Cocoa Beach 2002

I found these older pictures of a quick trip we took to Cocoa Beach years ago. The "baby" in the pictures is now 9 years old! Holy cow does time fly!

I really wanted to work on a beach page today. While I was digging through the drawers yesterday, I ran across a few little ziplock bags of sand and beaches that we had collected from our vacation trips.

Sketchy Thursdays had this great sketch this week with a multi photo sketch. Love all the blocking and this paper I found was perfect!

The background paper is from Wild Asparagus. I love these papers and I am so glad I ran across a whole stack of them! The center paper is a solid piece of off white cardstock that was distressed and inked up. The seashell blocks were cut from a very cool sheet of patterned paper from Creative Imaginations. The colors on this sheet were just gorgeous!

For a few other embellishments, I added some Magic Mesh and a few seashells. In the center of the real shells, I added the one lonely seashell charm I had left. I threaded some aqua fibers to the charm for a pop of color to the corner.

I'm trying to ignore this headache that is trying to sneak in today....wish me luck!!

Giddy Up!! It's Sunday Morning!

Good Morning Friends!!

I was afraid to step outside this morning because of all the humidity we have been dealing with. I went out to take a picture of my layout and now I wish I could move my scrap desk out there! It is absolutely gorgeous outside! Low humidity, lower temps, and all I can hear are the birds singing....and those incredibly loud cicadas.

I may have to forego my "do nothing but scrap day" today to get out and do something fun. It's been so hard to do anything fun with these miserable temperatures. The kids don't even want to play in the pool. The water actually got too warm to be refreshing. :(

I woke up to this fun sketch from Creative Scrappers #167. It's so hard to find smaller pictures to fit some of the sketches, but I'm learning that cropping out a lot of the scenery isn't such a bad thing. I use the larger scraps from pictures as elements on future layouts. :)

All of these papers came from a Cowboy kit from The Paper Studio. I used a border punch on all of the pieces. ScrapFit Weekend Warmup #10 was to use border punches. I have a very limited supply of border punches but I was able to have some fun with it. :) To frame the pictures, I added some jute. I wrapped a bunch of jute together to make the lasso. Some fun stickers from We R Memory Keepers and I was done!

Now....do I wake everyone up? Or keep scrapping? hmm......

Successful Saturday!!!

Well, what was supposed to a fun day with the family at a cousin's baby shower, turned into a full day of cleaning, organizing and scrapbooking. I can't complain too much...I got a LOT done today! All of my sitters had to work today. Even the hubby who was supposed to be home. But I know he will be surprised when he gets home and sees how much we did.

I met someone that is kinda new to scrapbooking and I was more than happy to purge my stash to help get her started. I love that I was able to part with a lot of stuff, but it's kinda sad to see how much I had that I would never use. I wish I could curb my spending....not gonna happen!

In between cleaning and purging, I would work on a page and complete some fun challenges. :)

My first page is a sketch from Sketch Inspiration #230. I used up all the bits and pieces from a page kit I was hanging onto. It was either use it, or it was going in the box to be donated. I love all the bright colors! And some of the elements are on pop dots. I even used a slide mount for the word Groovy! It's amazing what you can find while cleaning!

This was a gorgeous sketch from Let's Capture These Sketches #93. I was able to use 3 different sized doilies for this one. 3 different colors of ink on each. For the title, I used some older letter stickers on a piece of vellum. I also broke out the decorative scissors for the photo mat. While I was organizing my flowers by color, I ran across these beautiful yellow blossoms from Prima. I added a few others too. And because I love showing off my doilies, I'm using this for the circle challenge at Frosted Designs. :)

This sketch really gave me a hard time. I had so many ideas in my head, but I didn't have the pictures that would work for it. It has been driving me nuts for over a week! Here is my take on sketch #92 from Let's Capture These sketches. I used dark blue Glimmer Mist on a light blue background. I am so glad I have a super stash of doilies! These were inked and sprayed also. The metallic flowers are from Prima and the paper flowers are from Michael's. I also added some bling from Prima. The patterned papers are from the Linen Stack from Die Cuts With a View. My biggest accomplishment was finally convincing myself to mix up different fonts for my titles. I don't know why that is so hard for me...

And finally....Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesdays. This was another page completed with a page kit full of leftovers. This kit was from Colorbok. I love that the kits come with a full sheet of die cut frames. I colored this one with Tombow Markers. A few of the elements are on pop dots and the flowers are from the now organized drawer. :)

So I managed to complete 4 pages, clean out the corner, purge my stash, find lots of "new" goodies, clean and organize the kids room, and 3 loads of laundry. NOW I am TIRED!

Oh...and the saddest part about cleaning out the scrap stash....I have a running shopping list of things I need.....It's a neverending cycle....but I love it!! :)

Our Little Lady

I was able to squeeze this one out last night but I was too tired to post. Everytime I see stars on a sketch I usually go right to a school theme. I don't know why....

But this time the pics I have just weren't working for me. My Little Lady LOVES to pose for pictures all the time. This is from our Spring Photo Shoot. We drive around town and get lots of pics with all the pretty flowers. I wish someone would put out a great line that incorporates tulips.....

Here is sketch #166 from The Creative Scrappers. I raided the older stash for this one. The paper almost made it to the kids' craft box a few times. It's been around so long, but I just knew one day I would use it. The doily was sprayed with Glimmer Mist (different shades of green are definitely on my wishlist!). The chipboard circles are from Colorbok. I used markers on them and then sprayed them with Sparkle Mist. The flower cluster is a mix of flowers from Michael's and chipboard buttons. I decided at the last minute to add the cute little ladybugs. Those are from K&Company. And the title and the journaled card are from Kaliedoscope. I don't think they are in business anymore. But since I have a bunch of these cards, might as well use them! And they worked perfectly for the layout. :)

Off to see the reptiles at the library (??). They host special events to keep the kids coming back. After tonight, I'll be breaking out some animal and zoo layouts!

Have a nice evening!

Guest Designer at The Paper Variety :)

Thank you so much to The Paper Variety for choosing me at their Guest Designer this week! I was so excited and happy to play along and be featured!

This week's challenge was favorite game of Tic Tac Toe. Just choose the row you want to work with a put together a layout or a project incorporating the elements in that row.

I went straight down the middle - Multi photo - water theme - and a banner.

This layout also has some beach charms attached with some embroidery floss. I used quite a few elements from My Mind's Eye chipboard set Fine and Dandy. I love this banner and the colors were perfect!! This also works for the banner challenge at The Trail Makers!

The photos were matted in scraps and then I distressed all the edges.

The title came as a surprise. A few days ago, I was rummaging through one of the many embellishment drawers and ran across a few booklets of vellum titles and quotes. I couldn't believe I had forgotten I had them! So I was pretty excited to finally use one. I tore the edges and used some ink and then adhered it to a piece of Magic Mesh. Then a few more charms were added. :)

This was quite a fun challenge and I can't wait to see what The Paper Variety comes up with next!!

Thanks for following along! :)

Oh my....busy busy....

For something that started out as a simple page, it got busy very quickly! Here is my crazy take on Sketch #52 from Sketches in Thyme. I used lots of chipboard flowers that were Stickled to death. And the title, oy....more (oversized) chipboard that was Stickled and then sprayed with Sparkle Mist. But I did love these papers from Target. And I also added eyelash fiber to the border strips to go with the feathers on my daughter's boa....although I think they got lost in translation....

I wasn't going to post this, but I figured so much work went into it, I had to make the effort to post. I put the Stickles away and I promise not to abuse them anytime soon. :)

Last one for the day...

...so I had to make it a good one!

This sketch is from Stuck On U Sketches. So glad I already had circles cut out from previous projects. I love when I find a use for leftovers. :)

I decided to throw my hat in the ring again at Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday challenge. I used LOTS of buttons! And I had just enough glue dots to finish this up. My shopping list is growing...

At the Paper Variety the challenge was to use a grid pattern or use every color of the rainbow on your project. I know I have seen this button rainbow before on other projects and I always loved it. I knew one day I would make one of my own. :)

The clouds were cut from flocked paper and inked in 2 shades of blue. And I broke out the DCWV Metallic Stack for the gold paper used for the pot 'o gold. I also added a bit of Stickles to the top of the pot to look like more gold. The stickers are from Michael's. And luckily, I had just enough letters from Thickers to make the title. :)

The kiddies are home, so quiet time is over. :(

Hubby is wiped out, so our date was postponed.