Holly Jolly Christmas

This is my October 30th Design Team reveal at   "LASTING MEMORIES"    I made this layout the end of September for the challenge.   This was while my printer was working   (here's hoping that is
all fixed by the time this posts)   but I couldn't print any new pictures so I was going back into boxes of older pictures and finding something to scrap.  

For some reason two of these 3 pictures had never been scrapped, one was in a collage of the day.
But I wanted to scrap these.  I'm so glad I have these pictures of my daughter with her grandmother and also her grandfather.    Little did we know that this would be Mom's last Christmas with us.
On the 27th she got real sick and ended up in the hospital and was there until April when she passed.
So these family pictures are very special to me.

The theme for November for all the challenges at  "LASTING MEMORIES" is  SHAPES.
We start off November challenges today on Oct. 30 with the first weeks challenge or - SQUARES
Use squares on your layout, including cutting your pictures into squares.   I have 7 squares on my layout a 12x12 green background and then 4 patterned paper on top of that cut into four 5 1/2" squares.    Then I cut my 3 pictures in 3 1/2" squares.

I hope you have fun with all the Shape themed challenges this month.   Check them all out at
"LASTING MEMORIES"

My 1st Thanksgiving card of the year

I just made my first Thanksgiving card for the season.   Even though I will be with almost all of my family for the day.  I still send all of them cards before the day.   I think we all like to get cards in the mail.

I'm entering this card in two challenges.

1.    "FRESHLY MADE SKETCHES"  I used their sketch #260 by Kim for my card.
Here is the card and click the link above for features from the design team and more details.

2. Next I will enter the challenge at "THE SISTERHOOD OF CRAFTERS"   The challenge there
this week is     PUMPKINS ... or ... the color ORANGE.    All my background is orange

and there is even a little pumpkin in the cornucopia.   Click on the link above to play along.

Boo Kitty or Cute Kitty

Here is our new "curious kitty"  Spot, who decided to get inside the Fall/ Halloween basket of leaves I had on the kitchen counter.   My husband actually took it while I was out of town for a couple of days this week and sent it to me.   I was so happy  he thought to take the picture because I knew I would have to make a layout with it.

So when I got home this morning as soon as I got home I started looking through sketches to find one to use.    The October sketch at   "MY CREATIVE SKETCHES"   was perfect.  I even got to print the picture in a 5x7 size and then get out all kinds of Halloween papers to use along with the sketch.

I went with the title of BOO even though who could ever think that this little kitty was scary.
Here is the sketch and just go to "MY CREATIVE SKETCHES"  to see what the design team did.
You have until November 14th to enter.

Pumpkin Patch

I made one more layout from our day at Pumpkin patches a few weeks ago.  And I already have
an idea for another one.   What can I say I got a lot of great pictures.

For these 4 pictures I used the sketch at   "STUCK  ?!  SKETCHES"      At first I thought I would just use 4 pictures of different stacks of pumpkins but since I had a picture of both of us with the pumpkins in the horizontal format I decided to use those too.

Here is the sketch and you have till midnight EST October 29th to enter your layout for a chance to win one of 2 different prizes by random draw.     Go to "STUCK ?! SKETCHES"  for all the details.

A very spooky grandson

I have to say this is one scary costume.    If I hadn't been told who was wearing it I never would have known.    This is my Grandson Bryce, dressed in his Halloween costume for this year.
He wore it Friday night to his 6th grade Halloween dance.    I'm not sure if this is the look to get
girls to dance with you.   LOL

1. I'm entering this in three different challenges.    First I used the sketch  for October Week #3
at   "LET'S GET SKETCHY"     I  loved that I got to really dig into my Halloween paper stash
and used 5 different patterns and then a couple of embellishments from collections too.
Then using a black doily was perfect too for this layout.  Here is the sketch.

2. The second challenge is at   "ROBYN'S FETISH CHALLENGE BLOG" 
Challenge #339 is ............. "Anything but a card for Halloween".  
So I made my first 2016 Halloween layout.   I just love Halloween papers so got to use a lot of them
in this layout for this challenge.



3. The third challenge is a Mood Board challenge at   "PICTURE THIS"
I was inspired by the Halloween theme and colors or black and orange and white
Here is the Mood Board.

Click on the links above for each challenge.
And here is the sketch I used.

A CREEPY card

I'm finishing up all my Halloween cards today (I hope)   I made this one for my grandson Bryce.
His costume is similar to a skeleton.   So I hope he likes it.

I used the Flashback Friday #3 sketch at   "SKETCH-N-SCRAP"    Check out all the details
HERE  for all the challenges they have going on this month.

Happy Birthday Arthur

It was my husbands birthday on Friday.   We have passed the age of trying to surprise each other with gifts, we just get what we want during the year and say this will be for your birthday or my birthday.
But we always go out for a nice meal.   I knew without asking where hubby would want to go.
He LOVES Brazilian Steakhouses.    I thought he would say Fago da Chao,  but we had tried a new one to us a few months ago with friends and that is where he wanted to go back to.   Excellent choice because I think their meats are the best seasoning wise.    We were stuffed as we always are when we are finished there.    But as the waiter brought our check to us he asked what our weekend plans were.
I said, "whatever he wants to do, its his birthday"   And with that he left and came back with this great piece of cheesecake for us to share.   Complete with birthday candle.

Sketch #115 at  "SKETCH N SCRAP"   was perfect for the pictures I took during our meal.
Check it out below.

Another Halloween Card

I should be finished with  Halloween cards but I'm just having so much fun making them this year.
This one went together super simple.
I used the pumpkin dry embossed orange card stock for my background and then used Jilibean Soup elements from my stash for the black cat and the Boo! sentiment.  Although how could that cute little kitten be scary.   :)

I made this card for the   "JUST US GIRLS"   challenge #366 - Photo Week.       The inspiration was  covered all the way in this card.   Black  cat and pumpkins.

Here is the photo inspiration....... and just click on   "JUST US GIRLS"   to see all the details.

Happy Holidays

I made this CAS card today for three different challenges.     First I saw the challenge at the
"52 CARD CHRISTMAS THROWDOWN"     This week the challenge is a technique challenge...
Embossing - Dry or Wet.    I went with the dry embossing and embossed the pal blue piece of
card stock with a snowflake embossing folder.   I had a card card base that had this blue border around it already so just cut down the blue card stock to fit.     I decided to keep it CAS and
just use silver glitter words only on the card.   It let the embossing showoff well and I thought the
silver and blue went together.

Next I am using this card for the challenge at  "ALWAYS PLAYING WITH PAPER"  when I
saw this challenge that is why I went with the blue card stock to emboss because the challenge here
is a Christmas photo inspiration challenge.   The blue ribbon on one of the presents just jumped out
at me above all the red and white in the pictures.   So that is what inspired me.

Last but far from least is the latest two week challenge at the "WINTER WONDERLAND BLOG"
The them this week is Frosty or All Wrapped up.   More details below.   But this card was perfect for the frosty choice with the embossed snowflakes and the blue and silver.    Fun fun fun, making this.


Here are the challenges.....   Just click on each challenge name for more details.

"52 CARD CHRISTMAS THROWDOWN"

and

"ALWAYS PLAYS WITH PAPER"  

and

"WINTER WONDERLAND CHALLENGE BLOG"

The theme of the week is Frosty 

(cold colors like blue, silver and white alternative snowmen) 

or Well Wrapped Up.

Hello Autumn

As I promised myself yesterday I wanted to scrap more pictures from our trip to the various Pumpkin Patches and Apple Orchards earlier in the month.

For this layout I used a few pictures from our first stop at Alldredge Orchid.   There was so much to see and so much fun.   I love all the displays they had made up.

I used the sketch plus three challenge at  "SCRAP OUR STASH"

List 1 - I used Diecut  - 2 different pumpkin die cuts.
List 2 - I used Elle's Studio - all but the bright leaf paper is from Elle's Sycamore Lane collection.
List 3 - I chose Fiskars - I used a Fiskars punch on the leaf paper and the polka dot green paper.

This is always such a fun challenge to work with.   And this month was fun again.
Check out  "SCRAP OUR STASH"  for all the details for this challenge and book inspired challenge from the first of October.

Me and a Pumpkin Patch

I took so many pictures two weekends ago when we went out to 3 pumpkin / apple orchards, all on one Saturday.    But even with all the pictures this is the first layout I've made.   I guess I was just stuck on where to start first.

So I went with the inspiration at  "CHALLENGE YOURSELF"   and picked two pictures of me at one of the stops of the day.    I used a sketch from a challenge last month that I never got around to using but it was perfect for the Fall color scheme challenge at  "CHALLENGE YOURSELF"
This is challenge #34 and you can get all the details    HERE.
Thanks for the challenge and making myself scrap myself with these beautiful colors.

Here are the colors to use.....

A Card for Fall

I made this card to send to my Dad.   He was here visiting me and left yesterday but I thought I would send him a Fall card to tell him how much I enjoyed his visit.   I'll mail this yet today and then later next week mail his Halloween card.   At the age of 93 he likes getting happy mail.

I started with a kraft card base and then just stamped some orange and green ink on it in a random pattern.    The I used  two different patterned papers, matted in chocolate brown and a green diecut leaf.

I'm entering this card into two challenges.    I started with a sketch challenge.   Sketch #374 at
"TUESDAY MORNING SKETCHES"      This challenge closes 10-23-16.    The prize is 13 small steel dies and a Spellbinders embossing folder.    
Here is the sketch........

Next I was inspired to use the challenge #317 - Clean & Simple with the theme being  "Leaves"
at   "THE PAPER PLAYERS"    You have until tomorrow, Friday Oct 21st at Noon PST.
This is the perfect time of year for this them,  I have leaves on my cross piece of patterned paper and also a diecut leaf.

Click on the challenge names above to get all the details and see what the design teams did to inspire you.

Another Halloween card - I'm on a roll

Today is Halloween card making day because next week is the time for me to mail out to all the grandkids and the rest of the family.

I am entering this card into several challenges going on now with the Halloween card theme.
There are so many now so I'm glad I get to enter them.

For this card I pulled out a card base I had that was already outlined in black (perfect for Halloween)
Then the Halloween word background paper is from the 6x8 Bella Blvd Spectacular pad,  the ghost diecut is also from that collection, the two strips of paper behind the ghost in the circle came out of my drawer os scraps of paper, I got lucky and cut two strips, and then used both sides of the paper.
The scalloped circle the ghost is glued to is from a pkg of chalk labels from American Crafts.
I really want into my Halloween stash and put together this card.

I started off for this card using the sketch #259 at  "FRESHLY MADE SKETCHES"
You have until noon PDT Monday October 24th.      This is a sketch challenge and doesn't have to be Halloween themed, in fact looking at the links so far, I have the first Halloween card.
Here is the sketch......

Next is the Challenge #274-Hey Ghoulfriend at  "SHOPPING OUR STASH"   You can see from above I used up many things form my stash for this card.   This challenge closes the end of the day on October 24th.

Next is the  Challenge #114 - Halloween at  "THE PAPER GIRLS CHALLENGE"  you can make any project, card, layout, decoration just so its Halloween themed.   Submissions close in 16 days from today.

And then I went to  "SIMPLY CREAT TOO"  for their Challenge #120 - Halloween.   This is my 2nd entry there for this challenge.   It close in 7 days from today.

You can go directly to all the challenge blogs by clicking on their names above.    Have fun scrapping,  I know I am today.

Halloween card for today

I put together a lot of elements from different manufacturers for this one.   I started easily with my
orange card base and then the two strips of purple and orange with the star cutouts were border strips from a pkg of misc 6" border strips that go together for 12" strip.   My square piece of card stock under the haunted house is actually a pale purple color, but then I inked it in black ink to outline it some and then looked at it and decided to darken it up more and just patted it all over with orange ink.  I think it gave it a bit of a night and spooky look to it.   Then my haunted house die cut is from
Bella Blvd. collection Spookatcular that is new this year.

I'm entering this in 5 different challenges with Halloween themes.   It is that time of year.

First I used the sketch #182 at "NACHO AVERAGE CHALLENGES"   Here is the sketch.
This challenge is open until Oct 24th.

Next is  "SIMPLY CREATE TOO"     Their October 14th challenge #120 was Halloween.
Easy Peasy for this time of the year.  it is open un till Oct. 24th

Next is "CUTE CARD THURSDAY"  Challenge #448 Halloween was just announced today and is open until 8pm (UK time)  Wednesday October 26.

Next is   "ROBIN'S FETISH CHALLENGE"   and this bi-weekly challenge #338 is also for Halloween cards.  It's open until October 21st.

Last but not least is  "SHOPPING OUR STASH"  Challenge #274 'Hey Ghoulfriend' for Halloween cards is open until  11:55 pm Monday October 24th.

You can click on the challenge names above to go to the blog and get all the details.

Fall

The theme for all of October at  "LASTING MEMORIES"  is   'All About Fall'
I'm so glad I got these pictures of my grandkids at a Pumpkin Patch last weekend.  Nothing says fall to me more than a great pumpkin patch.     The challenge for the week of October 16th is about your favorite fall activity.    Mine is the grandkids at a pumpkin patch.

It's a beautiful time of year so I'm sure you have started taking fall pictures so be sure to join in this challenge or all the weekly challenges at  "LASTING MEMORIES"  this month.    Just click on the link to be inspired by the other design team members also.

Black Cat Halloween card

I'm entering this card in two challenges.       First  I used the Flashback Friday sketch at
"SKETCH N SCRAP".    They are celebrating World Card making day all month long with
a throwback sketch every Friday during the month.   Click on the link for the details.

Second I am going to  enter this card at "USE YOUR STUFF"    Challenge #237 is a color combo
challenge -- The colors are  Orange, Black and one Neutral color.    Of course this is a perfect
combo for a Halloween card.   Click on the link for details.

Here is the sketch........

Christmas Card - U = Under the Pile

I'm playing along with the "ABC CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE"   and now they are up to the letter
"U"   and U is for Under the Pile.     Meaning what is in your pile of Christmas crafting goodies that you have been hoarding for at least over a year.   Everything put the poinsettia is old on my card.

The square card base with the red outline on it I bought 2 years ago.   The paper I cut and put in the center is probably 5 years old and the Merry Christmas 3D sticker sentiments is 2 to 3 years old.
I love everything about Christmas and have lots of scrappy goodies for it, so it wasn't hard to find anything old.

I hope you play along and have fun with the challenge.   Check out all the details for it here at
"ABC CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE"

I love Papa

I had fun playing with the sketch from "THE STUDIO CHALLENGES"    I changes it up some and used my single sheet of background paper as my title.   I just added different alphas for the I and the Papa.    I love this picture taken of my grandson and my dad just before he left with his Dad and sister to drive back home to Dallas after visiting for the long weekend.    I love these two guys.

Here is the sketch I used and just go to "THE STUDIO CHALLENGES"   for the details on the challenge.

Our weekend PL style

I made a PL page covering 3 days.     When I saw Sketch #46 at  "SKETCHES IN THYME 
PL STYLE"   I  was inspired to use it for my first card of the page with what we were doing on this last Friday.     We had been talking about getting another cat so we went to KC Pet Project to see if they had any kittens.   Sure enough here was this darling little black kitten.    We couldn't resist.
He kept reaching out toward us, so we asked if we could hold him and that was all it took.
When we put him back in his cage he kept watching us and reaching out to us.   We were hooked.

Here is the sketch I used for this card.   You can check out the details    HERE   and see what the
design team has done each day this week with it.

And here is my completed PL page.   Friday adopting a new kitten,  Saturday out and about in the area  and Sunday hanging out at home with a flock of geese about to take over our front yard.

First Phone

I really wanted to enter the October challenges last   "ROCHELLE SPEARS"  blog and
"GRAND DIVA'S SCRAPPY PLACE" challenge.   I just wasn't finding the right pictures and the triangles had me scared.   But today I bit the bullet and went for it.   I did have to rotate the sketch to fit my vertical pictures.   But I'm so glad I gave it a try.   I really mixed up the papers and used 4 single sheets of paper in my stack of single sheets that I either bought one at a time or they are the last couple of sheets from a collection.    Many months ago I decided to just make a stack of papers like that and I've been totally surprised since then how many times I go to that stack first and find papers to use on a layout.

The challenge at "THROUGH THE EYES OF ROCHELLE SPEARS"  was to use either tickets or tags.   I chose to make a tag from one of papers I used and have the tag be where I put my title.
A little red and white twine tied into a bow to go with the red background paper and I made great use of a tag on my layout.

Then the challenge at "GRAND DIVA'S"  is always a sketch challenge.   It was the triangles that had me scared from day one of seeing the sketch, but I'm so glad I gave it a try because I really looks great and it makes a little bit of a different type of layout I'm use to, so that is always fun.

Here are the challenges and click on the link for details on both of them.    Of course you can either both or just do the sketch or just do the tags or tickets on a layout.     Whichever way you go I always find a fun challenge here each month.

"THROUGH THE EYES OF ROCHELLE SPEARS"

"GRAND DIVA'S SCRAPPY PLACE"

Ninja Warriors

I've been waiting for a good double page sketch to use for some of these pictures of my grandkids,  Kai and Mylan when they were visiting over Labor Day weekend.     We went to two play grounds, one in a small neighborhood park and the other across the street at the elementary school.

I wish I could scrap a video, because at the first playground they had this whole Ninja like equipment for the kids and Kai did the whole course and was actually awesome, never had to step down or fell off anything.

Then we went across the street to where they had this big climbing circle with a rope enclosure inside.   They both had a great time climbing in and out of it.

The double page sketch for October at  "STICK IT DOWN"  was perfect to make a layout of some of the "many" pictures I took of the kids.    And I still have some left to make a layout of pictures of each Kai and Mylan.

Here is the sketch and check out the details at "STICK IT DOWN"   for the single page sketch and the card sketch and have fun creating.

Happy Halloweenn

Today I started out today with making cards.   I haven't made a lot of cards lately so this was fun to get back to it.

I used Sketch #80 at  "ALWAYS PLAYS WITH PAPER"    It was perfect to use for this Halloween card.

Check out the details   HERE    Each week there will be a new challenge.   Just a little over one day left to enter the sketch challenge.   Now that I'm back to making cards I'll be back on Saturday for the new challenge.

Halloween Card

It's that time of the year.   I have my Fall and also Halloween decorations around the house.
So it's time to start making some Halloween cards.

This is my first this year and I used Sketch #83 at    "SKETCH N  SCRAP"  for this card.
I started with an orange card base and then started adding the layers ending with my center of a stamped image of a ghost.   I just didn't add the sentiment.

Here is the sketch and check out the details   HERE.    You have until Halloween evening to enter this challenge or the other challenge at   "SKETCH N SCRAP"

First Breakfast

I had already made all the back to school picture layouts of all the grandkids but I still had these pictures of Avery left of her breakfast on her first day back to school this year.     Both Mom and Dad made a special breakfast for her.   One with mini waffles and yogurt and fruit and the other one of cheese and fruit.    Both look great to me, so I know for sure she didn't start the day out hungry.   :)

I am entering this in two challenges.   One is the Make It Monday sketch #73 at
"THE MEMORY NEST"   This was such a fun layout to work with.   I never think to add banners to my layouts, but this sketch had it and I'm so glad because I love banners and need to use them more.
This banner I used green, red and orange, to go with the apple papers behind the pictures and then the orange for the orange on the one breakfast plate.    Since I had the white notebook paper background, I inked my edges in red to go with the red apple paper.

Then I'm going to enter it at my yahoo scrapping group "SCRAPPIN-N-CHATTIN"  one of our
monthly prompts was School Days to honor World Teacher Day which is today, October 5th.
To show more of the school theme I used a notebook paper for the background and then for my
patterned papers behind the pictures I had both red and green apples, also goes with the fruit for the
breakfast.

Here is the sketch and check out  "THE MEMORY NEST"  for all the details.

Orbeez Pool Party

I really did crop this picture but my computer is not playing nice and saving my changes.   So here is the uncrossed version.

I'm still trying to get a lot of pictures I've been saving of the St. Louis family made into layouts to take to them on the 15th.   So here is another one from back in June.     I had to ask what an Orbeez Pool Party was when they posted the pictures, but now I don't remember, but something about little balls in the water.   But the pictures are cute of Addisyn and Gibson playing even if I don't understand all this new stuff.   :)

I'm entering this in two challenges.

First I used the sketch from week one of October at   "LET'S GET SKETCHY"

Next is the challenge at  "THE PAPER GIRLS CHALLENGE"   Challenge #113 is Splish Splash,
to scrap some summer memories with water.     And this is just one of the memories for the
kids albums.  

So check out each challenge  here for all the details.

"LET'S GET SKETCHY"

"THE PAPER GIRLS CHALLENGE"