Three More Layouts in the 50th Anniversary Album

This first layout is based off of SWAT Drill #14. 

The second one is based off of KiwiLaneDesign DT Doodle #32

And the last one is based off of Paper Bakery sketch #10.

Using one paper pack is definitely making these go fast!  Now to get the others done ASAP so it can be ready for their party!

Ink It Up for Use It Tuesday!

I know you have them - uninked stamps in your stash WAITING to be used.  Well, the new Use It Tuesday challenge is just for you!  Pull out those un-inked stamps, and put the to use on any kind of project.  Mention the hoarded supplies and UIT, and then link up!  We can't wait to see what you create.

My parents' 50th anniversary is coming up, and my siblings asked me to make them an album.  I don't have all of the pictures yet, so I am just making pages without any of those details.  Then, I will add the photos, titles, and journalling later.  I bought a Simple Stories Documented paper pad at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago just for this project.  I thought the simple monochromatic papers would make a good base.  Then I can add pops of color using items from my stash.  This layout is based off of KLD's DT Doodles #31 (I used scallops and tiny bracket templates for this one).  Other than the SS paper pad, I used a boarder strip from MME Oh La La that I have been hoarding for over a year.  The other pop of color is MME as well (I think it is Lime Twist) - cut using one of my 8in scallop templates.  As for the stamp - that square embellishment is made from clay I bought almost 2 years ago!  I bought it with the idea of making these embellishments, and I just never did!  So, I pulled out another MME product - a Stella and Rose stamp I hadn't used - and stamped it onto the clay.  Then I inked it before baking it.  This made the ink permanent (if you try inking after, it tends to rub off).  And guess what - the stamp is still technically uninked :)

You Are A Cute Above the Rest Card

Scrapbook Steals celebrated their fourth birthday last week.  So on Thursday, they issued four challenges to help celebrate the occasion!  I have not had a ton of layout mojo lately, but I have been doing well with card making.  Most of the cards I have been making will go to Operation Write Home, which is giving me even more inspiration I think.  So, I thought I would share the card I made yesterday for the SS Birthday Challenge #4 - Washi Fever.  Our challenge was to use four different washis on a project.  When I saw that this week's Kiwi Lane DT Doodles was card sketches, I knew I was going to use one for this challenge.  I decided on the first sketch and picked out my ledger paper washi for the wave spot (using a Spooky Lane template).  Once I had decided on the "school" paper look, I went with my WRMK kit I won over at SS.  Since I don't have many shape templates, I went with the triangles to make sort of a star shape.  I used two different washis - one on each triangle - to add some color and interest.  The tag is also washi covered cardstock - this time with a blue stripe and then more of the ledger paper on top.  I finished it off with a sticker from WRMK.  I love how simple this card was to make!

Bring on the Sunshine - UIT Reveal

Now that it is summer, it is time to bring on the sunshine.  Well, for some of you.  For others like me, we have had sunshine and warm weather for a while.  I guess that is the "advantage" of living in the southern part of the US!  But regardless of where you live, we want you to pull out your hoarded supplies and create something with related to sunshine for Use It Tuesday!  Maybe you want to use yellows, oranges, and red in a project.  Or maybe use a sun shape.  It is up to you!  Just make sure to mention Use It Tuesday in your post as well as your hoarded supplies used and then link up!  We can't wait to see what you create!

I few weeks ago a shared a beach card I made for my kids.  Well, for this challenge, I decided to make another similar card - with the word SUN.  Again I used my KLD templates for the background (Spooky this time).  The papers are all scraps that I have had for a while.  Most are over a year old, and some are probably older!  Then I cut the sun out of another KLD template (nature tiny shapes).  This is another scrap of paper - probably almost 2 years old!  I finished it off with another Silhouette cut letter and a frame.  I definitely don't use my Silhouette or my KLD templates as much as I should, so these projects were great for using those hoarded tools.

Bow Tie Card

Today on the Kiwi Lane blog, there was a tutorial on how to make ties using your templates, and since I had 2 more Fathers' Day cards to get done, I thought I would try my hand at it.  I took the traditional black colors from the Cute Card Thursday challenge (ebony and ivory) using a piece of Echo Park Times and Seasons for the bow tie.  I think finished it off with some square brads.  The card is a pocket card - so it doesn't open up.  I chose to use a kraft insert so it looks a little more like skin colors.

Beach Wall Art

Today over at Practical Scrappers, we are showing off ways to use scallops.  So, I pulled out my Kiwi Lane scallop templates and created this cute wall art for my kids' room.  I used some scrap 6x6 papers in blues, yellows, and tans, and created a beach-y background.  Then I used some kraft paper and my Silhouette and cut out the letter B and the frame.  I wanted something summer-y for them, and this turned out perfectly.

I am also entering it into the Paper Girls Challenge #33- The Beach!

4 generations

When I saw this month's first Paper Secrets challenge, I knew I wanted to scrap this pair of photos.  It is of my oldest with one parent, grandma, and one of grandma's parents - making for 4 generations.  With the photos in hand, I new I wanted to use some blue, so I went through my blue paper drawers and stumbled on the MLS paper with the flowers.  It wasn't what I had originally thought of in my head, but it worked perfectly!  Then i pulled out some more blue papers (MME and Lily Bee) along with the orangy pink paper from Crate Paper.  For embellishments, I used a white doily, a Paper Play Studio flair, some MME washi, three Stampin Up brads,  EP and NS stickers, and some twine (Twinery).  The alphas are WP and Thickers.

 And here is the sketch:

Too Good to Use a Little Spoon

Kerys had another fun sketch over at ScrapbookSteals this week - Amber 3.  This one I thought, and thought, and thought about!  At first, I "knew" I was going to mist and have it count for Kristi B's challenge.  But, then I second guessed myself because I only have three colors of mist, and I am not very good at it.  Then Saturday, I saw the new SWAT training using misting, and I knew I had to give it a go.  Two challenges asking for misting that I normally do is enough push to finally do it.  I used my Kiwi Lane scallop stencil and make some contact paper masks for my layout.  I then went to work misting the paper.  It got a little messy, but I figured out that if I cut out the scallop area (three colors connected still) and was careful with the photo placement, most of those "issues" were gone.  And the extra bit of green misting would work good at the top to help anchor it!  i then went to add the strips of paper like in the sketch, but I didn't like it.  But, I found there were good at the top, again for some balance.  Then I cut out some hexagons from some 6x6 paper I have.  I am not sure if the papers are OA or not, but there are from an Artful Delight kit that had OA papers in it (since the mists are OA, it is where I thought to start).  The title is a big mix of alphas - Thickers, EP, and A I think.

And as for the photos - they are of my youngest (about 17m old "here") using a wooden spoon to eat Chick Fil A sauce.  She grabbed it off the kitchen table and went to work when my back was turned to help her brother and sister.  Needless to say, she loves sauce!

Let's Get Sketchy Birthday Blog Hop!

Let’s Get Sketchy is turning ONE and to celebrate we are having a Birthday Bash Blog hop.  As you make your way along our hop to visit each of our DT blogs you will find lots of birthday inspired projects.   If you have arrived here from Bev's blog welcome to the LGS blog hop!! If you have stumbled across this by chance and want to play along then you can head back to the Let's Get Sketchy site to start at the beginning and to start collecting your Birthday challenge words. These words should be bolded on each DT member’s pages.

This year a committed to making a birthday card for everyone in my family plus those needed for birthday parties, etc. So, for the blog hop, I got two more made!

KLD DTDoodle 8.3 using Spooky Lane 2B

 This first one is for my daughter's friend who will be 6 this month.  I decided to go with a mix of papers, as she loves to color in rainbow.  I made rosettes out of a piece of FP Little Sprout and a piece of MME Hip Hooray (boy).  I also used these same papers for the strips on the left side.  I then added a little blue solid paper, some washi, and a couple of buttons to finish of this easy card.

Unscripted Sketches #199

The second card I originally planned for my husband (whose birthday is this month), but I might save it for someone else, as it is slightly girly.  It will probably depend on if I get better inspiration for a card for him in the next few weeks or not!  I used some yellow Crate Paper and some orange and green Amy Tangerine paper as well as the solid blue cardstock for this one.  The sun shape is from a KLD template (Nature 5T), and I topped it off with some washi flags and some twine.  The washi isn't wanting to stay perfectly, so I might have to add a little glue to those...

Birthday Bash Challenge- To create any birthday inspired project from examples you see on the DT pages and upload here at LGS.  If their project is a layout then do a lift of that page, if it’s a project of sorts then do that project.  You can pick from ANY DT member’s blog project for the hop.  The upload it to the Let's Get Sketchy blog when you are done! 

Also as you hop along the way you will find clue words on each of the design team blogs.  Once you have gathered all the words (you might want to put them in your SATCHEL)they will form a quote related to our birthday. Tell us that quote by emailing letsgetsketchy@gmail.com and get your name in the pot for an extra drawing.

The winner of the hop will be randomly selected and will win a nice bag of scrap goodies from Let's Get Sketchy.  As always there are rules for playing!

Here are the rules for playing and winning:

1. You MUST be a follower of each LGS team members blog and leave a comment on each blog and;

2. You MUST also be a follower of the LGS blog.

Please make sure you visit the entire team today as some members are hosting additional blog challenges during the hop and offering their own extra goodies for you so the more you play the more chances you win!

All blog hop entries are due by midnight, March 8th, 2013. CST.   

Now hop on over to Stacey's blog to see what she has in store for you!

Here is the lineup in case you get lost!

Line up:

Brenshevia http://brensheviapapermemories.blogspot.ca/2013/03/birthday-bash.html

Debbie http://www.dpiercey.blogspot.com/2013/02/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-bash-blog-hop.html

Stacia http://happyandscrappytoo.blogspot.ca/2013/03/birthday-bash-blog-hop-lets-get-sketchy.html

Laurie http://laurielariviere.blogspot.ca/2013/03/lets-get-sketchy-turns-one.html

Carla http://www.carlacreates.ca/2013/03/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-blog-hop_1.html

Michelle http://chellesscrapola.blogspot.ca/2013/03/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-blog-hop.html

Lynn http://scrappyhappymom.blogspot.ca/2013/02/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-blog-hop.html

Alison http://adayinthelifeor5.blogspot.ca/2013/02/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-blog-hop-bash.html

Melinda http://www.melindagarner.blogspot.ca/2013/02/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-bash-blog-hop.html

Tracy http://scrappydaze2012.blogspot.ca/2013/03/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-blog-hop.html

Sherri http://www.faithandscraphappiness.blogspot.ca/2013/03/happy-birthday-lets-get-sketchy.html

Marit http://ettkreativtkaos.blogspot.se/2013/03/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-blog-hop.html

Lanette http://stacksofscraps.blogspot.ca/2013/03/lgs-blog-hops.html

Bev http://beeceecreativity.blogspot.ca/2013/03/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-blog-hop.html

Stephanie http://sucw.blogspot.com/2013/02/lets-get-sketchy-birthday-blog-hop.html 

Stacey http://spaceystaceyscrappygoodness.blogspot.ca/2013/03/lgs-birthday-bash-blog-hop.html <----------- You Are HERE!

LGS http://letsgetsketchy.blogspot.ca/2013/03/birthday-bash-hop.html

(I am entering my cards in the Unscripted Sketches, ScrapbookSteals MCM #15 - Rosettes, The Paper Girls Challenge #26 (washi) and KLD challenges)

Daddy/Daughter Target Practice

This layout was a challenge for me.  First, I decided to go with an "odd" color scheme for me - grey, black, and orange.  Since we don't celebrate Halloween, it is a color combo I had never done before.  But, the colors went well with the photo, so I tried it.  And since I had recently sorted a lot of my paper by color, it wasn't too hard to find the orange and black papers.

 To make the scallop, I used my Kiwi Lane Design mini scallops (2A and B).  It was pretty easy to cut once I had them drawn.

For the bracket, I used KLD Bracket 3.  I traced it on to some paper from the garbage to get the full shape lined up, and then I used my actual template as a mask for the ink.  I finished it off my stitching around the edge using Twinery Twine (thank Paper Girls for the inspiration).

As for what papers I used, there is some AC baby papers, WP petite papers, NS Dan the Record Man and MLS.  The washi is MME Indie Chic, and the title is a mix NS, Authentique, and cut fromt he Silhouette.

And here is the sketch it is based off of from Brenda's

 blog:

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Kinect Sports - UIT Warm it Up with Red, Yellow, and Orange

Time for another fun challenge over at UIT!  For most of us, it is VERY cold out side, and I bet some of you are ready for winter to be over.  So, we are challenging you to warm up your projects using red, yellow, and/or orange.  Make sure you use some hoarded supplies, mention them as well as the challenge in your post, and then link up to the Use It Tuesday blog!

I went through my files of pictures to scrap, and starred the ones with red, orange, and yellow in them.  Then I through about the challenge, and decided to go with this photo of my kids.  I picked it because it is a winter photo (taken last year) and my son is in the red and yellow.  The picture is of my older two kids playing Kinect Sports skiing - a regular activity for them in the evenings after dinner during the winter.  

The layout is inspired by last week's Design Team Doodles over at Kiwi Lane Designs (the left side).  I used a mixture of MME Alphabet Soup, MME Six by Six, and Creative Memories papers on this.  The Creative Memories papers I have had for two years, and I had actually "given" them to my daughter for her crafting fun.  But, I thought they worked well with the MME papers, so I put them to work :)

I love this little die cut from the Alphabet Soup collection - it made the prefect accent in this corner.  The blue behind it was cut using the KLD Tiny Tags.

 I knew I needed to balance the page a little, so I went with some little banners on the left side.  This is where I pulled out my MME Six by Six scraps.  They have the same reds, yellows, and oranges in them, so I thought they worked well with the other papers.  And I finished them off with a stack fo buttons and a twine bow.

Now it is your turn!  Make something using paper and the colors red, orange, and yellow!  Use something things that have been sitting in your stash for a while, and link up!  We can't wait to see what you make!

January Layout using KLD DT Doodles

I finally got a chance to play along with the KLD DT Doodles!  Here is the great sketch I was working with:

I decided to use it for my January page in my 2013 album (see more information about it HERE).  I wasn't able to get one good photo of all three kids, but I got some cute ones anyways :)  I used a mix of Michael's Recollections Seasons 6x6 papers and MME Sweater Weather papers for this.

As for the templates used, I used Bracket 2T for the bracket shape below my son on the left page and Scallops mini 1A for the scallop shape on the right page.  Everything else was straight cuts on this one.

The page isn't fancy, but it is cute enough.  I didn't want anything really thick because my the end of the year the album is going to be huge anyways.  I plan on adding some words in white ink around the page at the end of the month  little pits of what we did, etc.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing my layout :)

Fish and Garden Tales (Jade 5)

 Kerys has another great sketch over at ScrapbookSteals - this time it is a two-page layout for Jade #5.

I used MME Follow Your Heart for this one, as I thought the blues and tans worked great with aquarium pictures.  Our city's aquarium and botanic gardens are right next door (sharing parking, concessions, etc), so any trip to the aquarium normally involves at least a quick trip tinto the gardens to play around some more.
The alphas I used are a mix of AC Thickers, Pebbles stickers, and Hobby Lobby (PaperStudio).
I created the waves at the bottom using Kiwi Lane Designs Spooky 2A and 2B.  Everything else is from the great MME line :)
And here are a few close ups:

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A Simple Birthday Card Using Kiwi Lane Spooky

So, I picked up two sets of Kiwi Lane Design templates from ScrapbookSteals last week, and I have already put them to use.  I used the scallops on my mini album (previous post), and I used Spooky for this card.  I took the chevron-looking template (1a or b) and just traced it on white paper with both black and grey marker.  It made a simple background for this card for my nephew.  Then I used Unscripted Sketches #192 for the inspiration on the layout.  The stamp is Stampin Up.  I had to get a little "fancy" with the stamping since the stamp has the words stacked.  But, I needed a longer sentiment for the card.  So, I did a little masking and got it to work this way.  The grey paper is just scrap that I embossed a little using my MS score board.  And the back circles are a button, and brad, and a random black plastic disc I had in my stash.

This card is for my oldest nephew who is about to be a teenager.  He loves black and grey - I think those are the only colors I saw him in over Christmas - so, I hope he likes the card!

MIni Mini Album/Card

 Earlier this week, Liz Chidester did a tutorial on MyLittleShoebox's blog about a mini album made from 1 8.5x11 piece of paper (and then decorated).  I knew I wanted to try it out, so I made the album.  Then I thought about what to use it for.  I have a ton of birthday cards to made,and I thought it would made a fun card!  But I knew it would be fairly thick, so I didn't want to mail it.  So I decided to make it for an almost 11 year old in our church that is just an amazing young lady!  She isn't into cute things anymore, and love horses and cowgirl-type things, so I decided to use MME Miss Caroline 6x6 papers for this.  Then I used MLS alphas throughout.  I decided to make it close, so I added two WRMK eyelets and a piece of random ribbon (I think it came from HobbyLobby) to finish it off (plus the standard HL brown pigment stamp around the edges).

Here is the cover with her initials on it:

Page 1: Devoted Daughter with Exodus 20:12 as the verse.

 Page 2: Caring Sister with 1 Thessalonians 5:11 as the verse.  I also used my new KiwiLane scallop templates on this one :)

 Page 3: Servant of God! with Galatians 6:9 as the verse.  Some how I lots the letter a along the way... I guess I will need to find a new one and put it back before I give it to her later this month :)

The back cover

Side view

I am entering this into two challenges.  The first is Scrapbook Steals Monday Craft Madness #7 - Think Mini!  This little album is definitely tiny!  Plus i used only 6x6 paper (which is the "tiny" variety) and a bunch of mini alphas.  The second is The Paper Girls Challenge #23 - Ledger Paper.  The front cover uses ledger paper as well as the tag on page 1.