Happy Easter 2011

I only had one Easter picture from this year to scrap and I did it early in the month.   So I had to go back and find old pictures to scrap for the challenge #340 at  "LASTING MEMORIES"    The
challenge was Easter Sunday - used Bunnies, Chicks or Eggs on your layout.    I have Eggs and a
Bunny stamp and a "real" Easter Bunny in this layout.      We took my grandson to Bass Pro Shop to get this picture taken with the Easter Bunny.   He really loved it.

Click here on   "LASTING MEMORIES"   to go to the challenge.

I am also entering my layout at   "ANOTHER FREAKING SCRAPPY CHALLENGE"
The April challenge here was to create on the subject of Easter or any other Springtime
celebration.   You could do any type of project, layout, card, art journal, mixed media, etc etc.
I chose to do a layout because you know me. I love layouts  especially for holidays.

Click here to go to the challenge at  "ANOTHER FREAKING SCRAPPY CHALLENGE"

CAS(E) Birthday Card

When I saw the new challenge this morning at  "CAS(E) THIS SKETCH"  this morning I knew it
would be perfect for a nice birthday card.   Which I always need to have on hand.     I found my background paper in an old 6x6 pad I had.  Bob Bunny - Key Lime collection.    I just inked the edges of my sentiment in a light green to go with the colors and then used bright yellow card stock as my flag piece under the sentiment.

Here is the sketch and link to sketch #219 at  "CASE(E) THIS SKETCH"

2 cards today

I got up this morning and decided since I had made several layouts the last couple of days I wanted to concentrate on cards today.   So I started looking for sketches.   I found two I really wanted to use.

This is the card I made using a PL card with the sketch #341 at  "THE PAPER PLAYERS"     
I'm making and saving cards to send to my grandkids for no reason at all but to say hello and that they are on my mind.    So this PL card was perfect, I just inked it in red, found the patterned paper with red in it to use behind the card and a strip of red cardstock behind it.  To finish the card I just inked the edges in red.   Here is the sketch & click on the name above to go to the blog site.

Then here is my second card for the day.

This card I made using the new sketch #41 just starting today at  "PAPER PLAY SKETCHES"
I thought it was perfect for an all occasion card that didn't need a sentiment.   I just found some patterned paper I liked and double matted it, then I had this hummingbird stamped image in my stash and I just used colored pencils to go with the colors in the patterned paper and double matted it also.
Used a double strip of yellow washi tape to pull more of the yellow and then inked the edges of the card in green.   Below is the sketch and click on the blog name above to go to the challenge.

Life is Sweet

Challenge #341 - Colorful Inspiration  at   "LASTING MEMORIES"  was perfect to use with this layout because the colors in the inspiration photo were the exact ones of what Addisyn was wearing and her tricycle.     So I pulled out a new paper pad that I had never used because it had all the perfect colors.

Here is the color photo inspiration and link to the challenge at  "LASTING MEMORIES"

End of month PL card

The last card in my PL page each month is a recap of my month.    The main thing I always
want to do is give a count of my scrapping I got done for the month.     I will go back and fill
in the #'s for each on the last day of the month.    But when I saw this card sketch for the last week of
April at "SKETCHES IN THYME PL STYLE"  I knew it would be perfect for my month end
journaling.   As I said my main goal is keep track of my scrapping, that is why I added a picture of
a stack of layouts I have made this month.       I don't have any other pictures on my PL page for the last week yet so can't share my completed page, but wanted to show this for the challenge #68.

Here is the link for  "SKETCHES IN THYME PL STYLE"   challenge #68 and also the sketch.

Anniversary Card

I needed to make an Anniversary card today for my daughter and son-in-law to have ready to mail to them the first of next week.   So I went to   "TUESDAY MORNING SKETCHES"   to see if they
had a new sketch I could use and sure enough,  todays sketch was perfect.     But then I couldn't find
an anniversary stamp to use but I did have this clear sticker and thought it would work well for my
card to them.

Here is the sketch and the link to this weeks challenge #400 at  "TUESDAY MORNING SKETCHES"

After I found my sketch I checked out other card challenges.   Todays new challenge #340 at

"TUESDAY THROWDOWN"    is to do Embossing on your card.     So that is what I did with my floral patterned paper that is the main part of my Anniversary card.    I think the embossing made a 

really nice effect to the paper and the flowers.

Here is the link to the challenge at   "TUESDAY THROWDOWN"

Another all occasion card

You can never have too many any occasion cards and this one will now go in my stash for use at any given time.
I will be entering it in two different challenges.  

First  I used the sketch #96  at   "SKETCH N SCRAP"

Then the second challenge is   "4 CRAFTY CHICKS"    Challenge #347 is BUTTERFLIES
I love this stamped butterfly image and it went perfect with this card.

Missing You card

I just loved this card sketch when I saw it at    "SKETCH N SCRAP"  when I saw it and finally getting around to using it.

I was just with my 3 month old granddaughter for 5 days and got 2 days of one on one time with her while I babysat.   It was Mom's first 2 days back at work before Elle would start going to day-care
today full time.     So I thought I would send this card to Elle because I really do miss her.

Plus I also made a card book for her to save all the first holiday cards and other cards she will get from family this first year.   Right now it has Valentine Day cards, St. Pats Day, Easter and now
they can add this card to it.

Here is the sketch and the link to April challenges at   "SKETCH N SCRAP"

And They are Off

It makes me nervous, but here are two of my grandkids off on Gibson's little mini motorcycle.
I'm just glad they have on helmets.    Plus Grandmas seem to get more nervous than parents.

I used the April 1st Sketch #126 at   "SKETCH N SCRAP"    to make this layout.   I had just printed these two pictures in these sizes and then went looking for a sketch to use, so I got lucky.

Here is the sketch and the link to  "SKETCH N SCRAP"    Two layout sketches and two card sketches per month.   So a lot to do.

S.T.E.M.

These pictures are of my grandson at  S.T.E.M. night at his school  (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)       We are going to be with him this coming weekend for his sister's birthday party so I'm trying to finish up a bunch of layouts to take with me for their albums there.   I always save what I make to take each time we visit.
I got lucky with this layout and get to enter it in three different challenges.    LET'S GET SKETCHY,   USE YOUR STUFF,  and PAPER ISSUES.

I started with the sketch and mood board at "LET'S GET SKETCHY"  I was inspired by all the colors in the mood board.

Nest

This morning while looking at new challenges.  I saw the one at  "USE YOUR STUFF"

todays challenge was #261- CIRCLES.    You had to use at least one circle on your layout.  

I have many many circles including the brads and buttons I added as embellishments.

The April challenge I'm entering at  "PAPER ISSUES"   is the New Issue Monday challenge

and the part of that challenge I chose was to use metal on your layout and I have four metal brads on my layout.

Water Fun

Today was a mix of many patterns day in making this layout.    When I looked at Sketch #272 from  "SKETCHES IN THYME" I knew it would be best to use one manufacturer to make it a little easier
to get everything to go together.    I pulled out a DCWV stack  Dots, Stripe and Plaids and decided to just go for it and really mix it up.    My only thing not from the collection is my Tim Holtz Shattered orange card stock.   Even the gray paper has a little strip pattern going in it but because it was so subtle I thought it worked great to kind of break up everything else going on.    But I really like that all the colors in the papers go with the colors in the pictures.   Even the turquoise alphas i used for my title work.

Here is the sketch  and the link for the challenge  at   "SKETCHES IN THYME"

2 PL pages for April

I finished two PL pages today for the last 10 days of April.      I'm not doing pure weekly pages for this.    Just rather a chronological run of each month.    One page might cover a week or 10 days or even a single day.    In fact the 2nd page I just finished just covered our weekend and pictures of the majority of the flowers we planted in the yard and made hanging baskets with.   They look great now but will be so much prettier when they fill in even more.

With both pages I used sketches from "SKETCHES IN THYME PL STYLE"  the last two weeks challenges.     Just click on the link for to go to each challenge.

Here is sketch #66, my take on it and my PL page I used it on.   "SKETCHES IN THYME PL"

Here is sketch #67, my take on it and my PL page I used on it.  "SKETCHES IN THYME PL"

OMG Look at Me

I just LOVE this picture of my granddaughter Elle, it just screamed to me that she was saying OMG.
So I had to scrap it.   I was inspired with the April challenge at  "PICTURE THIS"      I went with
the Green + Black color scheme challenge.    You could pick between Green + Black or
Green + White.

I just pulled out some green patterned paper, a black paper with a little pattern to it and then a shiny black card stock for my background.    I matted my picture in black and used two different green alphas for my title and black words on my embellishments.

Here is the link to the challenge at  "PICTURE THIS"

1st Baseball Game

For part of my birthday we had tickets for the baseball game in St. Louis,  third game of this season.
It was to be a Wednesday afternoon but it got rained out, so instead of 6 of us going, we ended up with three of us and of course Elle for her first ball game.   Now thinking about it, it turned out to be
four generations at the ball game, Elle, her Mom, her Grandma (me) and her great-grandfather.

We had a great time, but cooled off and got super windy so ended up watching from inside for a few innings and then left after 7 innings and got ahead of the traffic, which was a great idea.

I was inspired by Sketch #127 at  "SKETCH N SCRAP"  in making this layout.   Here is the sketch.
It was so fun to work with,  I'll have to save it to use again.

My Peppa the Pig

My grand-daughter LOVES Peppa the Pig.   The one she is holding is one of a set I gave her for Christmas this last year.    Her Mom loves to sew dresses for her, with her own special patterns.
This is the Peppa the Pig material she found and made this fantastic dress for her, for her 5th birthday last week.

I used the April 1st sketch at   "LET'S GET SKETCHY"    it was a fun sketch to work with and I got to use two great pieces of patterned paper from Elle's Studio - Little Moments collection.   The colors of the heart paper was perfect to go with her dress and the black and white word paper just was so perfect also to go with the pictures, her joy of the new dress, her favorite stuffed animal, documenting it all, everyday memories, love you,   al the the phrases worked perfect.

Here is the sketch and the link to  "LET'S GET SKETCHY"

Love my Papa

I just LOVE pictures of my newest granddaughter on her weekly visits to see her Great-Grandfather.
Only 11 weeks old but they already have a special bond.     Leslie, her Mom, says she smiles bigger for her Papa than anyone else.   Yesterday when they visited and took this picture, she was asleep when they carried her in her carseat into the house but as soon as she woke up and saw and heard Papa talking to her, the smiles started.   A 93 year age difference but that doesn't effect the bond.

I used the newest sketch  at   "ELLE'S STUDIO"   to make this.   I had so much fun with it.
I used multiple Elle's Studio collections.    Little Moments, Penelope, Cienna, Thankful and
The Sweet Life journaling card.     The only full piece I used was my background paper from the Thankful collection (this collection is about all used up now) the rest were scraps I got to use from the other collections.   I love when I get to use up bits and pieces.

Here is the sketch and the link to   "ELLE'S STUDIO"

Spring Garden

My daughter-in-law, made this mini garden last week out of a sandbox that the kids no longer use.
She said she knows its not very big but at least she got enough planted to make a few salads.
Plus the kids had fun helping out.     So this picture became my Spring themed layout for the challenge #339 at   "LASTING MEMORIES"  as I used the word Spring in my title.     Thats all you have to do for the challenge, use the word Spring in your title or in your journaling.   Easy Peasy.

Here is the link to challenge #339 at   "LASTING MEMORIES"

Eye to Eye

As soon as I saw this picture of Elle doing tummy time and with Otis laying there and watching her.  I knew i would scrap it and the title would be Eye to Eye.    I've had the picture for about a week but just waiting for a good one picture sketch to use with it.      I found it today with the April 15th sketch by Laura Whitaker  at   "STUCK ?! SKETCHES"    I just used a vertical picture instead of a horizontal one like it was in the sketch.   Still worked great either way.

I am also entering this layout at  "PAPER ISSUES"  for their Pawsitively Paws challenge about your pets, the challenge was a pet picture and to use at least 3 different manufactures in your layout.  My background paper is Basic Grey,  big flags under picture is from Fancy Pants, the 3 color of yardstick for matting is Recollections,  the journal cloud is from Echo Park, all the stickers are from Fancy Pants and the alphas are from Dear Lizzy.

Here is the sketch and link to the challenges below that.

"STUCK  ?!  SKETCHES"

"PAPER ISSUES"

Papa Don

I've been filling in Elle's scrapbook today.   She is only 11 weeks old today, and Elle's album is getting bigger all the time, but I wanted to go back and add some pregnancy pictures in a double layout and a newborn picture being weighed layout and then this layout her first day home from the hospital with her Mom and Papa Don.   So three generations together, which is always fun to scrap.

I really loved the sketch Laura Whitaker made for the April 1st sketch challenge at
"STUCK ?! SKETCHES" but hadn't used it yet.   When I printed these two pictures I knew they would work  great with it.   So I got busy cutting out my heart and went  to work on this layout.
I'm really pleased with how it turned out.    

Here is the sketch and  the link to the challenge at "STUCK ?! SKETCHES"  Always 2 great sketches a month, a chance at a great prize or to be a guest designer for a future sketch.

Early Views of Baby Patrie

My new granddaughter is 10 weeks old now, but while visiting her last week, my daughter gave me more memorabilia that she wanted included in layouts.    So I'm working backwards now and scrapping these two sonogram pictures from early on and before they knew they were having a girl.

So I picked the heart background and then the other patterned paper that had both pinks and blues in it.    For embellishments I wanted to add flowers, but now real color of flowers, so I picked these, black, white and grey flowers because I thought they were non gender and would go with the black and white sonograms pictures.

I wanted also to use flowers because this month there are several challenges I wanted to enter that the challenge prompt was to include flowers.      Here are the names and links of the challenges I am entering.

"LASTING MEMORIES" - Spring Flowers


"USE YOUR STUFF"  - "Flowers"


CREATIVE EMBELLISHMENTS"  - Photo Inspiration plus use Flowers
  (I was inspired by the white and yellow in the flowers in the photo)

First April PL page

I used the sketch for the first week of April at  "SKETCHES IN THYME PL STYLE"  for this card to start off my first PL page of the month.   I decided to journal about some of the upcoming plans for the month on my monthly title card.   Here is the sketch I used

And here is my first PL page for the month.

I hope to see a lot of you all join in on the weekly challenges at SITPL,   I already have ideas for what I will do for the second sketch of the month.

Lovely

I made this layout of my beautiful grand-daughter Mylan.      She and her Dad stopped for an ice cream treat after dancing the night away at the Father-Daughter dance at her school.
A great time for them both all night long.

This is my reveal for the new sketch at   "THE MEMORY NEST.     I hope all of you have as
much fun using this sketch as much as I did.   You can really do a lot with it, plus the chance to use up some leftover scraps of papers too, with the strips to the left.

Here is the sketch and the link to   "THE MEMORY NEST".

Tahquamenon Fall - Michigan

This last week I spend a lot of time on layouts finishing up this layouts for the road trip we took from Missouri to the upper peninsula of Michigan back in July 2014.   I had made a lot, but I found a file folder with some memorabilia I had saved from the trip.   So I went back thru my pictures and made some more layouts.   I even have some more to make.   This trip album is going to be nice and full.

For this layout, I used the sketch at  "THROUGH THE EYES OF ROCHELLE SPEARS"   The sketch for April is a page maps sketch (see below) and it worked out great to use these 3 pictures of the falls and some info cut out of a travel magazine about the area and had this information of just where we went.
It was so beautiful there and we walked and saw the upper and lower falls.

I was also inspired by the Photo Inspiration (see below)  at  the  "GRAND DIVA'S CREATIVE CORNER"  so by using it I'm entered twice with the scrappy friends challenge.     I was inspired by the  yellow color of the sun and I used yellow for the top patterned paper in my layout.   I was also inspired by all the colors in the photo inspiration and that is picked up in the bottom third of the layout and that patterned paper.   I also picked that paper because of the trees in it and to pull the trees that are also in the photo.

Here are the links for both challenges.

"THROUGH THE EYES OF ROCHELLE SPEARS"

"GRAND DIVA'S CREATIVE CORNER"