MUD DAY!!!

WOOHOO!! I managed to get 2 pages done tonight! I think I found my mojo!!! :):):):)

Here is my take on this week's sketch at Sketchy Thursdays. LOVE multi photo sketches and I had just the right pictures for this one. I used my border punch and a few scraps on paper for the border strips. The title was made with Thickers letters, inked in a dark, muddy brown. I made the splashes of mud using my paisley stamps. I found a really neat set in the dollar section at Michael's a while ago and I really love how versatile it is. I use it for splashes on water pages too. :)

So the theme I chose was a challenge from The Studio Challenges. We were challenged to scrap something that we dislike about our job. I also have a love/hate relationship with my job as a Mom.

We had the most amazing time at the Park District's Mud Day party last year. We stayed and played for almost 2 hours, knee deep in mud. Well, the kids did...I stayed well enough away and just took pictures. I was so happy to see my kids so happy and carefree. Wow! Mom is actually giving us permission to get totally covered in mud!!! Hair, clothes, faces....it. was. everywhere. So now, the part that I REALLY disliked...was the clean up. The supervisors brought in a truck with a hose to try to get most of it off of the kids before they went home. Not. even. close. Thankfully, they handed out plastic sheets to cover the car seats so we could all get home. I took them outside and hosed them off more. Not much better. My only chance of getting them clean was to bring them inside, strip them down and throw them in the shower. Even after I rinsed out the clothes and ran them through the washer, they still have a dingy look to them. What kind of mud was that??!!!

So now I have clean kids. I walked back into the bathroom...big mistake. They put their hands on the walls for balance, leaned on the walls of the shower, clogged the drain with clumps of mud and dirt. ick. I spent the next hour cleaning up after them.

And before we all went to bed....I checked their ears....ick.

So let's just say, Mud Day was fun, but I REALLY don't have to do that again....ever.

Water Park Fun

I managed to stick to my new schedule today...so far! I did another load of laundry, cooked dinner, worked outside on the landscaping and finished a page. Actually, I cheated a bit...things are so slow at work, I brought my sketch, pictures and the Splash collection from Echo Park. So by the time I got home, all I had to do was cut and adhere.

I grabbed sketch #226 from Sketch Inspiration. Lots of fun circles to work with. I used lots of different papers from the Splash kit. I stuck with this kit and the waterpark pictures for the Summer challenge at Crop Suey. Of course, after I had chosen the pictures and worked out the whole page in my head, the new pool pictures were delivered. Oh well, at least I know I won't be short when it comes to summer fun pictures!

Break time is over....darn.....

Getting back in the swing....

I soooo miss scrapbooking! I used to be able to work on a page every night! And my weekends were so productive! Now I just want to be outside. I spend so much time with my family on the weekends, that my weekdays are for catching up on housekeeping and shopping and cleaning....yuck!!

So I am working on time management. I tried making a schedule for myself. Promising to spend 30 minutes cleaning something, at least one load of laundry every night, making shopping lists so I can squeeze it all in one night instead of nightly trips to different stores....I'm making myself tired again.

This will leave me lots of time to relax and actually play with my scrap stash a bit every night.

I managed to complete a whole page tonight! Nothing fancy, but I feel like I accomplished something. And I convinced myself that I CAN do this every night. It is such a fun hobby and I really miss it.

I used this week's sketch from Stuck on U Sketches. I flipped the picture and used some school stickers instead of flowers. The school theme came from Scrapfit Challenge #46. I used a mix of a bunch of goodies I had in the school box.

I'm also using this layout for Scrapfit's Weekend Warmup #8, which is all about the numbers. I used different styles of Thickers for the date and the grade.

And finally, I'm submitting this page to Sketches in Thyme. Challenge #3 for the month of June is an open challenge. As long as you use a sketch and share which one you use, you can play.

I'm feeling pretty good right now and it's early enough that I just might start on another page....before the dryer buzzer goes off! Later gator!! :)

Nature's Beauty

I am so happy that Summer is finally here! The only bad thing about it is that I so want to be outside, but I really want to stay inside and scrap all day! I've been taking tons of pictures lately and if you are my friend on Facebook, you'll know what I am talking about. We try to plan at least one outing every weekend. Sometimes I get a little carried away and we over do it. Me personally, I could keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny. But the little ones need their naps...and so does the hubby...lol.

Yesterday we spent a wonderful day at Starved Rock State Park. I was determined to go soon and everything worked out perfectly. The rain has been crazy around here and this was the first weekend that we were able to enjoy the entire day - rain free. I knew the waterfalls were going to be very active and I just had to get there to see them. I cannot wait to get the pictures printed and scrap them! I took so many, I don't think this is going to be a mini album. This deserves it's own 12 x 12 book! Feel free to send me a friend request on Facebook to watch our latest adventures this summer! My motto is "everything is a photo op!"

Here is a nature page I made using sketch #159 from Creative Scrappers. Lots of older stash was used to make this one. I stamped some leaf and flower images on the background. The felt pieces have been around forever. sooo glad to finally use them! The leaves are from some stems I bought at Michael's last season. I also used some silk ribbon behind some of the felt. I love the natural look and texture of it all. The corrugated piece is from packaging that I had saved. I used some darker green ink and stamped the same image on that too....just to dress it up a bit. I know it's hard to see, but the plain corrugated was boring. I used this for the challenge at ScrapFit#45. The challenge was to use something laying around the house. I had lots of these smaller boxes saved just for the corrugated parts. I love using them on nature pages and even some farm pages.

I really wish I could stay inside today and work on pages, but this beautiful weather is calling for me to get out. Maybe I'll just sit outside and sort through pictures to upload and order...that is going to be a huge project! So many great pictures to choose from.

Enjoy this beautiful Sunday!!! :)

A Very Sweet Blog Award!!

A great way to start off my day was to log on to my blog to see that Debbie from Debbie's Scrappin Corner sent me a really sweet Blog Award! I was so surprised and delighted!! Debbie is always leaving love on my blog and I am so honored that she thought of me when passing out this award. Thank you Debbie! You have no idea how big my smile is right now! :):):):):):)

1. When accepting this blog award I am to thank the person who sent it to me and add a link to their blog
also. ( which I did above) Thanks Debbie for this Sweet Blog Award
2. Tell 7 facts about myself:

1. I have been scrapbooking for 13 years now and I can't believe how much my stash has grown!
2. I have a sketch addiction-I feel completely lost if I don't start out with a fun sketch.
3. I have a whole list of things to do this summer....most of them are just for photo ops. :)
4. I have managed to keep to my plan of using the treadmill each and every day.
5. I am a HUGE Disney fan. I buy every Disney scrapbook related item I can find...just because I want to. :)
6. I have put myself on a no-shopping for scrap stuff restriction (except Disney stuff) so we can save for our trip to Ireland and England.
7. I could eat pizza 7 weeks a week...yum!!

3. I am to pass this award onto 8 others - so here are the 8 Sweet people/blogs I will pass this onto- so please take the time to go visit each one of these lovely talented ladies and leave them some kind words.

Misty - Mommyof5kidz

Tiffany - Breakfast @ Tiffany's

Jinny - Soaring

Mindy - pretty little paper love

Joni - Joni's Stuff

Scrappergrl - the velvet lemon

Patti - it's all good

Erin - scraps of reflection

Thanks again Debbie! And congrats to all my blogging friends! Have a great weekend!!

Young Love

We never really liked this picture of us. It was taken about 12 years ago at a family wedding. It was buried in a box until I finally decided it was time to do something with all those hidden pictures.

This is sketch #160 from Creative Scrappers. I was able to use up quite a few scraps of papers. I added a few strips that I punched with my border punch.

The cluster of flowers came from the big drawer. I swear I cannot seem to make a dent in this stash! And I haven't been buying anything new! I think they just keep growing and multiplying while I'm sleeping...

Unfortunately, my button stash is getting depleted. I added a few to the centers of the flowers. It took me a while to find the right colors. I guess a trip to the store is in order today....

The butterflies are chipboard pieces from K&Company. I don't know why I had to have them...other than they were really pretty!

This whole color scheme came about from my co-workers beautiful blouse. She wouldn't let me take a picture of it to show you. But the color combination was just gorgeous. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to use the combo on a page.

The background was originally a light cream color. I used 3 different colors of misting on it to tone it down a bit.

I am so happy to finally finish this page! It's been on my desk for a week and now I have to clean up!

Sunny Smiles! :)

I know this was a sketch challenge from Sketches in Thyme, but I loved the whole color scheme too!

This was from a fun photo shoot for my girls many years ago....when they liked each other. And I was able to dress them very similar. Well...those days are looong gone. So I have to savor the photos that came from those moments. My oldest dd is turning 21 and my youngest baby girl is going to be 10.

Most of these papers are from DCWV Mango Frost Stack. I love the little pops of blues throughout. I helped break up all the orange and yellow. The scalloped piece at the bottom is from Echo Park Summertime collection. The yellow flower border is made of felt and I added some Stickles to the centers...and almost forgot to let it dry before I worked on the next part. The flower cluster is a hodge podge of stuff from the drawer with big flower brads in the centers. The title was made from letter stickers that needed to be used before they became a permanent part of the drawer. They have been around for a looooong time.

I'm using this layout for the Summer challenge at Crop Suey. These photos always reminded of summer and sunshine. And the blue sky backdrop the photographer used was great!

Now if I can only get them to get along like this again...... :)

It's Web Slinging Time

Who doesn't love Spiderman??!! My little guy is so infatuated with him. We had a Spiderman themed birthday party for his 4th and I have TONS of fun pictures! Here are a few of him opening up all his gifts....can you guess what they were??

Here is my take on sketch #223 from Sketch Inspiration. I used Black Magic Glimmer mist on my papers. Then I used a template to make some faux stitching. I used a black Tombow marker to connect my lines to stitch my own webs. I didn't like the way it turned out so I added some embroidery floss to give the stitching a more realistic feel. Did it work?...not so sure. But the webs do look cool! My little guy said so! lol

The idea for the stitching came from Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday challenge. I couldn't use a needle and thread to save my life! As a matter of fact, the giant stuffed Spiderman popped a stitch a few days ago and I passed him off to Grandma for a little repair work. I wish I could convince her to start scrapping...that would fix my stitching on pages problem! :)

My Handy Man

Now that Summer is here, it looks like my days of scrapping all day are over. I'm so excited to finally be able to spend the days outside....stocking up on pictures! lol! Here in Chicago, we have an excellent chance of getting snowed in (or a deep freeze) and I always want to make sure I have lots of pictures to "keep me warm" and busy!

This sketch from the Studio Challenges didn't quite end up how I had envisioned it. As you can see, it's a far fetch from the original sketch. But once the wheels started turning, I couldn't fit on my page what I had in my head. But I can say, it was a starting point.

My second challenge was from The Paper Variety. It's all about The Guys! This is my little guy tearing up the laundry room to make room for more shelves. Let me just say....he was NOT really doing this! Dad did the work and the little one supervised. It was tough, but he held back and mostly watched. We let him take a shot with the hammer once and he kinda tapped the wall....he was afraid he was going to do more damage and I would get mad at him. He couldn't understand why I wasn't mad at Dad! Of course, I couldn't be mad...the new shelves were for my scrap stash! But we gave My Little Handyman all the credit...he's a great supervisor!

I misted the background paper so it didn't look so "clean". The text is an overlay from Creative Imaginations. I HAD to go out and buy all the home remodeling scrapbook goodies when we were doing lots of work on our house. I have to find those other pictures....I can't believe how much stuff I bought for this reason!

The adorable little tool stickers are from Recollections at Michael's. And there are a few other elements from the Man of the House collection from Bella Blvd.

Not sure what the weather is going to be like today. We have a big Summer Kick Off party with our Park District. Then we are hoping to sneak in our strawberry picking get together. After all this rain, I should end up with lots of mud pictures too....and that's NOT a bad thing!

Off to sneak in another page before we get our day started.... :)

A slice of summer

What a great (and painful) weekend!

My oldest dd and I went for an early morning bike ride yesterday. Then my youngest dd and I went horseback riding. Then I picked my little guy and we all tried to go strawberry picking...but we were rained out. So we had to settle for puddle jumping. We got home and I found out the hard way that my little guy tried to clean my floors with Pledge....so down I went...twice...on my already sore behind! I'm trying to do laundry, but every bone and muscle is screaming at me to go back to bed! So I just decided to sit here and scrap all day....

The Paper Variety challenged us to use fruit on this week's project. I had these adorable pictures of my youngest dd in her cute little watermelon dress. I used this week's sketch from Frosted Designs to get started on this fun summer page. :)

I cut the circle out of green paper and inked up the edges. The background is pink and I stamped it with a darker pink to simulate watermelon seeds. I just didn't want to use black or brown. The doily was inked with the same darker pink. All the stickers are from We R Memory Keepers. I bought them a while ago and thought they were so much fun. I added pop dots to all of them.

Is it wrong that I really want to set up a lemonade stand for my little ones...if only for a photo op?? Okay...maybe i won't put them through that....maybe....