It's good to be happy

I used the January 28th sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches for this fun picture of my son. He loved these ships and I took about 100 pictures of him. He loved posing for every one of them.

All of the papers and cardstock pieces are from Colorbok. The lighthouse is a wooden accent piece from Michael's. The papers had a little bit of glitter on them, so I added some Stickles to the lighthouse and the banner. :)

Fishing on Thursday

I had to pull out these pictures to work on today. I talked to a friend of mine about baseball and he told me it wasn't time! This is the time for ICE fishing....??!!!

I had to show him pictures of FUN fishing...without numb, frozen fingers!

I used this great sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. I had to flip the pictures to make it work. The fish border and dangling fishes are from a Paper Bliss sticker set. :)

A fun Saturday!

My hubby surprised me this morning while we were cooking breakfast. He suggested we take a quick trip Downtown to Navy Pier for Snow Days!

I really wanted to go but I know how much he hates cold weather, so I was really shocked and excited!

After a fabulous day hanging around and checking out the snow sculptures, we finally made it home to warm up.

I needed to warm up my creativity and get to work on more pages.

I chose this fun sketch from Sketch Inspiration #204.

I had this gorgeous picture of my youngest daughter from when we went apple picking. I also had this sheet of cut outs from The Calico Frog - Heartstrings. This sheet has been in the stash forever! I kept forgetting I had it...or was just too lazy to cut everything out....whatever...it has been used and I am happy!

I added some fun buttons mixed in with the apple cut outs.

The quote was a challenge from The Paper Variety. We had to use a fun or favorite friend quote on our project. I tried to print this one out on cardstock but now we are having computer issues. I ended up writing it out by hand...and I hate my handwriting!

I framed the quote with a chipboard piece from Bo Bunny's Chunky Charms collection.

I also used a little bit of Brick red Glimmer Mist on the whole background.

I'm also going to enter this for the Open Challenge #3 at Sketches in Thyme. We were allowed to used any sketch we chose for our projects.

Happy Saturday!!

Happy Hearts...

Getting ready for Valentine's Day! Just a few cards to make, but I found this picture of my daughter decorating the snow at the nature preserve. We spent the day (last year) at the preserve playing with the caged animals and making Valentine's for them. Then we went outside and decorated the snow for all the wild animals. I swear the squirrels were hanging around thinking we were crazy! This was such a cute idea, I'm taking the kids out today to decorate our backyard. :)

My color inspiration came from a few places. This yummy photo is the Tuesday Trigger from Moxie Fab. It looks like raw cookie dough! I could totally dive right into a box of that! YUM!!

The second part was this fun sketch from Creative Scrappers. I had all these strips in the scrap box and Valentine ribbon from Michael's. :)

Frosted Designs challenge was to use monochromatic colors. I went with lots of pinks and reds. I used some OLD Heidi Grace...yes, I love HG! And I have TONS of it! :)

The doilies are from Michael's also. The heart stickers are glittery and sparkle.

I'm using this for Rosey's challenge at Sketches 4 All. She wanted us to use pink/white/red- hearts and bling. :)
:) Happy Saturday!

ick....layouts I hate...

This didn't turn out anywhere near what I pictured in my head.

This is the latest sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches.

I don't think I did it justice.

Sometimes I end up with layouts I just hate.

This is one of them.

I think it's time to call it a night.

:(

More red and black...

A cool challenge at Sketches 4 All was to glitter your own letters. I ran my letters thru my Xyron backwards, then dipped them in red and black glitter. Then I ran them thru again the right way to adhere them to the page. WAAY easier than dealing with glue!

The color scheme came from the Scrap Whispers challenge which was to use black and red. :)

Sweet Blooms

Wishing it was Spring.....I'm getting bored with Winter pictures...and I need something to warm me up.

This was such a pretty sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. I thought of pastels and flowers right away.

These pictures of my daughter last Spring were really giving me a hard time. I could not find any papers that would work with the colors.

I decided to use a lot of scraps instead of looking for a line that matched.

The stickers are from Sticko. I mounted them on chipboard. I colored the chipboard with Tombow markers, then put the stickers on them. I have no idea where the letters stickers came from...other than they have been in the drawer forEVER.

The Paper Variety - Week 17

I loved this sketch from this week's challenge at The Paper Variety!! I had about a dozen different themes and pictures to choose from. But of course, nothing seemed to come together easily. I couldn't think of papers or anything else I wanted to use.

I settled on these fun pictures of my daughter when we went to go see the Tall Ships at Navy Pier.

I wanted a wood grain scalloped circle...so I had to trace one and cut it by hand. :)

The sand dollars and the cute bird, are from a punch out set I bought a loooong time ago. The wood pilings were cut by hand. I added a pewter brad to each one and TRIED to thread jute through each one...that didn't work at all! So I settled for just wrapping it around the brad. The title is from punch out letters I think I bought from QVC about 10 years ago. And the cute little anchor is a wooden accent piece from Michael's.

I had a lot of fun with this one! :)

Frosted Friday Challenge!

Well, here we are with yet ANOTHER frigid weekend! Luckily, I have nothing to do AGAIN, but sit inside, nice and warm and scrap.

I've been trying to catch up on a few things around the house that need to be taken care of. But then....I saw these challenges and they needed to be taken care of too!

The sketch is from My Sketch World. This is the January 17th sketch. Be sure to check out the forum for more fun sketches!

Frosted Designs has Fabulous Friday Challenges. This week's challenge was to use vellum, transparencies, or acrylic on your layout or project.

I used a piece of vellum text paper that says "Let it Snow". This was actually a leftover piece...gotta use those scraps! The patterned paper is from Heidi Grace. I cut the circle piece and used a little Glimmer Mist on it. The title are letters from Maya Road Sheer Alphas. I thought this would look good for the challenge too. Scattered around the page are lots of vellum snowflake stickers. The slide mounts are from a swap I was in a million years ago. The center of the slide is a sheer mesh with a silver snowflake stamped right on it. In the corners of each slide are acrylic snowflakes. :)

I searched my whole stash and just couldn't find a transparency that would work for this page. :(

Once the temperatures reach above zero, I might venture out to stock up on new stuff. :)

Bling on 2011 Challenges!

Are you playing along?? Sketches 4 All is having a great time with Bling on 2011 challenges! If you like BLING and winning prizes, this is the place to be! Hurry, the fun ends this weekend!!

Here are a few of the fun challenges we are having:

Pre-challenge: use sequins to make a fun page!

Challenge #1 - Use the sketch provided and the colors Pink and Green. Don't forget the sparkle!
Challenge #2 - Use metallics. Who doesn't have any metallic paper or embellishments?? Let's put them to use!
Challenge #3 - A fun recipe challenge! Doilies, flowers, rhinestones, glitter, crowns...pull out that stash and see what you got!
Challenge #4 - use 3 different kinds of bling!
Challenge #5 - NO patterned paper and use glimmer mist!
Challenge #6 - Glitter, Glimmer and Purple!!
And the fun is not over!! There are still a few more challenges! Don't miss out!

Get your entries in by this weekend to win some fun prizes!! And if you play along with all of them, you can win the Grand Prize!

Making Valentine's

Making an attempt at the Guest Designer Spot for Sketchy Thursdays. Here is the sketch we had to use.

We also had to use a Valentine theme - red or pink and a heart and do some journaling.

This is my little buddy with his animal friends making Valentine cards. :)

Frosted Fun...

Still working on the zillions of snow and winter pictures I took this year...so far....

It keeps coming down, so I'm sure there will be many many more!

I used another great picture of my two little ones at the Nature Preserve.

This sketch from Sketches in Thyme worked perfectly. Along with a few papers from Echo Park and a bunch of scraps.

Along the bottom of the page I added some white flocked paper to look like snow. The "let it snow" vellum has been in my stash forEVER!

The bling swirls are from Prima and the snowflake bling was found in the dollar section at Joann's.

I used this page for Lucinda's ABC Challenge at Sketches 4 All. For the letter "F" I used the title "Frosted Fun", Fiskars corner punches, and snowflake brads for fasteners. :)

Dreaming of warm weather....

Christy at Sketches 4 All had a great challenge! She used her trip to the Bahamas as an inspirational challenge. You could use the layout she used, the colors, pictures...anything that inspired you about her trip to the Bahamas.

I used some postcards that I had collected from our trip last year. I love collecting them because I know no matter how hard I try, I will never get such beautiful shots.

As I keep looking out at the snow....afraid to go out because it's only 18 degrees outside...I decided it was time to keep warm with thoughts of vacation.

I used a great multi-photo sketch from this week's challenge at Sketchy Thursdays. I almost passed on this one. I'm running out of the smaller pictures and didn't think I would be able to find anything. That's where the postcards came in handy.

I was also challenged at Scrap Fit this week. We had to use our stash and use lots of strips of papers. I pulled the huge box of scraps and started pulling pieces. I took me a while to narrow it down to just a few choices. I really need to pull that box out more...

We also had to add a row of embellishments. I, of course, went to my favorite...BUTTONS!

The title was made from vinyl Thickers letters. I couldn't believe I had enough a's to complete the title!

Happy Sunday!!!

More Snowflakes...

I LOVE looking at the snow, and I LOVE playing in the snow. But here in Chicago....almost as soon as the snow hits the ground, the temperatures drop to the teens.

My thoughts are to get out as soon as possible, take lots of pics and then hibernate in the house. I usually have my pictures, my scrap stash, hot cocoa and popcorn. That could keep me busy until Spring!

We have a beautiful nature preserve very near our home. Between the frozen lake, gardens, waterfalls and trees, my winter pictures are usually just one stop.

Here is one of my favorite pictures this season.

I used a fun sketch from Frosted Designs. I had originally planned on working with a Christmas picture and hanging ornaments, but couldn't find just the right one.

I pulled out the stash of OLD Heidi Grace papers called Snowflake Park. My inspiration here was from Scrap Our Stash. Our challenge was to "pagerize" this week's layout. I couldn't believe it when I saw these papers. I have had these forever and totally forgot about them! I was so excited to use up more of the stash! :)

At These are a Few of My Favorite Things, the challenge was to use a quote on our project. I dusted off my book of quotes and found the perfect one for this page.

I think I'm addicted to Stickles now. I am pretty sure I have used them on every page I did this week! Is that a bad thing??

Thanks for looking!!! :)

She's So Sweet...

Gotta love these weekends where there is nothing planned but scrapping!

This page was started by using a sketch from Sketchabilities #39. I love that I just got back a whole bunch of 5 x 7 pictures! This is from my daughter's 9th birthday party. Many more pics from that party to come....

I chose this picture to work with when I saw the challenge from Scrap Whispers. The challenge was to use the colors Black and Red and use a heart somewhere.

Then I decided to play along with Stacy's Stash Challenge at Sketches 4 All. Stacy wanted us to use Chipboard, 2 types of ribbon and to tear some paper.

The photo mat is actually a page from a chipboard album. I had to use 2 pages pieced together to fit the photo. I then inked it in red and sprayed it with a little Sparkle.

The paper, rubons and title are from Heidi Grace...just a few years old...lol.

The heart doilies are new from Target Dollar Spot.

I tore the paper strips and added some ribbon to each of them.

Now I have to finish up my laundry.....

Artful Delight January sketch

I used a fun sketch from Artful Delight to make another winter page. I glimmer misted the cardstock for the background. I hand cut the letters for the title so I had a mask for my title.

Also added were some glittered foam snowflakes and some sparkly snowflake ribbon.

This was also for challenge #5 at Sketches 4 All for the Bling on 2011 party. Khristen's challenge was to NOT use any patterened paper. She also gave a great recipe for homemade glimmer mist.

Check out the fun!!! Lots going on this weekend!!

Glitter, Glimmer and Purple

This was my challenge for the Bling on 2011 Party at Sketches 4 All.

The other ladies are having some fun challenges also! Don't miss out on the fun!

I used a fun sketch from Stuck?! Sketches.

I glimmer misted my background paper with blue. The scalloped circle is a die cut piece from DCWV Flower Power collection. Glitter and glue were added to the whole outline. The flowers are a mix of things I had in the flower drawer. The butterfly is new from K& Company. I added a little bit of Stickles to it to give it a little shimmer.

Creative Scrappers #138

I still have about 2 dozen pictures of my little snow buddy to work with. :)

I had a scrap of paper that I used for the outline of my page. The die cut piece was from Reminisce. The original piece was too blue for what I wanted. Sooo...I ended up tracing the whole snowflake on different cardstock and cutting it out by hand. I then went around the edges with Stickles. All of the smaller snowflakes are glittered foam pieces from Michael's.

This fun sketch from Creative Scrappers #138 was my main inspiration.

And if you are playing along, this qualifies for Challenge #4 at Sketches4All. Stacy's Challenge for the Bling on 2011 party is to use at least 3 different types of bling. I used Stickles, glitter and rhinestones. This party will last until January 20th! Don't forget to stop by for more prizes!

Sketches4All Bling it On #1

Are you playing along??

The Sketches4all Bling on 2011 Challenge has started!

The first Challlenge:

Its a sketch from http://sassylilsketches.blogspot.com

and you have to use RHINESTONES on it ...and for the twist the colors PINK andGREEN somewhere on the page..

You have time untill the 20th to make this and you can win

a 10 dollar certificat for the first prize and for the 2nd a blingy RAK.

Please TAG it in the gallery: BLING1sketch

I love this picture of my little Snow Buddy!! I used Heidi Grace snowflake paper, lots of scraps and some flocked paper. Al of the snowflakes were inked in pink and green for the challenge, and then I added some rhinestones to the centers. :)

Join us for all the challenges!! The fun runs through January 20th! Lots of fun prizes to be won!

BLING ON 2011!!!

JOIN US AT SKETCHES 4 ALL FOR SOME BLING FUN!!!

We are going to start off 2011 with some fun Bling Contests!

Starting Monday, January 10th, join us everyday for a new fun challenge from each of the Design Team girls!

There will be lots of fun, lots of challenges and of course, lots of prizes!

Show some sparkle!

Show some shine!

We want Glitz! Glimmer! and Glitter!

The fun starts tomorrow! Don't miss out!!!

SKETCHES 4 ALL

Making Snow Angels

Still having fun working with all my Winter pictures! Must hit the sale at Michael's today to get more adhesive! :)

Here is a page with my two little cuties making snow angels. My little guy wasn't too sure about it...I think he was afraid his sister was going to bury him in the snow...lol.

I used this fun sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches this week. All the papers are from Echo Park Wintertime. :)

Gotta go start a shopping list....have a great Sunday!

SOUS - 1st sketch of the year

Stuck on U Sketches revealed their first sketch challenge of the year! This was a lot of fun...and a little messy.

I outlined the center patterned paper with glitter...and ran my finger through it about a half dozen times.

Scrap Fit #35

Another first for me....playing along at Scrap Fit! Challenge #35 was to use your scraps. I used a piece of Coredinations cardstock for the background. I sanded it a bit, so it almost has a snow effect. A few scraps from Echo Park Wintertime, some pieces of ribbon, a few pieces of corrugated, and a pieced together doily. The snowflakes are from the stash...i only have about a million of them..lol.

The letters are actually from two different sets...one is Thickers and the other is from Paper Studio. I can't believe how similar they are! Good thing I was able to put them together for the title. :)

The mitten and scarf stickers are leftovers from Jolee's.

I used a sketch from Fia's Sketch Crazy Challenge at Sketches 4 All. And I also threw this into Rosey's winter challenge. :)

I just got a huge batch of snow pictures in the mail yesterday,so I am so stoked to work on pages this weekend!!!

:)

Starting with Crop Suey

I've decided this year to jump in and try out a few new sites for layout inspiration. A few of my scrapping friends led me to Crop Suey. This month's prize is a great kit from Cosmo Cricket! I love the colors in this kit, so I am soo excited to play along!

Here was the photo inspiration:

And here is what I came up with:

I used lots of pieces from Echo Park Wintertime collection. I added a few snowflakes with some red bling in the centers to give it a little more color. :)

I'm also entering this into Rosey's challenge at Sketches4All. Rosey wants us to do a Winter themed layout and show some snow. I hope this is "wintery" enough! :)