Such a Cute Couple

 I just love the colors on this layout I did from the sketch over at Sketches in Thyme this week and also the recipe challenge at Scrap Our Stash - which consisted of :   5 embellishments- 4 words or letters in a title-
                                                                                          3 pictures-2 pattern papers- 1 solid paper.
All my papers are from a Recollections paper stack- and white cardstock for all the Cricut cuts. I used 3 cartridges: Calligraphy Collection-Accent Essentials and Wild Card, which then I embossed with my Cuttle bug and folders and then I heat embossed them with 3 different powders- Silver, Pink and Red which you can see a close-up of the hearts that I did this technique on. Which is also the challenge this week over at Frosted Designs- heat or dry Embossing on a project.

      I also used a Recollections x x x border punch, brown inked edges on layout and pop dots. So I will be applying this layout for 3 challenges ( Frosted Designs as a Design team member). This cute couple is my son and his girlfriend when they first started dating in the end of  2006- beginning of 2007.

Embossing for Frosted Design weekly challenge

Here is a photo of my (Happy looking son) in his Freshman year in High School- I know he had a better year than what his expression is saying here- but I still needed to scrap this for his book. I used several papers from My Mind's Eye Complete Boy stack and layered them. I pulled out the colors in his pinkish-purple shirt to cut out the stamps and embossed them (with my CuttleBug and several different design folders)and then layered them also with pop dots. I used my Gypsy along with the Cricut to cut out the tag and the years and the school zone -used the Graphically Speaking cartridge. Stamped with Martha Stewart varsity letters the title on the tag and colored them in with markers and added some black and white ribbons.
      Well thanks for stopping by and looking at my project for this weeks challenge over at Frosted Designs to heat/dry emboss. I hope to inspire you to create some project and enter for a chance to win some great prizes from Mold Muse this week.

Creative Scrappers #180 / Humorous layout

Here is a humorous layout I did of my son a few years back during  the summer month of July. You know how you tell your kids everyday to wear sunscreen as they walk out the door and they kinda roll their eyes at ya- like yeah you say that all the time- I know I will"  Well guess what my son didn't wear that day? or at least he didn't put any on his face, while he was sightseeing down on Lake Mischigan in Chicago for the day.
At this is the result of that afternoon. Too funny- now. But he was burning up that night. I bet he remembers to put sunscreen on when he goes out for the day!
Well this is a sketch from Creative Scrappers #180 that I used for this and also for the challenge over at The Paper Variety to do a humorous project- and I think this will qualify for that.

I used several papers from my stash along with a large scalloped die cut from My Little Shoebox. Journal tag, inked with yellow, foam stamps with orange ink, pinking shears, and a cut out embellie, and some rub-on letters. Also from my large stash some chipboard letters for part of the title.

One layout for two challenges

This week over at Sketchy Thursdays I used their sketch and over at Scrapbookers Anonymous the challenge was Ribbons- at least 7 different ribbons and I did that on this layout this week. A few photos of my daughter back in 2002 at a few of her high school dances.

 As you can see in the pic I used more than 7- but 9 different ribbons, a variety of silk flowers, Tulip paint for the flourishes I drew on, punches(scalloped and border), staples, green florist leaves, stickles, inks and the paper was a special on e from a K&Company stack

 On the bottom border I used all black and white ribbons I had and stapled them underneath the border punch strip and looped them and made my own tags for journaling, and on the top I used marroon colored ribbons for the corner of the pictures and the bow underneath the other journal tag. The gold and white lace trim ribbon (hard to see in the photo) is along the outseide edge of each of the two photos

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Monday!

Here's one for Let's Capture these Sketches

 I just love the colors in this layout I did of my Aunt and Uncle- taken this summer up in the UP on Lake Superior as the background. I used several papers from my stash to punch out all the layered flowers and added brads to the centers of them. I placed a doiley underneath the photo and added my own flourishes with Tulip fabric paints.

I used the Martha Stewart butterfly punch and added red stickles to them and pop dots to give them dimension. The main background paper is my K&company which was a Christmas paper- but it had all the colors I wanted to pull out from the photo. I really liked how this page turned out.
I will be appying this over at Lets Capture these Sketches this week.

Stuck on U Sketches-JAXS

 Here is my layout this week for SOUS- I turned the sketch around abit to fit my photos and angled my title of JAXS. This is a few photos of my daughter and her Fiance" and their sweet little puppy ( now a year old) taken last fall during the football season- as you can tell by the football (Bears) attire, they are wearing. I used several papers -torn and inked all edges. I stamped little paw prints on the background and used some sut out dog phrases and used pop dots for them

Then found some chipboard and painted dark blue then added fine glitter to them to shine a bit- and I just torn the red cardstock in the shape of hearts and stamped on them.

Here's The Scoop!

I just LOVE this YUMMY layout of my granddaughter and I along with my daughter in-law-  taken this summer while we were visiting Amana Colonies in Iowa for the day. I also was at a Scrapping Retreat a week ago and won second place with this layout- I was so thrilled. The challenge over at Frosted Designs this week is to use food/candy on a project- so this is my DT layout titled Here's The Scoop!

 I used polka dot papers in the colors of pink, brown and white and lots of cardstock for all the Cricut cuts along with my Gypsy. I inked all the edges and used several pop dots. I then chalked the little ice cream cones and stamped the letters on them and added stickles to all the cherries on top. I used a precut die cut (see-thru)  with words  behind the pictures, which I cut out with my Cricut also in a scalloped circle shape.

 I did some doodling of the sundae glass and the small cones then chalked them with a little bit of color and  used brown paint and stickles for the chocolate chips on the ice cream. And added a pink spoon- just like the ones we used that day.

Well I glad you stopped by to see my project this week and hope to see your entry over at Frosted Designs-Fabulous Fridays to have a chance to win a wonderfu prize.  Happy Scrappin!

Fence Die Cut for SOUS

Here is a layout using my Cricut/Gypsy and the cartridge- Heritage- for all the cuts on this layout including the fences. I was visiting my daughter-in-law and granddaughter this summer for a few days and we went to Amana Colonies one afternoon. I really enjoyed the specialty shops and all the history in this little village. The best part of the day was going into the oldest working wool mill- and actually seeing them weaving rugs and blankets while we were there-very interesting and amazing at the same time. I just had to buy a wool blanket when I was there for myself.

The paper (kraft color) is by My Mind's Eye which I just layered on the pics with small white borders and cut out some places that we visited from a brochure and inked them with Tim Holtz distressing ink-" old paper". I then hand stitched with cream embroidery floss some x x x scattered on the poage. and journaled in the red barn cut in the middle of the page.

This is kinda a plain looking page- but I wanted it to look that way since life was so simple at  Amana  Colonies.

I will be applying this layout over at Stuck on You Sketches this week for using a fence on a layout.

Open Sketch challenge by Sketches in Thyme

I love these open sketch challenges every month- and this is another one of my favorites. Of course its another picture of one of my dogs- I do have alot of pictures of them. My kids are all grown up and have moved away or are at college- So I have to take pictures of the spoiled girls (dogs). Well onto my layout that I did the other day of Jenna and used a sketch from my Page Maps 2 book. Even tho it is a 8 1/2 x 11 horizontal sketch I turned  mine into a 12 x 12 page- and only used one photo instead of two.

 I used Bo Bunny paper for the background and the layers of torn papers are from a 6 x 6 pack from KaiserCraft and My Mind's Eye also. I punched the circles out and heat embossed with some stamped circles on them and layered them on the side and 2 in the middle of the also heat embossed scroll circles and the flourishes with black powder. I wrote letters and dates on the circles for my little bit of journaling I did.

 I also used an acrylic overlay with a preprinted design in the corners over the picture and added black ribbon to the bottom and put some stickles in black on top of the ribbon. Then did some doodling on x x x's around the torn border underneath photo and on " Adorable " title tag.

                      

Color Challenge at Frosted Designs this week

I thought this was perfect for the color challenge at Frosted Designs- This was taken back in 1991 of my daughter sitting in the middle of the pumpkin patch in her purple shirt. So that is where my purple color is on this layout- plus all the other fall colors for this great challenge this week.

 I used several papers and lots of stamping and fussy cutting of the pumpkins and leaves then I chalked them in several colors. I also added a few stickers for the saying & title- which I first dry brushed the cardstock with a cream paint then put on the sticker. I used a precut tag and inked the edges and tied on orange ribbon. The sunflower paper striped is embossed and is touched with some gitter -had to see in this photo. So be sure to stop by Frosted Designs this week with your entry for the color challenge- its so easy.

A-Z challenge for Scrapbookers Anonymous

I love this challenge- cause it could be anything! So for the letter "C" challenge I have clouds and Cricut cuts (trees and clouds). This first layout is of my dog Izzy and the second layout is of  Jenna- I just love my dogs- American Eskies. These were taken this summer when I took the girls to the dog park and they just love going there and had my camera with me- which I usually don't take to the dog park on our walks.

 I used my Gypsy and Cricut to cut the trees and clouds out of cardstock and inked them and added some leaves to the trees and Flower Soft white to the clouds. Several different papers were used by Reminisce, Bella Blvd, Paper Salon, KI Memories and Recollections.

So I will be also applying one of these layouts to the Scrapbookers Anonymous challenge  to use DIE CUTS also. So one layout for each challenge- even tho they are both similar- but had to do a page for each girl!

Family

I did a layout using the sketch from Frosted Designs- Sketch Along Tuesdays this week of a older portrait that my mother had and gave me a reprint of it. Its the only picture of my parents with 3 of their grandchildren back in 1990- before the birth of my 4th child/grandchild. So this is pretty precious to me and my mother since my father has since past away.

 With so many colors in this picture it was very difficult for me to choose papers- so I thought I would choose a Family words- for the background and some muted colored stripe paper, which I used a Martha Stewart border punch, stamped the Title family in black. I did some fussy cutting of the photo since I didn't care to have all the background showing.

I then added alot of handmade embellies to this layout which include the crocheted lace trim on the side, the doiley flowers with buttons attached and the Tulip Fabric paint for the hand drawn flourishes in brown.

I'm back from my Retreat....

I know its Tuesday and I said I would post some layouts on Monday- but been so busy and  I've been scrapping some more layouts since I've been back from my fabulous Scrapping Retreat this past weekend. I met some new friends and we had a great time and plan on going again in January- can't wait.
                             Here is a layout I did for Sketchy Thursday sketch challenge this week.

 I found some paper that already had some journaling done on it- the definition of Garden which is what the picture is all about. We made a little flower garden around our mailbox last ASpring and the girls (dogs) were there by our side helping. I realy like how the garden and the page turned out. I used my Cricut and Gypsy for all the cuts and an acetate overlay with pink flower and leaf design. I chalked some of the cuts and stamped the birdhouses. The windmill I really was glad to find in my Heritage Cartridge because we live in Windmill Creek Subdivision- so I had to put that on this page.

I will be posting all kinds of layouts in the next few weeks- because I've got my mojo back and been busy scrapping.

Fancy Trim Challenge for Frosted Designs

Here is my DT project this week for Frosted Designs Challenge to use fancy trim ...wasn't sure if this qualified as fancy trim at first- but I guess it does. I used some sheer blue and pink ribbon and tied two bows and used a Martha Stewart border punch and Cricut cut the TWO SWEET and added stickles to it for some bling on the card. Then I tied lots of pastel curling ribbon around  the basket and make two hang tags also one for each of the newborn twins- and on the back I put all the birth information for them.  I have a baby shower that I'm attending this week and thought this would work for this challenge at the same time. I bought the wooden hangers and painted them in pink and blue and added with white paint some dots and their names. I had fun decorating this basket for this happy occasion for one of my co-workers.

Well I hope you join in this weeks challenges over at Frosted Designs for some great prizes from our sponsors. I will be at a scrapbooking retreat all weekend and will be back Monday with all kinds of pages to upload- I'm so looking forward to get away and SCRAP.....enjoy your weekend also.

Here but not here....

     I just wanted to post a little something about my situation in my life for the past few months and the next few months to come...I am currently going thru a divorce which (took me by surprise) and its been a bit overwhelming and hard to deal with on a regular daily basis- so It's been abit difficult for me to concentrate and be creative. I have been on here everyday reading and checking out others blogs and doing my DT challenges - which I find relaxing and enjoy-but haven't been participating as much as I would like to be doing.
     Though -I have been preparing for a 3 day scrapbook retreat this weekend- which I know I need and this will (hopefully) get me motivated again to get back in my scrapbook room and put more energy into this craft/pleasure - which will help me out in the long run and get my mind off the negativity in my life right now. So hopefully by next week I will be posting all kinds of wonderful layouts that I will be creating at  this retreat- ( Heart and Soul Memories in Palatine, Il). Again thanks for taking the time to read this and I will be back on my own two feet soon... Here are a few pages/cards that I have completed- but not for challenges in the past few months and just have not uploaded them until now.

Again- thanks for stopping by and I'm getting excited about my retreat starting tomarrow- I'm all packed and ready to go. Hope you all enjoy your upcoming weekend and keep scrapping!!!

Fussy Cutting for Frosted Designs

Here is my take as a DT member over at the Fabulous Fridays- Frosted Designs. The challenge this week is to do a project with Fussy Cutting. So here is a photo of my son and his date to Turnabout back in 2006. It was hard to choose colors for this layout, because of all the blue in the background of the photo. Yet they wore colors of pinky-peach black and grey- so I choose to go with those colors  in my layout.

 I found special papers that had big designs of flowers so I could cut them out and place them where ever on my page, I also used some predesigned transparent design on the bottom and chalked in blue underneath after I cut it all out. Also the ttwo birds from transparent and the cute little birdcage from some papers I had in my stash

I used a star border punch for the photo and took the punches (stars) and scattered them on the page. And for extra bling added some more Stickles to the cut out flowers. Wel I hope you found some inspiration in my layout and join us this week over at Frosted Designs for a wonderful prize to be won.

Where's the Lemonade?

I originally started this layout for the Blog Hop over at Artful Delight this weekend with a sketch challenge on Friday...then I incorporated two other challenges into this layout. Open Challenge at Sketches in Thyme and  for Scrapbookers Anonymous to do stamping on a layout.
Here is the sketch we had to work with from Artful Delight 1st Birthday Bash Blog Hop with wonderful goodies to be given out- I hope I win the grand Prize one- but any prize would be a Delight...

And her is my take on this sketch. I used PinkPaislee-watermelon paper, Jillbean punch outs, Stampendous, Hero Arts and misc stamps, scalloped and circle punches, polka dot ribbon, baker's twine, brads, black ink, some scrap cardstock, and lots of pop dots

For the flowers I punched 3  patterns out and crumbled them up and ink in black and attached a green brad in the center. The black and white individual candies & fruit I stamped on white cardstock and then cut them out and attached with pop dots .

A closer look you can see all the individual stamping I did to the background in black ink- using summer and 4th of july and candy stamps. Stamped the letters for Jayden's name and cut them out and used pop dots to apply to page. I laid a red polka dot ribbon  with folds for dimension.I love how the black and white  pops against the birght watermelon paper. So again, another fun page is completed.

Grid Challenge = I only have EYES for U

This was so much fun to work with this grid pattern- I will definately be doing this again! This is the challenge over at Scrap Our Stash for the month of September and I wasn't sure if I would be doing this challenge- but I'm sure glad I did. I was working on a layout with these fall colors - and I had alot of large scraps left over- so I decided to punch out the scalloped squares and see what I could come up with. Then I had to find a picture - which was a challenge with these colors and I found this photo of my son and his girlfriend being silly and thought this was appropriate and went from there to add the circle punches then the buttons- Then I came up with a title and everythig fell into place. So I sorta did things backwards than I'm use to doing. I usually start of with the photo first, then pick out the papers for color and then the sketch or design.

I used all DCWV- fall paper stack- scalloped square punch, circle punch and lots of white buttons. I hand drew the black border around the edge and the photo, made the banner with black cardstock and with white paint painted the letters for part of the title. With large chipboard letters I painted black with white dots and tied some yellow jute cord on and for the banner also. Also used pop dots for the flags for dimension and my handy Yes paste.

I also applied this layout as a DT for an example to use punches -which I used the scalloped square and sm 1 inch circle punch- lots of them. So be sure to go check out Frosted Designs new Fabulous Friday challenge out this week.

Two challenges in One- SOUS

Stuck on U Sketches had a challenge to use die cut flowers on a project this week and so I did that using their current sketch also- so two for one layout here. I love working with fall colors- so I really liked how this page turned out of My Aunt and Uncle and their daughter with her family taken back in 2005 in Michigan while attending another one of my families wedding.

 All the papers used were from the Fall Paper Stack( older one on clearance for $4.79= what a steal this was ) by DCWV -love all the papers in this entire stack. Recollections border & corner punches, misc cardstock from my stash, several colored brads, Stickles in many colors, Tulip Fabric paint for flourishes, and of course for all my flowers I used  two -Spell Binder templates along with my  Cuttle Bug to cut them all and layer and ink all the edges. I also machine stitched in black along around the border of the layout.

Sweet... life- time and friends

Her is a combined challenge from Sketchy Thursdays and Scrap Fit #52 this week. Of course  the sketch is from Sketchy Thursdays and the #52 challenge is F for Friendship from Scrap Fit. They have joined together this week for a fantantic challenge and two prizes to give to us. So her is my take  a layout of my son and a few of his friends at the 8th grade school trip to the Milwaukee Brewer game back in 2005. I loved this sketch it was different and I got my inspiration from one of the DT teams layouts.  I used several different papers by Jillibean, My Mind's Eye and Echo Park- tags and a florette (?) I made myself and some chipboard for sub titles and inked the edges in orange. Very simple and I did it under an hour which is great.