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.