Dogs are like family too!

No, its not the same layout-I had so much fun with Izzy's layout I had to do one of Jenna also- so a 2 page layout kind of. I couldn't do one and not the other- that would not be fair.Alot of people tell us they look like twins-but they are from 2 different litters and they are 1 1/2 months apart. So here is a layout for the same challenges at Sketchy Thursdays, color challenge of green, purple, black and squares at embellishmagazine, and Practical Scrappers to use white gel pens/markers.

 I used black cardstock, Daisy D purple paper, Deja Views apple paisley paper,white gel pen for hand doodling  around the edges and title words (hand drawn), 2 square punches, white foam sticker letters for names, and pop dots

Dogs are like children with fur.

I love to take pictures of my Eskies-all my children are grown up and moved out- so now the girls (dogs) get all the attention. Again I have combined one layout this week for several challenges. The sketch is from Sketchy Thursdays- the color challenge of lime green, purple, black and using squares is from embellishmagazine and Practical Scrappers has a white pen challenge.

 Used black cardstock, Daisy D purple paper, Deja Views apple paisley paper, 2-square punches, white foam sticker letters, pop dots, white gel pen for hand doodling edge and title words. I just love this color combo and like the simplicity of the layout with the black and white photos. Which in the sketch from Sketchy Thursdyas they had circles and I just changed them into the squares

Dog days of summer.

I have been so busy now that school has started-that I haven't had much time to scrap- I have to get into a new routine and make some time for ME. So I have combined some challenges this week with my layouts and this one is for 2 challenges Sketches in Thyme #12 and Frosted Designs circles and ric-rak challenge.

These pics are of my two cuties just being lazy on some hot summer days that we have had this summer-they're have been quite a few of them. Eskies don't like the heat to much as you can see here.

I used DCWV-Far East paper stack designer papers, Fiskars circle cutter, white and peach ric-rak, blue satin ribbon for handmade flowers, pearl brad for the center of flowers, a white satin ribbon  on the left edge, 3 colors of rhinestones, sticker letters for the title, some premade silk flowers and  other floral embelllishments, pop dots for the 2 squares with the letters I & J and Yes paste. I really like doing layouts of my best girlfriends  lol, not that they will ever want to look at their scrapbook-but I like to look back at them.

Welcome to Frugal Fridays #17

Well another week has gone by and I've been so busy with going back to work (bus driver) after my summer vacation. I haven't even visited my scrapbook room since Monday-and I so miss that-have to get back in a new routine. So onto my Frugal Friday tip of the week. This week I thought I would tell you about some ideas to use with old cards you have received. Whether they are birthday, Christmas/holiday or Mother & Father Day cards-you might want to save them and put them to use in your scrapbooking or card making projects. I save all my cards and put them in a seperate box for future use. Some of them I use the pictures and cut them out and use as embellishments or the sayings are great ideas for future cards and even the paper that is used are great for scraps to use your punches on..I like the calendars that you might find and use them on pages for the month and date. There are so many ways you can recycle your cards-give it a try. So the tip this week saves you money and its always nice to re-use items -especially paper. So with the holidays coming up hold onto those cards and use them on your future projects.
Also don't forget to leave a comment this week -because I will be drawing a name from all the Frugal Fridays comments since Week #11 thru Week #17 for my blog candy giveaway on Tuesday 8/31 to 1 lucky winner. See picture of blog candy on right side bar at top of blog. I have also added a few more items since picture was taken. Good Luck to all of you who have left me a comment- I love to hear from you.

Silly Siblings

I had fun whipping this layout up tonight-I completed it in just over an hour-unbelievable I never get pages done that quick. This is a sketch from Sketchy Fridays at Practical Scrappers this week.  I used We R Memory Keepers papers from  the "Nonsense" paper stack, Fiskar circle cutter, chipboard letters and stickers from the same paper stack, brown ink for the edges, teal cardstock for mat, and black fine marker to outline letters.

Just Gorgeous

My beautiful daughter at her 8th grade graduation dance- I know you've seen this picture before, but it is for my daughters scrapbook- I have so many kids and so many scrapbooks that I'm working on all at the same time (it even gets confusing to me). So this is my take on the lovely sketches by Liz Qualman over at My little Sketch Blook for this week

 I used K&Company papers from Winter Wonderland stack, cream cardstock, Paper Salon "moss" green & "coffee bean" brown inks, leaves and flowers stamps by Heartfelt Designs with Spell Binders die cuts to match ( I just purchased these at the Scrapbook Expo this past week) was so excited to work with them. Swirl stamps, Chalks and Stickles in several colors, Martha Stewart glitter-Peridot, gemstones in lime green and turquoise, 3-D glaze ink in black for the title and faux stitching around the paper edges

Summer Family Fun

Here is a fun summer page of my family on a vacation back in 2001- we went rafting, swimming, go garts, mini golf and just good ole' family fun. I will be applying this sketch to Pagemaps challenge and also to FCCB#23 this week.  The challenge at FCCB is "The great outdoors" which all of our activities this weekend  were that, and we had great weather for it also. I used We R Memory Keepers design papers and cut all the flowers out of one of the papers to attached and add buttons, with Karen Foster's scrappers floss, and all have some colored stickles added to each petal. The stickers are from the same paper stack and outlined in black pen. I inked all the edges in Paper Salon 'coffee bean" brown.

FAMILY

Here is my take on the sketch over at Sketchabilities #22 this week. Very plain and simple layout that I did with pictures of my Aunt and Uncle with granddaughters and all of us a t the yearly parade in Ishpeming, Michigan. I used a blue two-toned cardstock, white cardstock for the big star, sm. star punch, Cricut cuts are from A child' Year and Storybook, and some journal strips in blue striped paper.

Chicago

How productive this layout is- it will qualify for 3 challenges this week. The sketch is from Sketchy Thursdays, the colors of lime greens, blues and a dark green are the challenge this week at Play date Cafe, and Ella's Pink Scrapbook challenge to use chipboard, joournaling tag and circles. This is a picture of my husband and I back in 2001 spending the day in Lincoln Park in Chicago-we had such a great time and the weather was great-one of my favorite dates with my husband-great memories.

Materials used:
We R Memory Keepers paper from paper stack, K&Company dark green leaf paper,Heidi Grace chipboard letters, acrylic paints for the letter C covered in dimensional glaze, cut out flowers and birds from paper, fiskars circle cutter,green ribbon on handmade journal tag from some scrap papers, and a black marker.

All American BOYS

Wow, its been over 2 weeks since I have scrappped and been on the blogs-but I had a great time in Las Vegas(didn't hit the jackpot) but came home with some money and then I went to the Scrapbooking Expo in St. Charles, Illinois and spent the rest of it-way to much fun in the past 2 weeks. So in the past 2 days I've made up for some lost time and scrapped 8 pages for some challenges and then I go back to work on Tuesday-summer vacation is over and back to reality.
   So here is my take for Sketches in Thyme #11 I know I have done these pics already for another layout, but I am currently working on 8 different albums- so some of the pictures are repeated for a different child's scrapbook or for mine.

Items used in this layout are the following: red and blue cardstock, red and white striped paper, I sanded all the edges and top of paper, Provo craft edger scissors, dry embossing with fiskars templates for the stars on red cardstock background, and letter templates for the words. Stickles in blue and made my own journaling tag with stars and black fine marker for journaling.

Welcome to Frugal Fridays #16

     Well this week is about shopping for school supplies-which are also great for scrapbooking! Since it's that time of year to get all those goodies for the kids to go back to school-the stores have many good deals out there, so why not take advantage of it- for some of your scrapbooking supplies also. Like glue sticks-you can never have enough of them on hand, graph paper to use on your pages for journaling spots or background areas, index cards for journal tags, markers- highlighters-journal pens/ colored pencils are great. I like to look for paper clips that are colorful and in different shapes to use on my pages and they are far less expensive than in the craft departments. Even get a pen of White-out you'd be surprised what you can do with this on your pages (fix a mistake-paint journal strips with it-make little dots on a page-just experiment with it). All those little notebooks that you can get for $1.00 are great to recover with your own paper and embellishments and make great little gifts though-out the year.

Glitter construction paper (heavyweight) is a great find to use for your pages, along with big gold brads found in boxes of 100. And you can always find the section with all kinds of kids stickers that might look adorable on a card or page for embellishments. And don't forget about some of the tools you might need with painting and chalking like brushes, erasers and trays. So know is the time to keep your eyes open with all the school supply bins in the store isles- and pick up a few of your own scrapbooking supplies to get back in the swing of things to start you off on your fall layouts and projects. You'd be surprised on all the savings that are out there right now and let your creativity flow with all your new supplies. Have fun Scrapping and shopping this week.
Leave a comment and your name will be entered into a drawing for my blog candy on August 31st. I'm still on my vacation -but will be back by this weekend can't wait to see what everyone has been up to for the past 10 days.

Welcome to Frugal Fridays week #15

 I just love to Organize-maybe too much (my husband tells me that). But I feel so much better and get more accomplished when my room/area is neat and organized. So with that in mind-I love these 12 x 12 storage containers-you can never have enough of them. I always can find supplies to put in them. I have painted on some of them like the Scrap Crap is for all my patterned paper scraps and the other one is for Pages in Progress (like when I go to retreats and do power layouts) or mini- books that I am working on. I like having a few empty storage boxes handy,so when I go on my overnighters or retreats I can fill up a few of them with all my supplies and go.

I also have another rolling storage cart that is so handy and it comes with 6 -12 x 12 boxes when you buy it. I got this one from Joann's  for $30.00 (1/2 off /orginal price is $60.00).I have also seen these storage carts at Hobby Lobby and Micheal's- so use those coupons when you get them on the bigger ticket price items. What a deal that was because those boxes are regularly $8.99 each. In these boxes I store alot of my embellishments-one box is filled with all my brads and eyelets, another holds vellums and stickers, 2 boxes filled with all my chipboards letters, one for all my rhinestones and gems, and another is filled with misc rub-ons, pre-made embellishments that are bought in packages or sets. So as you can see I am quite organized-but it is simple to do and makes scrapping such a pleasure when you know where everything is.
Again don't forget to leave a comment for an entry into my blog candy drawing on August 31st.

Las Vegas here we come-

Me and the hubby are going to visit Las Vegas - to play, relax and visit with my daughter and boyfriend (who live out there) for a whole week...So I won't be blog hopping or doing any challenges for a week or so- I miss it already..lol. I will be bringing my Gypsy to play with on the plane a bit and I plan on visiting a few of the scrapbook stores out there-there are 2 really good ones that I have been to before.The above picture of us was taken in January when we went to Vegas to celebrate my 50th birthday this year-this time it will be much warmer I'm sure. But I still will have my Frugal Fridays post -so check that out and leave a comment for my blog candy drawing on August 31st- see more details of candy on right side bar. And  I can't wait to start scrapping when I get back and caught up with everyone's blogs-Enjoy your week of summer fun- I know I will- I need a vacation before I have to go back to work at the end of the month at school driving all those kiddies back and forth.

Celebrate life

This was the first time we held out new granddaughter in our arms in March of 2009- she was born a month early (2-13-09) so when we went to visit 3 weeks later in Iowa she was still small yet 3 weeks old. What a precious moment this was for us- our first grandchild -Janelle. Sorry the picture isn't the greatest . I am applying this layout out to Frosted Designs challenge this week titled "Celebrate Life" and this one really captures that . I used several floral patterned papers, ribbon, silk flowers, brads, metal tag holder and cut some flowers from paper and added stickles

welcome to Frugal Fridays #14

PAPER, PAPER and more PAPER

It starts off with buying just a few pieces of paper to do a project...then a few more...oh I really like that pattern...oh that's new and cute... and then you have a whole room full. At least that's how it kinda played out for me. Now I have so much paper it takes me forever just to pick out paper when I start a project. So I had to do something about this- ORGANIZE It. So I have 3 containers where I store individual pieces of patterned paper. The blue box on the left is catagorized into holidays, Christmas, letters/words, vellums, sports, school, baby, wedding and travel. I believe I got this cardboard box online thru Joann's for about $12.00 and it came with the hanging folders also. The Middle holder I also ordered online thru Hobby Lobby a few years ago for about $18.00 and it is an accordian folder a little more durable but not as big.It is great to use for scrapping retreats to bring all your papers in that you will be using, I put all my "special papers" in here (which is getting full) such as embossed, themes for my personal layouts (bowling, gambling,scrapping, & coca-cola) all my lazer cuts, and any papers I buy in sets that match. And the last container is the biggest and I can't remember where I got it (? Office Max) , but it was about $25.00 and very sturdy with metal rails and hanging folders. But I catagorize my papers by color in this one. For example red/ yellows--pink/purples--browns/oranges--blues---greens---black & white---and colorful---and my lazer cut border papers.

Then over in these storage/ shelves that I found at a garage sale for $5.00 each -I store all my cardstock 12 x 12 (laying flat) and 11 x 8 on their side( by color) and all my Paper Packs. On top (can't see in picture) I have all my rolls of vinyl and a huge pile of chipboard and on the bottom shelf all my special cardstock like Core-nations and acetate. Some people like to organize their papers by Company or Designer which I found hard to do-cause I buy a few of everything, especially when its on sale/coupon. 
Well I hope I gave you some ideas for storing paper-because it multiplies so quickly and can get out of hand. Enjoy your summer and happy scrappin!
Don't forget to leave me a comment on my Frugal Friday posts to be entered into the blog candy drawing on August 31st.

Our !st new Puppy

Here is a layout I did awhile ago- Our 1st puppy-Jenna. But I will be leaving for a camping weekend and don't have time to scrap a page for the Practical Scrappers Challenge for friday. The challenge is to do something that is your 1st of something. So here is mine My first puppy-isn't she the cutest puppy only 4 weeks old and 2 lbs-a little american eskimo. I used doggy paw print paper and chipboard and painted the letters on for her name and tied with ribbon and did alittle journal spot . The title is a letter template and then painted in white.

Here is a layout with one 1 embellishment- which is very hard to do. Which is for the challenge over at Practical Scrappers this week for their anniversary daily challenges. With this layout I chose a brick colored paper and just stamped the title around the edge and colored it white with a white gel pen- so I'm not counting the title as an embellishment.  My rope or twine around the pictures is my one embellishment which is perfect for this layout. This was my two little boys years and years ago playing cowboys one day so I thought what a great photo op this would be. I had these pictures layoing around for some time and wasn' sure how to scrap them

My Pink Elephant Notebook

Isn't  this the cutest little reminder book- that I made for myself to list all my daily challenges in so I can remember when each one starts-they're so many of them out there. I chose the elephant from Zoobaloo because I use to collect elephants and thought it was the perfect symbol as a reminder book. I cut my chipboard as the base and then used black, grey, pink cardstock for the cuts, on the inside of each page is white cardstock and chalked/ inked in pink. I added stickles "cotton candy" to her ears and trunk to the front and back of notebook. There are 8 pages to this book one for each day of the week -to list my challenges daily. I added jump rings and tied with some ribbons. This cute project is for the challenge at FCCB-mini book challenge this week. Its something new they started on Monday-if you haven't already you should check out there blog for great inspiration and great weekly challenges.

Barbeque Time-card

Here is the cutest summer BBQ invite made in the shape of a recipe card and all the cuts are from From My Kitchen cartridge-really simple to make. I also used some scrap papers that are in a red and white polka-dot and a cream with little x's on the paper and some brick and chocolate brown cardstock. Inked all the edges in coffee bean and hand wrote the invitation part inside.

This card is for the Challenge over at FCCB #21-Summer BBQ. I've  missed the past few weeks over at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge due to spending more time on my layouts, so I got busy and made some cards this week.

I remember when...

I just love this layout- the colors are just beautiful together and I love the hummingbirds - usually don't see these cute little feather friends in layouts much. Well this is my take on the challenge at Sketches by Tamara this week and also a color challenge at Embellish Magazine for using pink, green and brown. These colors were my inspiration for this layout and I couldn't be happier on the way it turned out.
I used Sandylion-pink floral paper, avocado & pink cardstock, misc green patterned papers. Angel Company stamps , which I chalked and highlighted with a fine brown marker. Rhinestones, cotton candy Stickles, saddle brown ink and other doodling with Zig brown marker and title is Stampendous stamps.This  will qualify for the daily challenge of One photo in a layout for Practical Scrappers also.

My Daughter-beautiful

Whenever I do a challenge for My Little Sketch Blook-it takes me forever to do, because I put so much time into doing the best I can. Cause Liz Qualman's sketches are just beautiful and I love working with them. So here is my take on this weeks sketch.

Recipe for layout: My Angel Company papers, teal cardstock for background, butterfly & swirl stamps by My Angel Company, tan cardstock to stamp on, teal striped velvet ribbon, rhinestones, gelly roll glittering pens in stardust and stardust gold, chalks, paper salon-coffee bean ink- and tags from Angel Company package.

The Bakk Boys

I just had so much fun doing this layout-because it was of my husband and his two sons, which I don't have that many pictures of, so this was different. This is my take for Creative Scrappers #115 challenge this week. I used Reminisce "super star" paper, Sassafras-doubled sided pattern paper, and lt. blue, dk brown cardstock. Circle punch white gel pen, pop dots and Cricut cartridge Jasmine for The Bakk Boys and Graphically Speaking for the 2- b's, three and 2001.

The Three Bakk Boys dressed in Blue...ready to get on that plane and go sky diving for their dad's (my husband in middle) 50th birthday in October 2001.

Graduate 01'

This is another layout of my DD's 8th grade graduation in 2001 with me , daughter/ her great grandmother in the pictures, which since she has passed away so this is a special picture for her scrapbook. I will be applying this to the Challenge at Imaginisce's August Sketch challenge and also for using the word one or #1 in a project at Practical Scrappers  one year Anniversary daily challenge this week.

list of supplies used: White cardstock sprayed with Frost -Glimmer Mist, DCWV -shiny blue floral paper, misc scraps in red and white floral patterns. EK Success border punch, flower punches, red brads, polka-dot ribbon, baby blue- Stickles, red and perwinkle inks, LePlume- steel blue marker, 6x6 template"mini pansy" and Cricut cartridge A child's Year for diploma, cap and Graduate.

Just Crazy- sky diving

I am really just rocking these layouts out this week-that's because I will be gone in about a week and won't be able to participate in any challenges for about 2 weeks- so I'm making up for future lost time... lol . Well this next layout is for Sketches in Thyme I love there weekly sketches and again I'm using some arrows so I will be applying this also towards Frosted Designs challenge this week again. My pictures are just right for some of these challenges-its funny how that works out sometimes.

These pictures were taken in Oct. 2001 a year after I remarried and my Husband decided he wanted to sky dive for his 50th birthday- I think he was just plan crazy for wanting to do this with his two sons..and they agreed- so they were all CRAZY.
I used K&Company , My Mind's Eye papers and teal and blue cardstock. Fiskars circle cutter and GBS cartridge for large circle and arrows, lt. blue and brown inks, Stampendous stamps for title and sub title, Martha Stewart markers and black pen for journaling. I made by own little sky divers and parachutes which I thought were so cute and wrote there names on each one, and cut out my own little clouds also.

Go Speed Racer

This fun and simple layout was done for the challenge over at SassyLil Sketches this week. It's a few pictures of my oldest daughter on the go carts in Shawano, Wisconsin on a family vacation back in 2001, all the kids had a great time that long weekend swimming, rafting, at the amusement park and of course driving their own little cars around the track.

I used a piece of cardstock in green but  sprayed several glimmer mists on it to get the look I wanted using patina, lime green, teal and frost. I masked off the circles first, using a circle punch out of 1 striped pattern paper and put the rest of them on the layout after I sprayed. Black zig marker for stitched look border and cut the title and arrows from Wild Card cartridge and George Basic Shapes cartridge for the arrows. Since I used arrows on this layout it also qualifies for the challenge over at Frosted Designs this week-boy I must like arrows lately I have done a few layouts without realizing that I had  arrows on them.

4 crazy - Kidz

I had some fun with this bright and colorful page and this sketch worked out great from Practical Scrappers Sketch Friday- but I kinda turned the photos around a bit. I added the arrows to this cute page, which also qualifies for the challenge over at Frosted Designs this week-to use 1 or more arrows on a project. Just a few products were used on this layout. American Crafts paper (doubled-sided), robin cardstock, chipboard covered with papers, chipboard lettters and sayings, stickles in 4 colors, brads and brown ink on a pre-made journal tag.

Flock Together

I love this photo that I took back in 2000 of my mother and all her siblings and her mother- we have a very close family and get together often, but I always forget to get everyone together to take that special photo and I'm glad to have this one because 2 of them have passed away since this was taken. I will be applying this sketch towards this weeks challenge at Sketchy Thursdays. Materials used are American Crafts papers, moss, chocolate and teal cardstock, buttons, bird and cage stamps, stickles, maroon thread, brown ink, scalloped punches for the flowers, and Magenta fine glitter. Used cricut cartridges Gypsy Font and A child's Year and welded with my Gypsy.I will also be entering this layout over at Practical Scrappers Anniversary week for using your favorite product or supply- and my favorite is paper. I like to cover the whole page and make my own embellishments from paper- like i did with the flowers, leaves and border