Hurray for Fall...

Don't you just love that feel of Fall in the air?  Even here in Texas, the temps have finally dropped and there has been a crisp coolness in the morning air.  October is a fun month in our house complete with a Kindergarten fieldtrip to zoo, a visit to the pumpkin patch, my son's birthday, and Halloween.  Throw in treats with each of these activities and whats not to like!  For the SEI link party this month I created this two-page layout of a trip to the Pumpkin patch a few years ago.  I have been wanting to scrap these photos for awhile, but haven't been inspired.  Luckily, the "Fresh Cut" collection spoke to me.  These are some of my absolute favorite colors and they worked perfectly with these photos.  I used an amazing Lets Scrap sketch which I am a huge fan of and will definitely use again.  Thanks Cheri!

Don't you just love the colors in this collection?  SEI is one of my go to companies because they package all the perfect elements together and make it so easy to put together pages.  There are some amazing prints in this collection that have a bit of a retro feel that I love, but for this layout so heavy on colorful photos, I stuck to the smaller patterns to keep it from looking too busy.  Here are a couple of close-ups.

I love how the pumpkins turned out.  I cut them out with my trusty Silhouette and pieced them together.  Isn't the linen pattern on the papers so amazing!  Love them.  The SEI link party is going on all month this month so you have time to create a great project and get it linked up.  And while you are at it go check out the wonderful team at Lets Scrap and the amazing weekly sketches.  I am still working on Julie's sketch for the month and hope to get it finished in the next couple of days so I can link it up too.

September's SEI Sketch Challenge...

It has been a few months since I participated in a sketch contest and I have missed it.  Last month I had a completed layout and then forgot to Link it to the SEI blog. : (  As of October, SEI is going to leave the link up all month so I definitely won't have any excuse for not playing along.  I always love Julie's sketches and I really enjoy working with them.  She makes them so simple and easy to customize.  This month's sketch is another beauty.

My take on the sketch features...ME!  Let me expound.  My mother recently gave me my baby album which was literally falling apart and including those lovely sticky pages.  I am now in the process of taking bits and pieces of her work and organizing them in a different format.  I have digitized many of the photos and the goal is to reconstruct the album in an updated and more interactive album that will survive for many years.  It has been so much fun going through old photos of my family.  I will also admit, although it isn't easy, that I have enjoyed using a little pink.  As the mother of a son and a self professed Tomboy, I don't often create girly layouts.  Using a little baby girl pink has been fun.  I doubt that I will make a habit of it though. :)

So this is a one year old me.  Can you believe that hair?!  I haven't added journaling here because this will be the left hand side of a two page layout and the right side is heavy on the journaling.  I used the "In the Treetops" and " A Fair Day" collections from SEI.

And since I missed last months linky party I thought I would throw that layout up here too!  Loved that sketch too.

The link party ends Oct. 2nd so you still have a little time to play along.  And don't forget to link it to the SEI blog like I did!

Catching up...

Ok, not sure why this post never made it to the blog... 
I drafted this post almost a month ago, I guess the summer heat melted my brain!  We are going on day 40 something of high temps over 100 degrees F! 


Isn't summertime great!  Love the warm days, kids running through the sprinklers,time with family, ice cream, cold watermelon, and hot corn on the cob.  The only problem with summer is that there is no schedule and as a result, less time for scrapping.  I am about a week behind on blogging, so you get two Lets Scrap sketches today since I missed last week.
The sketch for this week was perfect for all those summer events.  There is room for several photos and plenty of journaling.

 

I decided to use the pictures of my son playing soccer last year.  He is not a very aggressive boy and HATES being the center of attention, so we had pretty low expectations for soccer.  We really just hoped he would get out on the field and run around and maybe, just maybe kick the ball a few times.  In the end, he did get on the field, but there was very little running, and he never purposely touched the ball. :)  Needless to say, he doesn't think soccer is the sport for him.  Maybe T-ball...

I just love the photo of him standing in the field yawning!  Pretty much sums up his whole experience.  : )

Ok, so last week's sketch was a quick and easy one.



I had a hard time finding 7 photos, so I decided to use just the left hand side of the sketch.

I couldn't find Halloween paper that I liked for these photos, so I decided to make my own PP by using these Making Memories stickers.

Another great sketch at Lets Scrap...

Cheri's given us another fun sketch to work with this week.  It has a very youthful, fun feel.  Perfect for those summer photos we are all going to be taking.



I has in my mind what I wanted to do with this one and then really struggled to get it right.  After fiddling around with it all afternoon, I decided to make like Tim Gunn and "make it work".  Here's the finished product...

I like the end result, but wonder if it is a bit elegant for a layout about my son being cheeky.  I think everything I used here is from American Crafts except the cardstock and a couple of the brads.  I have to say, that I love working with AC products, they are great quality and all work so well together.  I'll be back soon with a Cosmo Cricket layout. 

A new card sketch at Lets Scrap...

This week's Lets Scrap sketch is a card sketch from Debby.  I don't consider my self a card maker really, but I do make the occasional card for birthdays and thanks.  With these great sketches from Debby I should be set with my monthly card allotment!

I don't have many opportunities to use flowery cards unfortunately, so I went with dinosaurs. : )

I used Imaginisce Dino Roar line and fussy cut the dinos.  The sentiment was printed from my Silhouette and then I added brown glitter glue to the border for some texture.  I think my nephew the dino lover will like this one, my 5yr son thinks it's great so I must be on the right track.

Scrapping about ME...

As I have mentioned before on here, I made a New Year's resolution to start scrapping my own personal history.  It is so easy to scrap photos of my son, but a bit harder to write my own story.  In the last few years though I have lost both of my Grandmothers (one passed away and the other has dementia and no memory) and I really regret not having more information about their lives.  Neither one of them really liked talking about themselves and neither kept a journal or wrote anything about their lives.  So now what we are left with is photos and a few letters.  These are great, but now I will have to piece together the stories of their lives from second and third hand sources.  So, the moral of the story is that I don't want that to happen to my descendants.  I have always felt a little guilty about the fact that I don't keep a journal, but now that I am scrapping I have found a way to write my story in a way that is so much more enjoyable for me and more interactive for others.  Early on in the year, I came across a great idea about how to get started in this process.  Jennfer Mohler was inspired to scrap 100 life changing moments from her life.  I LOVE this idea and have modified it a little, I sat down and in about 30 minutes came up with 50 moments or stories from my life that I thought were important to tell.  So, I have finally started scrapping about myself, I am not working chronologically or in any order of importance.  Here's the first one...

As you can see, I decided to keep these very simple and I wanted to try an 8.5 X 11 format.  This one came together so easily because I found a journal entry (I think I have about a half dozen of them total) from the actual day this story happened.  I just typed it up, added a photo and slapped on a title and there you have it.  I recognize that this layout won't win any awards and no one is clamoring to publish it, but I am thrilled at what it represents. 

And one more...

Again, simple and all about the story.  I found that as I created these pages, I became more and more excited about creating others.  I plan to continue working on my list of stories and supplement with pages about my life now.  I love this approach because it breaks it down into manageable bites that I can continue work on.  Now my goal is to get my parents and my husband to start their own lists!

I'll be back tomorrow with a new card sketch for Lets Scrap.

It's that time again...

Just realized I saved this post the other day, but didn't actually post it.  Not sure why, but here it is a little late. :)

I can't believe how quickly this week has gone by.  No school means no me time and scrapping is so much more difficult with the little guy in the room with me.  I was working on my layout for this weeks Lets Scrap sketch and he wanted to help.  He loves to "scrap" with me so I gave him some extra photos and let him create a page of his own.  This worked pretty well, we had to take turns with the paper trimmer, but other than that, I say it was a pretty successful time.  He even came up with the title that we both ended up using.  So here is Cheri's sketch...

I decided to use the photos from my son's preschool at the Minnesota Zoo for this one.  He really enjoyed spending time at the zoo each week and getting to meet the animals up close.  Just going through these photos was fun because he had forgotten some of the details and enjoyed a little stroll down memory lane. 



And a close-up of the title the little guy came up with...

The PPs here are DCWV's Safari Kids stack and the alphas are AC thickers and Cosmo Cricket.

New challenge at Lets Scrap...

It's my turn to issue a scrappy challenge to the ladies of Lets Scrap and I decided to make it a fairly easy one since we had so many NSD challenges last month.  So, have you ever purchased a scrapping product just because you loved it?  I have several papers and embellishments that I bought without thought of how I would use them.  Most of these items are still sitting in my stash because I either haven't found a way to use them, or I just love them and haven't had the "perfect" layout for them.  So here is the challenge, design a layout in which you can use one or more of these items.  I actually designed my layout around two products I have been wanting to use.  These stickers I bought just because I loved them (and they were on sale)  and these great rub-ons from Lily Bee that I am always looking for ways to use.

So here's the layout I created specifically to use these products.



Isn't it fun?  I have been meaning to try a layout that utilized a grid and I really enjoyed it.  The grid worked perfectly for these photobooth photos of me and my son.  The photos were small and using the grid makes them more substantial. 

To fill in the grid I treated each square like a mini-layout and embellished them one at a time.  I think it makes the layout really interesting because of the small details.  The layout is almost PP free which is different for me and I really enjoyed using so many fun embellishments.

One of my favorite elements is the ha ha rub-ons here in the corner and I can't take full credit for the idea.  I saw something similar on the LIly Bee blog and lifted the idea.  I really enjoyed designing this layout and utilizing these great products.  So what do you think?  Want to play along?  Head on over to Lets Scrap and join in the fun!

This week's Lets Scrap sketch...

It's that time of the week, a new sketch is up at Lets Scrap and it's a fun one.  Here's Cheri's sketch.

And my take on it...

This layout documents my son's love of the snow and cold.  He never seems to get cold and would play outside in it all day if I let him.  This Echo Park collection is the perfect blend of fun and sophisticated and worked so well with these photos.  Here are a couple of close-ups.

I chose the title because he really is our little snow man.  The snowflake border was cut with my Silhouette and then I inked it a little with red to make it just a bit darker.

I really enjoyed working with this sketch, it just came together so quickly and I love the final result.

More Lets Scrap challenge layouts...

I'm back with another layout for the Lets Scrap challenges for this month.  This one is for Debby's sketch challenge.  Here's the sketch... Love it!

Here's my take on it.  I have been wanting to do a page about my son's nicknames and this sketch was perfect with the squares on the left side. Love these papers from Crate Paper, the colors are gorgeous and the yellow circles just make me smile.

Here are a couple of close-ups.

To make the frames for each nickname, I rounded up enough chipboard name plates and then embossed and inked them.  I wanted them to look metallic and to be the common thread between all the names.  Each nickname is printed in different fonts that I chose to express the feel of the nickname.  So G Man is solid and strong while Sweet Pea is well sweet and soft.  I used my Silhouette to create them and then printed them onto the PPs.

The journaling reads "Garrett, you've had several different nicknames in your 5yrs, but you will always be my... Pumpkin Pie.  Since Pumpkin Pie is what I call him most often I knew I wanted it to be my title and I struggled to figure out how to incorporate it in a fun and creative way.  I love the way this turned out and will have to remember to do this again.  The alphas are AC thicker (brown) and Cosmo Cricket (teal).

Wow, check this out...

I was so excited when I went to the Lily Bee blog today and saw this. 

I'm so honored that they chose to feature one of my layouts!  I love creating with Lily Bee products, their papers are beautiful and vibrant, and the rub-ons are so much fun to use.  I'm so pleased that they liked this layout.  For more photos of the layout check out my original blog post here.

There is still time to enter all of the challenges going on this month at Lets Scrap.  All the challenges are open until the 31st so you have a few more days to get some great scrapping in.  I haven't finished all 12 challenges yet, but hope to get the last few in before the deadline.  Since i have been scrapping I haven't done much blogging so I will quickly show you what I've been working on.

This first LO is for Ana's challenge to use B&W photos and paper with a single accent color.  The photo is of my niece taken at my wedding. 

And here's a close-up of that sweet face.  The butterflies were stamped and then covered in glitter glue to add some glitz.  It was fun to make a girly page for a change.

Kay's challenge was to cut your photos on a diagonal.  I had a tough time figuring out how to make that work and finally came up with this.

And last (for today) is my layout for Gina's challenge to use a dictionary our book text in the layout.  I lifted a lot of the ideas for this layout from Susan Weinroth.  I love her work and have been wanting to put together this layout for awhile.  The layout is of my son's tiny feet.  When he was born the hospital didn't make hand or foot prints.  At the time we were living in a tiny apartment and I didn't have any crafting supplies so I decided to scan his feet.  It was more difficult than I first thought since he didn't want to be still for some reason.  I love the way this one turned out!

I'll be back soon with more challenge layouts.

Lets Scrap sketch and challenge...

There is so much going on right now at Lets Scrap that I have fallen a bit behind here.  This is going to be a long post so I will try to just give you all the highlights and if you want the details on any of these head on over to my page on Lets Scrap and check out these layouts. Each week on LS there is a great new sketch to work with.  I'm a couple of weeks behind here so here are my layouts from the last two sketches.   Here was the sketch for the week beginning 5-4-11.

And here is what I did with it.

Love these handsome boys!

Ok, so on to the 5-11-11 sketch.

And my layout starring my sweet son...

These Sasafrass papers were perfect for these photos.  And last up for tonight, to celebrate National Scrapbooking month, Lets Scrap has several challenges that are ongoing throughout the month.  My challenge involves scrapping a page about yourself.  So often we just scrap about others and even then just hit life's highlights, yet there is so much more to life.  I have come to the conclusion that if I record moments of my own life and my thoughts and feelings then I will leave a legacy for my son and his family.  So, on that note, here is my layout for the challenge.

I chose to create a layout about how important science has been to me throughout my life.  I am planning to put together an album of all of my scientific exploits and thought this could be a good intro page.  It was also an easy page to do about myself. 

I promise to be back with more photos of my layouts for the other LS challenges soon!



SEI sketch contest...

Ok, two posts in one day, is a little bit of crazy, but SEI has the link up for their monthly sketch challenge and I really want to get mine linked before I head out of town tomorrow for a girls weekend.

I love SEI, their collections are beautiful and have a classic style that is so versatile.  I used one of their newest collection Corinne to create this layout about the relationship between my husband and our son.  They collection is full is Springtime and whimsy, but I was pleasantly surprised that I could create such a masculine looking layout with it.  They sketch for the contest was by Julie Bonner again.  I love her sketches!  I know I have said it before and I will say it again LOVE them!  She has such a simple and elegant style that is right up my ally.  Each month when they reveal the new sketch I fall in love and can't wait to get started on it.  This month was no exception.  So here's her sketch.

See, so simple yet gorgeous!  I loved the idea of using the large photo and in fact I had one that I had been wanting to use but wasn't quite sure how.  As soon as I saw this sketch I knew what to do with it.  So here is my take on the sketch.

I flipped the sketch on it's side to accommodate my vertical photo but otherwise stayed pretty true to the sketch.  Why mess with such a good thing?  With such a large photo dominating the page, I didn't want to add journaling so I created a pocket and a tab at the top for easy access to the journaling hidden there.  Everything is from the Corinne collection except the quote which I made with my Silhouette.  Can't wait to see what Julie comes up with next month!  The contest ends on the April 30th so there are a few days left to play along so go get scrapping!

 

Christmas in April...

I know that Spring is finally here and the last thing most people want to think about right now is winter and Christmas.  I know this, but I have been working through some older photos and already knew what I wanted to do with this one so the other day when I was feeling creative block on some other projects I decided to get this layout done.  I have to admit, that it was fun getting out the Christmas stash when the sun is shining outside and I will definitely do it again sometime.   The is layout is of my son and my mother-in-law making a gingerbread house.  It was a first for them both and had to be documented.  All the patterned papers and the thickers are from American Crafts, the tiny type is Cosmo Cricket and the rest of the embellies are from my stash. 

I love how all the papers coordinate perfectly and make it so easy to put together.  Sometimes I work for hours trying to get a page just right and then there are those pages that almost scrap themselves.  This was one of the latter.  It came together so quickly and I love the final result!



Some AMAZING news...

Let's Scrap just announced their new Design Team and guess who is on it?  Yep, that would be me!!  I really enjoy this scrapping community, everyone is so incredibly kind and supportive.  When I have visited other popular sites or galleries it seems like there is a level of competition that makes me feel less confident about my style and abilities and that is sad.  It is easy to get caught up in the hype and forget why I started scrapping in the first place.  It wasn't to win contests or get published, it was to record our family history and document the special moments and little details of our lives.  Sometimes it is a lot of fun to create just for the sake of creating and to work for hours to get a layout just right, but the rest of the time I just want to get the memories in an album so they can be seen, remembered, and enjoyed.  Anyway, off my soapbox and back to Let's Scrap.  Every week they post new sketches, most of which are 2-pages which can be so hard to find.  So if you are a sketch lover and would love to be a part of a great community of supportive scrappers join me on this new adventure at Let'Scrap for the next few months and let get a lot of scrapping done!!

My Mind's Eye challenge...

I have recently gained a serious affection for My Mind's Eye products.  Not sure why it has taken me so long to figure out which manufacturers really fit my style, but I am finally getting there.  MME has so many great bright fun patterns and I love their embellishments.  I think the Alphabet Soup collection was what did it for me.  Seriously adorable for little boy pages!  I have wanted to play along with their sketch challenge for awhile (who wouldn't want to win 3 MME collections) but I didn't have enough product to work with.  I have now remedied that situation and am ready to play along!  So here is the sketch.

Great right!  The theme is April showers and I knew that I had the perfect photos for it.  I had scrapped this photos before, but I HATED the resulting layout and it has been sitting on my desk for months because I couldn't bring myself to put it in the album.  So this was the perfect opportunity to try again.  Here's what I came up with.

Don't you just love the fun patterns on the papers?  I love how well they all go together without being busy or fussy.  This is mostly Alphabet Soup with a little Penny Lane thrown in.  Here are a couple of close-ups.

I used my new Silhouette sketch pens for the journaling and the cloud.  It took me a couple tries to figure out how to get it to sketch and cut in the right places, but now that I have it figured out, I love it.  The sketch challenge ends tomorrow so hurry and get your entries in.