front of the hotel in Vegas and since I had on a purple shirt used the paper I had sitting here.   I had to rotate the sketch to make it work for my vertical picture but I think it works well this way too.

There are still 6 days to work with this sketch so check out  "The Memory Nest" and give it a try.

Beatles - LOVE

I had never seen a Cirque de Soleil show so was so excited when our friends on Vegas suggested we all go and we bought the tickets the day before.  There are aboue 3 cirque shows going on but we all wanted to see the "Beatles - Love" show. Our seats were fantastic,  row 7 from stage , and first 5 rows were actually a bit below main stage level so we had to look up at flying acts but still great.   The good thing for me was I was on the inside seat of the row right at the railing where a lot of the performers walked in from so got to see them all right next to me.

When I was looking for sketches I thought the one for Week 3 at "Let's Get Sketchy" looked great because I use 3 pics plus I also thought it would also work well with a place to put my ticket stub.  I just think it all worked out fine plus I found this fun piece of paper in my collection that circus on it from the MME Find Your Winds and Fly collection.

I have also been waiting to enter the challenge at "Scrapping 4 Fun Challenges"   The latest challenge there is Anything Goes and to use Lace or Ribbon.   Instead of using a matting strip on the angle cut of the bottom piece of patterned paper I decided to use a piece of blue embroided lace trim and then across the bottom a 12" strip of ribbon with matching blue stars.   I wanted in incorporate another color than the pink because the costumes everyone wore in the show were so full of color.

I have the sketch below  and here are the links to the two challenges.

"Let's Get Sketchy"

"Scrapping 4 Fun"

Room and a View

We had an absolutely beautiful room hat the Red Rock Spa and Casino in Las Vegas.  The bathroom was huge, with a big deep tub, separate shower, long double sink counter top, tv over the tub.   Then a big beautiful king bed, sitting area and huge dresser area and nice big desk.   There were big full length wall of windows overlooking a beautiful swimming pool area and the mountains in the background.    I couldn't get a good picture,  was always a glare and reflection looking out but it was beautiful.
I had these 3 vertical pictures and decided to finish out the month at "Sketches In Thyme" with this sketch from week 3,  by Shawn Lahr.   There are 3 great sketches to work on this month.  I haven't done any of them in order, I don't think, but now have them all day.   You still have a few days left to join in on all the fun too.    Believe me all 4 sketches have been great.    Check out all the details for "Sketches In Thyme" HERE.

Kitchen Buddy

I broke away from vacation layouts to make a layout about Kai.  I've had these two single pictures sitting out to scrap but I thought they would go well together using the week 2 sketch at "Sketches In Thyme"  since they are both food related.   One was taken at breakfast out with his Dad and another when they went out for lunch together.   Jason loves to take the kids together or one on one for a meal and give Susan a little break.   Plus he usually posts pictures on FB then so I get them and scrap them.

To make this I just went through my stash of cooking papers and embellishments to see what I could use for the layout.   Just added some yardstick for matting and then had the banners in my misc embellies stash and it all came together.

I have the sketch below and just go   HERE  to get all the details on it and all the four sketches for the month of April at "Sketches In Thyme"

Discover Valley of Fire

Another Valley of Fire layout and I got to use some memorabilia with the brochure we got at the entrance.   I was up early this morning and started looking for new sketches to use.   I immediately saw the week 4 sketch at "Sketches In Thyme" that was just posted today.    I knew it would work great to be able to add the brochure along with a couple of pictures.    I inked the edges of the patterned papers with brown ink to blend into my background paper and not do my usual matting of everything.   I used a variety of papers.   the full background paper was from the old Bo Bunny Etc. collection.   The corner triangle of orange strips and orange floral strip at top are the A and B sides of one piece from the Basic Grey Picadilly collection.   Then the green square under the brochure and pictures is a piece left from a pack of 180 misc. papers I bought at Sams Club probably 6 years ago.   So I really mixed it up on this one.

There have been 4 great sketches this month at "Sketches In Thyme" to work with and they also have a great $25 GC as the prize.    You still have 8 days left to use this sketch or any or all of the other 3.
Just click  HERE   for  all the details.

Valley of Fire

I love it when I find great 2 page sketches to do vacation layouts.  This time I used the 2 page sketch for April at "Stick it Down"  Most all of my pages from this last vacation have been double pages of every stop we made.    We woke up to start our last 90 min drive into Las Vegas, our destination of this road trip and along the way.   We noticed a road sign for a turn off to Valley of Fire State Park so we decided to take the little side trip and see it.    I'm so glad we did because it was really pretty.  
I really enjoyed this sketch because I got to use both horizontal and vertical pictures plus an extra square picture too.     You can see the sketch below and be sure and check out all the details  HERE
for both April sketches at "Stick It Down".

Road Trip Title Page

I'm taking a different take on Challenge #238 at "Lasting Memories" the challenge is Family Travel Traditions.     My families travel tradition is road trips,  its just the two of us sometimes, like this trip a few weeks ago to Vegas or its the two of us and my Dad and my brother,  and sometimes even my daughter has joined us.    So my Family Travel Tradtion is road trips.   We all live in Missouri, so we have taken road trips to Florida, to DC, to NY, to Mackinaw Island, MI, to Mt. Rushmore, to Vegas and possibly this summer one to Seattle.   Some we have even repeated like FL  and DC all 3 times.   Last fall I started going through old travel layouts and getting them all into big 3 ring binders with a two or three trips per album and I wanted to separate the vacations someway so I decided to make "title pages'    This is the one I just completed for our road trip to Vegas.   I highlighted the route we took out and then we came back home a different route so we could take in more sites.      So this will be my last April entry for the month long Travel theme at "Lasting Memories", my title page to one more family road trip.   Maybe this will inspire some of you to make vacation title pages like this.   You can check out all the details for this last challenge   HERE  plus there is still some time to enter any of the travel themed challenges for the month at "Lasting Memories"

Happy Bunny 2015

I was so happy to get this picture of Kai and Mylan with the Easter Bunny.   Last time I had one like this it was just Kai and Mylan was a baby.    For this layout I used the sketch at "The Studio Challenges"   I liked how there wasn't a lot of papers to use just some embellishments is how I went with where other papers could have been used.
Be sure and check out all the details   HERE   and I have the sketch below.

Parks & Statues of Savannah

I'm still catching up on vacation layouts.   I've been doing layouts from our road trip  a few weeks ago and putting them in my travel album and noticed that I hadn't ever finished the road trip we took last fall.    One of our stops was Savannah, GA.   Of course we took the trolly tour so I got lots of park and statue tours as we passed them all by.  
I thought this sketch #79 with 3 pictures at "Sketch N Scrap" would be perfect to pick out 3 different pictures.      I love circles and banners so I have a feeling I'll be using this sketch again.
Just go  HERE  to get all the details of this and the other challenge for the month at "Sketch N Scrap"  you still have till the 30th to get your entries in.

My Girl

I haven't seen to many recent pictures of Avery so when this one was posted on FB I thought it was so cute and knew I would scrap it.    I decided to go with the great sketch at "Stuck on U Sketches"

This was such a fun sketch to work with. I don't think I've ever cut out a frame to put around a picture like this.    I cut out my patterned paper to 4.5" x 6.5"   then I placed a 4x6 pic centered and traced around it and then used my exacto knife to cut on the lines and make my open frame.
Since i had matted my other patterned papers in black I decided mat the frame too.    I just free cut the inside again with my exacto knife.   I like the effect and will probably do this again.

Check out all the details for this sketch challenge here at "Stuck on U Sketches"

Crashing Waves

I'm loving the April challenge themes at "Lasting Memories"     I'm behind one week but there is always tomorrow to do another vacation layout.   The challenge posted on 4-12 is titled "Sunny Shores" and you can't find anywhere better, in my view, than the sunny shores in Hawaii.
We took a family vacation Feb. 2014 to Kona, Hawaii, it was my habby and I and my Dad and brother.   We take so many trips together and they are always great and this one was no exception.

I loved our view right on the rocks and water at our rental house for the week.    We used vacation rentals by owners and we had a fantastic house complete with pool to enjoy the week.
Sitting outside on the lanai, or inside with the doors all open it was so awesome to hear the waves crashing all the time.   The best sound ever.   We had one really rainy day and the waves got so big we could be sitting well inside the house and still see the waves crash high over the rocks.

So what is your favorite shore to visit?    Get out those pictures and make a layout for this challenge at  "Lasting Memories"    Check out all the details   HERE.

Now for my bonus.   There is also a great challenge at "Picture This" that was announced on April 15th.    The challenge there is  to use 3 Photos and Travel.    So with that in mind that is why I picked out 3 pictures of the waves just out our backdoor to make this layout.     As much as I wish I could live there and see this site daily, we did have to travel there.   We even had to fly.   LOL.    My husband isn't scared of flying, but just hates to fly because of all the wait times in airports and the close fitting seats on the plane.    So he would much rather drive across country than fly anywhere.
We have made many road trips.  Living in the center of the US in Missouri, you really have to drive aways to get to any vacation locals.    

You can check out all the details   HERE  for the challenge at "Picture This"    You still have 10 days to enter either of the April challenges here.

SNOW

Here it is April 17th and I'm sure after the winter a lot of us have had the last thing you want to see is a layout with a snow theme.     But since the DT here at "Scrap Much?!" gets the sketches ahead of time I made this layout in layout February while I could look outside my window and see the snow coming down.    I will say here in Kansas City we have been very lucky in the snow scene and have had very little.   These pictures are of my granddaughter Addison and they live across the state in St. Louis and they have gotten a little more snow this winter and this is from an early snow in February and was enough for the kids to really go out and play in.     Fun times for kids while we adults could do without all the snow I'm sure.

So hopefully today you are enjoying some warm weather while looking at the new sketch and challenge at "Scrap Much?!"    Maybe you can use it for some spring time layouts or go back and pull out some of your winter pictures and use them like I did.

You can see the sketch below and read all the details for the challenge.    HERE.

Gibson's 4th Birthday

This was the first time we got to be at Gibson's birthday and enjoy the party and gifts and cake with him.   He had a party at a gym and all the kids played and had pizza and cake but then he didn't open all his gifts until he got home with just his family there.    He was so excited.

I used this great sketch from 4-15-15 at "Let's Scrap"    I'm loving  being on the DT here and getting to work twice a month with these great sketches.     I hope you will play along also and like this sketch as much as I did.   There is so many ways to go with it.    Just  click   Here   and it will take
you to the "Let's Scrap" blog and you can read all the details and see what the rest of the Design Team made.

I Missed You Dad

My journaling tells the story of this layout.    I just love the picture.   Chopper has been Jason's dog from day one and really hates it when he is not around.

I used the April single page layout from "Stick It Down"  and it was perfect for what I wanted to do in just have a picture, a story and a title.

Check out all the details   HERE   and I have the sketch below.

Explore Amsterdam

Once again I'm working on the travel theme challenges for April at  "Lasting Memories"
I love to travel in the states and a few times out of the country, so this months challenges are perfect for me.   The 2nd week challenge has a sketch and is call 'My Favorite Destination'
I don't think I have gone anywhere that I didn't like or wouldn't want to go back to.
But I have to say when I went to Europe for 10 days to visit my daughter while she was in college there was a fantastic trip.   We had time in London, Oxford, Stonehenge and Amsterdam and some surrounding countryside.   This was a family trip,  my husband, Dad, brother and nephew all went and of course then my daughter was there to travel with us on our side trips.  

We all loved Amsterdam.   We walked all over, saw some beautiful gardens, awesome museums and then riding along the canals in the boats was fantastic.   I could have done that day in and day out.
My daughter and nephew even went to the Amsterdam Zoo one afternoon.    So there was a lot to do.
So that is why I decided to make another layout from this trip as my favorite destination  for that challenge at "Lasting Memories"    Plus I got to work with this cool sketch and get out some of my stash of wood veneers.    

See the sketch below and  then check out all the details  HERE  for yourself about this challenge and the others ones at "Lasting Memories" for the month of April.

Exploring South Dakota

I'm trying to fill in pages from trips from the past.   So this page was from our road trip to Mount Rushmore.   Most of the pages I had done before were some of my first scrapbooking pages.  
Boy has everything changed.   Even though this page is mostly a collage of pictures and a few embellies, its still different than the first pages of 15 pics cut out into little 2x2 squares with deco scissors.   :)

We spent one day just driving in the immediate area and found this park to take a hike in and found these great views and some hillsides to climb around.   It was a great place

I'll be entering this layout at "Lasting Memories"   They have a fantastic theme for the month of
April --- Travel.   All challenges will be about travel starting with the first challenge of "Mystic Mountains"

Check it all out  HERE  and see the great prize for the month 3 special made travel die cuts.

Remember you have all month to enter all the challenges at "Lasting Memories" and there is a new travel themed challenge each week.   My next post will be my layout for week 2

MINDCRAFT KIDS

I really was intrigued by sketch #118 at "Let's Capture Our Memories"  the fact that it show one photograph cut in half had me wondering how it would work out.    but I have to say I loved the way it turned out.  I even decided to double mat the picture with a pale yellow and black to go with the colors in their shirts.  Thats actually how I decided on all the papers I used was the shirt.   I didn't want a black background but I wanted black in some of the strips, so I found this great piece oh black herringbone look paper and cut the strips from it.   Then I found a green piece of scrap paper with a subtle print to it and that was all I needed.   I couldn't decide on what type of alphas to use so once again I looked at the shirt and used a variety of colors and prints on the alphas.   Added my banner and some embellishments and I was finished.      Check out all the details   HERE  and see you you like doing the split picture layout.   I bet if you try it you will love it.  I'll be doing it again for sure.
The sketch was posted on April 4th and you have until april 30th to enter.   The prize is a $10 GC to "Let's Capture Our Memories"

Take me out to the Ball Game

This is Bryce at his first baseball practice for the year.   So far he is really enjoying it.   I hope we get to go see a game this season.    I'm so excited to have baseball season starting again, whether little league of the big leagues.

For this layout I used the sketch at "Let's Get Sketchy"   it had a circle in the sketch (that you can see below) and that is where I added my baseball paper piecing.   I thought it all worked out well.
My two strips of paper came from one piece of baseball themed patterned paper.   The header of the 12x12 piece was the baseball with BASEBALL printed under and across the page and the rest of the page was the grass print.   So I cut the top strip  and then a wider piece of the grass and used that behind my picture.   Matted both strips and the picture in black to have them stand out a bit.

Check out the details here at "Let's Get Sketchy"  and read all about the April week one challenge.

BALLOONING

When we were on our hot air balloon ride we could see a total of 14 balloons up in the area at the same time.   The red, white & blue balloon was the other one from the company we were with  that took off just minutes before we did.  The picture was taken as they were coming up on our landing site of the field at the high school.   Besides the balloon sticker and the cloud sticker that I used for my embellishments I also added the lapel pin we were given at the end of our ride.

I used the week 1  sketch #143 at "Sketches In Thyme" for this layout, it was just perfect for my pictures and papers.    Check out the sketch below and you can get all the details for the challenge HERE.