{cousins}

This is my take on Amber 8 by Jessica L over at Scrapbook Steals.  The vertical and horizontal strips gave me the idea to pull out my hoarded scraps and make a rainbow weave with them.  (The current SWAT challenge is Dig Deep - using your hoarded items in a trendy way.)  The purple and orange are actually fairly new (Fall 2012 Nicki Silivis box), but that blue, green, and yellow are at least 2 years old (MME Hip Hooray and MLS Green and Simple Life .  The red if from last summer's MLS warehouse box (Sew Cute).  Then I pulled out my hoarded buttons and added some interest to where the papers cross.  Let's not talk about how many buttons I have in my stash!

The right side will get the journalling, but I don't want to post that online.  I might add something to the bottom right depending on how much I write.  I love how fast this layout came together - I put it together in less than 2 hours!

Here is the sketch:

Get Crafty With It

 Here is another layout I created this week.  With my husband gone on a work trip, I spent most of my evenings after the kids were in bed crafting.  I had actually started this layout a week or two ago, but I just never finished it.  But, I wanted to clean off my desk, so it got done!

The photos are a few years old of my oldest painting some wooden ornaments for Christmas.  I plan on journalling on the plaid paper, but I just haven't gotten there yet.  I took inspiration from her clothes and went with some NS papers mainly for this.  The pinks and greens are just so fun!

I am not loving the misting - I am just not great at it!  But, I do think it gives a little more interest to the page and goes with the crafty theme to the layout.

Above is the sketch it is based off of - a Page Maps sketch for Kerys's March Scrappy Friends challenge.  And I used four photos for the S.W.A.T. Challenge (Four Focus Fun).  Finally, I made sure to use two shades of green when finishing it off for the ScrapbookSteals MCM # 17.

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:

You're a Hoot - Amber 1

Last night I got to go to a Moms' Night Out craft night for my MOPS group.  In the 2 hours I was there, I got a great start on two layouts - which I thought was awesome!  Plus no kids to get in the way and adult conversation - it was amazing!  

The first layout I worked on was Amber 1 over at ScrapbookSteals.  The pictures are of my husband and two of his brothers building our kids' train track for the first time.  No, it wasn't the kids that were excited about the new toy as much as the big boys (although the little kids did and still do love it).  They wanted to get it built fast so they could play!

 The papers are Nikki Sivils You're a Hoot.  I thought the "hoot" sentiment was perfect for these silly "boys."  

 I topped off the layout with a die cut from PiggyTales Steadfast Tin Soldier, some Twinery Twine, and buttons from Stampin Up.

And here is the sketch it is based off of:

More information on the MWM series over at ScrapbookSteals can be found here.  And more information on this sketch and to see Kerys's fun interpretation of it can be found here.

learning - A LGS Reveal

 This week's amazing sketch over at Let's Get Sketchy is by the amazing Bev Code.  I love that it has a mix of hexagons, banners, and arrows!

I recently sorted my papers by color, and decided I had a TON of blue papers.  So, I started this layout looking through my drawer with turquoise paper.  I was immediately drawn to the gingham paper with the pink, blue, and green on it (the back side is a blue and white polka dot).  Then I remembered Rochelle's color challenge for this month, and thought I could really make this work!  I pulled out some of my MLS papers to go with the MME Hip Hooray paper and the dug out a piece of light pink NS paper to use for my hexagons.  For the banner, I just used scraps of the hexagons - each triangle is about 1/6th of a hexagon - and stitched them together with twine.

For the arrows, I decided to try stamping them.  I made an arrow template out of scrap cardstock, and then I used my MME border stamp and the three colors of ink to make the arrows.  I topped them off with a piece of the gingham paper and some twine to bring it all together.   The journalling is about what I have learned from my kids - how they have made me grow in the last 5+ years.   The first ever S.W.A.T challenge made me dig deep and really think about myself.

For the embellishment cluster, I used some Crate Paper pieces mostly as well as a few other random pieces I could find.  The title I cut using my Silhouette and the French script font.

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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Christmas Chaos - MWM Jade 8

Time for another fun layout based on a ScrapbookSteals MWM sketch (Jade 8).

Here is the sketch by the wonderful Kerys!

I pulled out my 12 Days of Christmas 6x6 pad that I recently "stole" and started with the mat for the photos. I loved that I could pull in so many colors using the woven mat, many of which are in the kids' matching pajamas.  But, once I had the mat done, I had to figure out how to finish off the layout.  I wanted to pull in some darker blue from the jammies, so I added a faux pleated strip using Indie Chic 6x6 papers.  Then I went to embellish it using some Nikki Sivilis and Crate Paper pieces as well as some stitching and of course some Thickers.

 If you have never done a Mid-Week Mojo over at ScrapbookSteals, you really should!  The sketches are always so fun, and they draw one random winner each week.  Plus they have a bigger random drawing prize for those that complete all ten sketches in a jewel series.  More information on MWM can be found here.

Ready to Roll

I actually got this week's MWM over at ScrapbookSteals done already!  I had this picture of my youngest sitting on my desk, and I decided to just go with it and make it work for Jade #7.

 I took inspiration from her hat (and outfit) and decided to use Sugar Cookie from Nikki Sivils for this layout.  The hearts with the purple and pink seemed to work perfectly.  Since the photo was a little off center, I deced to add some twine on the left side to balance the photo.

The hardest part of this layout for me was the embellishments tot he right of the title.  I just couldn't get them right.  But, I am at least not hating how it is now.  I do like the photo corners turned into arrows on the washi, but the rest is just ehh.

The bottom right corner was a lot easier :)

And here is the sketch from the wonder Kerys!