Happy One Month Birthday

When I saw the new challenge #333 Sunday on the "LASTING MEMORIES" Blog I was all excited.  I always love working with Laura Whitaker's sketches and along with the challenge theme to create a birthday layout I was stoked.   Why, you ask?   Because Sunday was my new granddaughters
one month Birthday.   :)     I knew I would be getting picture of the occasion so I was set to make this layout.

The older (not fluffy) Chimp is Harry, who Leslie got when she was 11 years old and has gone everywhere with her.   the new fluffy chimp.  Elle's Dad, Jason found on eBay the exact same
chimp to have for Elle while she grows up.

Elle's Mom and Dad are taking a weekly picture of Elle along with the chimps with Elle laying in the middle of the area rug in her nursery so they can see her growth and looks changes week by week.
I told them they needed find some other place for a monthly picture.   Maybe with her sitting up.
They took my advice and this is the chair in her nursery.

So that is the back story of what will these monthly "birthday" pictures will be and also her weekly pictures, taken on every Thursday, since she was born on a Thursday.

Thanks to "LASTING MEMORIES" for this great challenge.    Click the link for the details and
here is the sketch from Laura Whitaker to use with the challenge.

Winner

Just had to get busy scrapping these pictures of my oldest grandchild Bryce from yesterday.

I had the perfect challenge to enter them in also.    "THE PAPER GIRLS CHALLENGE"  #122 is Stars and Strips.    The majority of my background paper is stripes and I cut out a big star for the journaling about my star grandson.

Here is the link to the challenge.   Still time to enter before the first Monday of March when the next challenge is announced.   "THE PAPER GIRLS CHALLENGE"

Reading my Valentine card

When my brother sent me these pictures of his Grandson in Sydney, Australia I was so excited.  I just love them and I knew I wanted to scrap them.   I gave his Moms a huge scrapbook at Christmas of his firs 20 months, but now I'll have some to add on to it.    This is Silas "reading"  his Valentine card he got from his Great Grandfather.   Dad mailed it to him from here in the states over to Australia.
It arrived a little late but it looks like he was really enjoying it and getting something in the mail.

I used the sketch and mood board from Feb. 1st at  "LET'S GET SKETCHY"    Just use this link for all the details.   There are still a couple of days to enter.    Below is the sketch and mood board.
From the mood board I pulled the different shades of pinks and red to use in my layout,  including the colors of the arrows on my background paper.

I will also enter this layout at  "SCRAPPING 4 FUN CHALLENGES"    Challenge #84 is anything goes.    You can make a card, layout, mini album, mixed media project.    This is my 3rd entry for this challenge and I've had so much fun making a variety of project for the challenge.

Here is the link  "SCRAPPING 4 FUN CHALLENGES"   

I will always love you

Whew, that was a lot of cutting and a lot of papers and I covered my desk trying to decide what to use.   My cricut I think has quit on me, so I had to hand cut everything, all the circles and the big heart.    But I sure did have fun putting this together.     I got to use the Scrappy Friends combo challenge.    I used the sketch from "THROUGH THE EYES OF ROCHELLE SPEARS"   This was a February rewind challenge, using an old sketch made by Susan Stringfellow.   I actually remember this sketch from the past,  I'm going to have to go back and look through some old albums and see where I used it before.     The combo challenge then included the  "GRAND DIVA'S SCRAPPY PLACE"  Scrap that Tune Challenge.   The song was Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You'   I have always loved this song and by using the complete title of the song for my title, it is so true as I used the picture of myself and my newest granddaughter from last weekend.   She is a total doll baby and I will always love her.  

Now back to the mess on my desk.    I should have taken a picture of it too, but had to clean it so I could take a picture of the layout and get to my computer to blog.    But here is a list of all the products I used.

Tim Holtz - Kraft-Core Shattered Cardstock
My Minds Eye - Be Loved
Echo Park - Yours Truly
Crate Paper - Heart Day
American Crafts - Slick Writer pen
Craft Smart - Black Ink Pad
Sticko - Enamel Bling Dots

Here are the link    "THROUGH THE EYES OF ROCHELLE SPEARS"

You have till 11:59 PST Feb. 28th to enter and chance to win the Carta Bella - Flora collection prize.

And the link to "GRAND DIVA'S SCRAPPY PLACE"

The prize here is the Photo Picked - Fresh Picked 12x12 collection.

And then there is a bonus prize if picked from an entry combined using both challenges is a
$15 GC to the online scrappy store of your choice.

All are great prizes.   So glad I got to play along this month.   Last month I was just waiting for this little baby girl to arrive and I just didn't get to all the scrappy things I wanted to do.

Adore

I wasn't sure where I was going to go when I had the Feb. 15 sketch from   "LET'S SCRAP"   out
in front of me.   There were a lot of pictures to put on the pages.     But I started looking at the pictures I took while we were at my Dads house to visit with him bringing his newest great grand daughter with us.   I decided instead of two 4x6 pictures on the left hand side I would just use one 5x7.   I just didn't have any horizontal pictures.  In fact I had to crop the ones on the right side to make them printable in 4x6 format.

But I'm so glad I stuck with it and made my pictures work for this sketch, it was really fun putting it together.   I had wondered where I would ever use these little purple and pink bows, but I filled in my banner with them and I love the look.

Here is the sketch and the link to   "LET'S SCRAP"

XOXO Card

I wrote in an earlier post today that I was going to start sending more cards to my grandkids.  Just everyday type cards.      That also includes my not even a month old granddaughter.
I know she can't see the cards now but I know her Mom will save them for her in a scrapbook and when she is older she will have a big collection.

I used the sketch #276  at  "FRESHLY MADE SKETCHES"  to make this layout.    I was perfect for my new little granddaughter and then to ad the xoxoxo sentiment.

Here is the sketch and the link to the challenge.   "FRESHLY MADE SKETCHES"

Mardi Gras card

One of my girl friends that lives in a different states but we always try to get together at least once a year, right now we are at 18 months, but next year we have a get together planned.

But she absolutely loves Mardi Gras and has gone many many times.   So I made this card to send to her.

I was inspired to make the card for her when I saw the   "SHOPPING OUR STASH"  Challenge #291 was Mardi Gras.   So I thought of Deb immediately.
I really dug into my stash for this.  I had a string of beads (with a couple missing) and these masks in a baggy of what I had labeled as "different holidays"   So glad I'm a hoarder of some things because without this I never would have made this card.    I just used some bright card stock to put the masks and beads on and then kept matting in more colors.   I had this piece of purple embossed card stock in my card making drawer so it was perfect to attach to my card base and then add the rest.

Thanks for the challenge, I enjoyed using up this old stash.

Here is the link for details on the challenge   "SHOPPING OUR STASH"



I am also going to enter this card in the Anything Goes - Challenge #84 at  "SCRAPPING 4 FUN CHALLENGES"   You could enter a card, layout, mixed media, mini album, canvas what ever you like to do.    I was really pleased in the different look for  what I usually make in cards and all the bright colors so I decided to enter this card.    The great thing about this challenge is that you can have unto 4 entries for each challenge.

Here is the link for the challenge   "SCRAPPING 4 FUN CHALLENGES."

You're special to me card

It's rare that I make a lot of cards but that is what I've been concentrating the last couple of days.
I've decided I want to write my grandkids and send them cards and little messages other than just getting holiday cards from me.   I know I always like getting happy mail and I know little ones like to come home from school and see something in the mail addressed to them.
So I was inspired by the sketch #310 at  "TRY STAMPIN' -OR NOT- ON TUESDAY"
It was perfect for a card for my grandson in Texas.

I am also going to enter this at  "TUESDAY THROWDOWN"   The challenge this week #331 is
Favorite Embellishment and I love using bling whenever I can.  Even though this card will be for my grandson, I thing the little green sparkly enamel bling will work for a boy.

Here are the links to the challenges.


"TUESDAY THROWDOWN"


"TRY STAMPIN' -OR NOT- ON TUESDAY"

Card for a friend

Just a nice simple card but I wanted to make something to send to a friend.    I was in my hometown this last Sunday and got to have lunch with my best friend all through high school and she was even my room mate our first year in college.     We might not get to see each other often but she will always be my best friend and when we are together we start off just where we left off before.
She knows me better than anyone and knows all my secrets.   LOL

So I wanted to make this card and send her a note to tell her how much fun I had at lunch last week.

I used the sketch at  "THE PAPER PLAYERS"   It's the clean and simple challenge #332 and that is how I feel I made my card.   Clean and simple but let the sentiment get my message across.

Here is the sketch and the link to   "THE PAPER PLAYERS"   You have till noon PST,   Friday,
February 24th to enter.

I love you

I've been busy this month making all kinds of layout about my new granddaughter but I thought this afternoon I would go in a different direction.    I decided to make a card to send to her.   I just left her yesterday afternoon but I miss her already so I thought I would make a card and send a note in it about my thoughts of her.

I will enter this card in two challenges.     First I was inspired by the card sketch for this month at
"STICK IT DOWN"   Such a nice and simple sketch it was very easy to work with.

Next the 2nd challenge for February is at  "COLORFUL CREATIONS"  with the words of the month Layers, Love, Cold and Joy.   I used the word Love in my sentiment and made it with layers with a white matting behind the words.

Here are the links for the challenges and more details can be found here.

"STICK IT DOWN"    

"COLOR CREATIONS"    

4 Generations

I'm going to enter this layout that is so special to me in 3 different challenges.
This is a picture we took this Sunday while visiting my Dad at his home, along with my daughter and her 3 1/2 week old little girl.   So we had 4 generations together.   Not a lot of people are that blessed to have everyone together, but I'm so glad I am.

I started off being inspired by the Feb. 15th sketch at   "LET'S GET SKETCHY"    I also wanted to the color/photo inspiration challenge #322 at   "LASTING MEMORIES"      Then I knew I could also enter it at  "SCRAPPING 4 FUN"   Challenge #84 - Anything Goes.

So I started looking for papers to use and I pulled out my My Minds Eye collection  'Chalk Studio II'
I haven't used it very much and of course it had great black papers and also this red and white striped paper so was perfect for the photo/color challenge.    I used my cricut to cut the scalloped circle from a solid black sheet with white floral design in upper left and right corners.    I then fussy cut the two chalk white flowers out of what wasn't cut in the corners to use as my embellishments,  Used a sparkly red bling for the centers and also matted on red card stock and fussy cut again.   I matted my picture in red to let it pop more against the black.   A small piece of white card stock to journal on that I inked in red and then used red ink for the date and location of the picture.   White Thickers for my layout and I was finished.

Here are the links for the  challenges.

"LET'S GET SKETCHY"  

"LASTING MEMORIES" 

"SCRAPPING 4 FUN"  

Love Family

I really enjoyed making this layout.   I have a lot of pictures of Elle the first 9 days that I was in town with her after she was born.   But I was waiting to get pictures of her with her grandparents from NY.
This is their very first grandchild.   They arrived Wed. Feb. 8th and then go back home tomorrow, the 15th,  so the have had a great week getting to know this little one.

I'm entering this layout in three different challenges.  Below are the links for each of the challenges.

First  "LASTING MEMORIES"

Second  "ALLSORTS CHALLENGES"

Third   "PAPER ISSUES"

LASTING MEMORIES Challenge #331 is 'Celebration of Love'  -  this layout is to show the joy and love of precious time with your first grandchild.    To me perfect for this theme.

ALLSORTS CHALLENGES  for week 402 is 'Hearts and Flowers'   I cut and matted two hearts to use as my journaling blocks and then I embellished both pages of the layout with different flowers.

PAPER ISSUES  The Working Title challenge has several prompts to choose from.  I chose the one to use the word Love in our title.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Valentines Day full of love and happiness.  

HI I'm New Here

Hello everyone, this is my new granddaughter Elle.  This was one of the one week old pictures we took.   Mom and Dad are going to take a picture every week laying on this area rug in her nursery and with these 2 stuffed animals next to her, to help show her growth.   But for this layout I just concentrated with  Elle as my center and nothing else.      I just love this onsie they had her in.
I think one of these pictures is going to be what they use for the baby announcement they send out to friends.

This latest sketch at  "THE MEMORY NEST"  was perfect for baby pictures.   As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I would be using pinks and a picture of Elle.

I hope to see a lot of you joining in the fun for this challenge at   "THE MEMORY NEST."

Love card

Everyone is getting late Valentine cards from me this year.   All week I was thinking Valentines Day was on Thursday and wouldn't have to mail anything till the first of the week.   WRONG.  But at least I have two more challenges to enter now.    That is always fun to do.

Oh well I think I now have everything made.   This last one I used the sketch   #389 at
"TUESDAY MORNING SKETCHES"   I love the simplicity of it.  I've had this plain white tag for awhile, it only had the cut interlocking hearts cut out of it.   I inked the edges in pink and added a piece of scrap ribbon across it to go with the sketch, stamped love on it in a dark pink and then added a dark bing star button at the top.  Easy peasy.

Here is the sketch and the link to the challenge.  "TUESDAY MORNING SKETCHES"

I am also going to enter my card in the "JUST US GIRLS" Challenge #380  Trend Week is "Hearts" I have my double entwined hearts and hears on my ribbon and even a little heart stamped on my love sentiment.      Perfect theme for finishing off my Valentine cards.

Here is the link to this challenge at '' JUST US GIRLS"

Hugs and Kisses

There is a sketch challenge # 308 this week at  "TRY STAMPIN' - OR NOT - TUESDAY"
The theme last week was Hugs and Kisses and it carries through to this week along with the sketch to use.    I had this awesome 12x12 sheet of hugs and kisses paper that I cut into to use on my card.
I also had scrap pieces of the xoxoxoxo paper, so everything worked out well together.   I wasn't sure of using black on a Valentine card, but since there was black in both of my patterned papers I decided to go with it and add more.  I used a black edge card base and then my big pop of black to tie it all tother was the one solid rectangle.   I inked the edges of my stamped love card in black and I felt everything was then tied together.     Here is the sketch and check out the details and also what
the design team did at    "TRY STAMPIN' - OR NOT - TUESDAY"

Puppy Love

Leslie and Jason had been talking about wanting to get pictures of Elle with each of their 3 dogs.
They were in the kitchen and I was holding Elle while she napped in the family room and I realized Otis, had curled up right next to us.     So I called the kids over, camera in hand, to get some pictures.
They picked up Elle and moved her around with Otis.   In front of him, next to him, laying on his back.   Elle slept right through it all.   Otis was a dream and they got some pretty cute pictures.

When I saw the sketch #122 using 3 pictures at  "SKETCH N SCRAP"   I knew I could pick out
three good pictures with Elle and Otis to use in the layout.     I had just bought this single piece of dog paper at a Scrapbook Store in my hometown that same week that was having a clearance sale on everything.   Only one piece left or I would have gotten more.   I even got the Thickers I used on  the layout at that sale too.     I trimmed down the patterned paper and then double matted it in black and white, to go with the coloring of Otis and I had my layout.

Here is the sketch and the link to  "SKETCH N SCRAP"   they will have 4 different challenges this month.

Love in Bloom

Here is a Valentine card I made and going to enter in three different challenges.

The first challenge is with "USE YOUR STUFF"
Their challenge #250 is Love is in the Air.     My Love in in Bloom card is perfect for this
challenge.
Here is the link for  Challenge #250 at   "USE YOUR STUFF"


Second challenge is at  "JUST-ADD-INK"
The new challenge is - Just Choose Two -Hearts, Flowers or Butterflies.   My heart is made of
Flowers so that is why I'm entering my card here.
Here is the link for challenge #346  as   "JUST-ADD-INK"


My third entry is at "THE PAPER GIRLS CHALLENGE"    Challenge #121 is 'With Heart'
My interpretation was in using this big flowery diecut heart as the focal point on my
Valentine card.
Here is the link for Challenge #121 at  "THE PAPER GIRLS CHALLENGE"

Love You More

I'm always saying Love You More to my sweetie.   So when I saw this on some paper, I knew I had to cut out a square of it, mat it and use it on this years Valentine Card.

Embossed hearts and a flower and I have completed my card.

I will enter  this card at the new challenge at  "4 CRAFTY CHICKS"  Challenge #377 is LOVE.
Perfect for my card.

Check out all the details here at   "4 CRAFTY CHICKS"

I'm also entering my Valentine card at  "SCRAPPING 4 FUN CHALLENGES"
Challenge #37 is   Friends, Love, Wedding, Valentine.  

Check out all the details here at  "SCRAPPING 4 FUN CHALLENGES"

First Photo Shoot

As I've been saying the last two days, be ready to see lots of baby layouts.    And I didn't lie, because now I'm adding this double spread layout.

Also a double challenge entry.    I started with the first February sketch at "LET'S SCRAP"
It was perfect to showcase some of my favorite pictures taken from my new grand-daughters first photo shoot.   Who needs a professional photographer when Elle's Daddy takes such great pictures.
There were several to choose from, but these were my favorite.    This was the first time they put
Elle in a dress, but at only 5 days old it was still quite a bit too big.   But she was still a cutie.

The second challenge is at "LASTING MEMORIES"  Challenge #330 is Hearts and Arrows.
You had to use either hearts or arrows on your layout and I chose to use both.   The one on the right
I just inked the heart part in a dark pink to make it show up better.

Here is the sketch and then the link to both challenges

"LET'S SCRAP"  

"LASTING MEMORIES"

You and Me

Once again new baby layouts.   You will be seeing them for awhile now as my main theme.
I mean I only took 302 pictures over a 9 day time with her.

I chose the the January sketch at  "MY CREATIVE SKETCHES"  for highlighting this picture of the new family.   This is how I made my layout with my take on the sketch.  I really liked the black and white patterned paper with what I ended up using as my title "you & me".   But then I didn't want all black and white for the layout so I tried just over 2" off of it side and top and put it on solid red card stock and that became my embellishing color.
To give the layout a little more detail I did faux stitching with white ink on the black paper and then with a red pen on my solid white banner.   Matted the picture in red to let it pop a bit and then a variety of red and white embellishments, for stickers, buttons, foam hears and scallops with twine and bling.

Here is the actual sketch and link for the challenge  "MY CREATIVE SKETCHES"
You have until midnight February 14th to enter this challenge.

You're Having My Baby

Be ready blog followers.   I am home from 9 days and 8 nights with my daughter and son-in-law during the birth of the first baby.     They had a little girl on January 26th, her actual due date.
They told us only 4% of babies are born on their due date.   But then we all knew this baby would be exceptional.    😃

I'm entering the layout in two different challenges.     I was so excited when I saw the latest challenge at   "THE STUDIO CHALLENGES"   -  Inspired by a song.   I knew then I could do a song about a baby.    Yesterday I googled songs with Baby in the title and the 2nd one that came up was an old Paul Anka song.  "You're Having My Baby"    I knew I had taken pictures of Leslie and Jason before, pre baby arrival and I think they are perfect to go with this song.

Next I was excited to see that  "COLORFUL CREATIONS"  blog was back with challenges.   I had always love entering their challenges in the past and had missed them.    So I decided I would combine their first challenge  - Black, White plus One.    It would be perfect with this layout because I knew I had this great black and white xoxoxo paper.  So then I went to my Valentine drawer of papers and embellies and saw this perfect scrap strip of heart paper in red and white so Red became my plus one paper.

To make the layout, I printed my pictures 4x6 but with a border, then I cut off the border and matted on black card stock as the white blended into the paper too much.    I also trimmed my XOXOXO
paper about 1/2" on all sides and then centered it on black card stock.   My red heart paper was a 12" strip so I just matted it on red card stock so it's white background stood out a little more from white in the other paper.    I used a scrap piece of black card stock for a little journaling block and also matted it in red.    I had also found the "my love" red heart sticker in my Valentine stash and I thought it was
perfect to embellish the one picture of Jason with some encouraging talk to Leslie.   Then I got out some red alpha stickers that had all the letters I needed.    Then my oops happened.  my last Y after I pulled it off the sheet slipped out of my hand and fell on the lower picture,  I tried and tried to get it off but would not budge, so I had to "draw" a red Y on baby and then reprint the picture.   It was not my happy moment of making the layout, but no other red alphas I had would work for a substitute Y.

I hope you will check out both blogs and join in the fun.     Here are the links

"THE STUDIO CHALLENGE"    You have until February 12th to enter

"COLORFUL CREATIONS"  You must also enter the 2-15 challenge when announced to be eligible for the monthly prize

Happy Hanukkah

It's February but I still have some holiday pictures to scrap.   My step daughter and her family celebrate Hanukkah so this is one of the layouts I have made for her.  These pictures were from the 8th night and all the candles were lit.

I had fun incorporating this pictures in the Make It Monday Sketch #81  at the  "THE MEMORY NEST"    It worked out great for my two pictures and the title that I cut with my Cricut.

Check out all the details here at   "THE MEMORY NEST"     You have all of February to enter.
Hope to see a lot of entries.